Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26

[bucknersrevenge]

Not October or November????

The 2 reasons to trade him are 1) get a better long term player back using the salary and other assets, 2) duck the tax.

For #2, it's just more feasible to get off a large portion of the salary before rosters are set for the year. More teams have room, teams can go over the roster limits as part of the trades and get down to 15 later, etc. It's just flat out easier to do in the summer.

For #1, you have any time until the deadline.

Trades very rarely happen during that time of year. Celtics traded for Jrue on October 1. Nets traded for Harden on January 14.

Between October 2 - January 13 is typically a dead zone for trades where they very rare happen, except maybe some really minor moves.

I think Simons might get traded sometime before October 2. And I think he might get traded sometime in Jan/Feb before the trade deadline..but it's unlikely he gets moved between October 2 - Jan 13..

Sarcasm, man.

Hal, you're awesome but your meter on this has not been good lately my guy.

[djFan71]

Trades very rarely happen during that time of year. Celtics traded for Jrue on October 1. Nets traded for Harden on January 14.

Between October 2 - January 13 is typically a dead zone for trades where they very rare happen, except maybe some really minor moves.

I think Simons might get traded sometime before October 2. And I think he might get traded sometime in Jan/Feb before the trade deadline..but it's unlikely he gets moved between October 2 - Jan 13..

Sarcasm, man.

Hard to tell with words on a screen, especially when talking to strangers.

My bad

All good. Just think "Wow, do I really have to explain these basics to djFan71? Or might he actually know a thing or two?"

[bucknersrevenge]

Sarcasm, man.

Hard to tell with words on a screen, especially when talking to strangers.

My bad

All good. Just think "Wow, do I really have to explain these basics to djFan71? Or might he actually know a thing or two?"

You have no idea how hard I've been laughing over here just imagining your face as you read his post.

[djFan71]

Hard to tell with words on a screen, especially when talking to strangers.

My bad

All good. Just think "Wow, do I really have to explain these basics to djFan71? Or might he actually know a thing or two?"

You have no idea how hard I've been laughing over here just imagining your face as you read his post.

Yeah, that's how it's intended - I just try to have fun with it. Which I hope you know, Hal. Like you buckners said, you're great - just maybe a little too eager to explain things that don't need explaining sometimes. As opposed to me who is barely ok and assumes everyone knows my stupid humor without explanation. Yin and Yang, baby.

[ddb]

If this is just about money and tanking, the Celtics absolutely DID NOT HAVE TO SIGN Boucher.

After the Niang trade, Brad could just have easily signed Amari to a regular contract.

But Brad didn't do that.

Since 2013-14, Brad has never been a tanker.

Correct. They will not be tanking for those who want them to. They will look to win and be firmly in the playoffs.
Only chance we see a tank job is if JB or White go down for an extended period. At which point if they fall far enough behind, I could see the C's shutting down JB or White and just punting entirely on the season.

Celtics don't tank. I've been a fan since 1976 and there has only been one time that the Celtics have tanked and that was with ML Carr and they were tanking for Tim Duncan. There is a difference though with a team not having enough talent to win. Stevens has given the Celtics a chance and they could surprise but this Celtics team as currently constructed is a high 30's win team. The new Atlanta Hawks.

I'd say 07 was a tank job as well. But besides that, you're spot on.

[ddb]

Guess you have not read the articles about why Tatum can return this season.

Not to spoon feed but that's what the sauces say idk what else to tell you

Tatum won't be back this year. Makes zero sense. Maybe a late season cameo in the last half dozen games, but I even doubt that.

You may be right. I suppose it boils down to two things. First, will Tatum be ahead of schedule and ready? They will not rush him back whatsoever. But if he's ready in late March or early April he will play. Second, how is the team doing....If they stink and have no real path to playoffs then might as well sit him out all season long.

[ddb]

If this is just about money and tanking, the Celtics absolutely DID NOT HAVE TO SIGN Boucher.

After the Niang trade, Brad could just have easily signed Amari to a regular contract.

But Brad didn't do that.

Since 2013-14, Brad has never been a tanker.

Correct. They will not be tanking for those who want them to. They will look to win and be firmly in the playoffs.
Only chance we see a tank job is if JB or White go down for an extended period. At which point if they fall far enough behind, I could see the C's shutting down JB or White and just punting entirely on the season.

Celtics don't tank. I've been a fan since 1976 and there has only been one time that the Celtics have tanked and that was with ML Carr and they were tanking for Tim Duncan. There is a difference though with a team not having enough talent to win. Stevens has given the Celtics a chance and they could surprise but this Celtics team as currently constructed is a high 30's win team. The new Atlanta Hawks.

I still think there's a world where Boston is firmly in the playoffs as a 4th or 5th seed (if healthy). I expect big years from JB, White, Pritchard and even Simons if he's on the roster. I also expect a couple fringe guys like Walsh, Minnot, Garza to step up and be solid.

[Hal14]

A couple of notes here as far the whole 2-way contract situation...since we traded for RJ Luis who had previously signed a 2-way with Utah, Amari has not yet signed a 2-way even though on draft night it was reported that he would be signing a 2-way..we did sign Shulga to a 2-way. Norris is on a 2-way as well because last season when we signed him we signed him to a 2 year 2-way.

-Ok, so I wanted to look up Norris' stats at summer league because eye test told me he was decent..not terrible but not great. Well, when looking at the stats, he played in 4 games and did not score more than 11 points in any of those games. That itself is a bit concerning for a guy who isn't a particularly good defender (you'd like to see more scoring from him in SL) especially a guy who turned 25 years old in april so he was 25 during SL. At that age, we've got to see some better numbers in SL
-Oh and Norris is supposed to be a shooter yet he only shot 25% from 3 in SL. Small sample size of 4 games and I know that SL doesn't mean *that* much but again, we need to see better numbers than that from a 25 yr old guy
-I just kind of assumed our 2-way guys would be Amari/Shulga/Norris but idk, you look at these numbers for Norris, you look at how old he is and consider that 2-way contracts are completely non-guaranteed and I figure there's a good chance he could get waived - like any day now or maybe before the end of training camp

-But then I say to myself, "well, what were RJ Luis' summer league stats like?
-RJ Luis went undrafted, then signed a 2-way contract with the Jazz on June 26..
-Utah played their 1st summer league game on July 5, so 9 days after Luis was signed to a 2-way..so surely Luis played in all of Utah's SL games, right?
-Wrong. Luis played in 0 summer league games for Utah.
-Just ran a quick search and it appears Luis missed all of summer league due to "left knee soreness"..wonder if that perhaps contributed to why he went undrafted?
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/jazzs-rj-luis-another-absence-coming/
-FWIW, he was ranked 58th in Sam Vecenie's draft guide - he doesn't mention anything in his write up on Luis about a knee injury though
-So here we have a guy who went undrafted. Played in 0 SL games due to injury. Signed a 2-way with Utah, gets traded to Boston. He's 22, will be 23 soon.
-Putting 2 and 2 together, I think there's a decent chance he gets waived.

I think there's a good chance either Luis or Norris gets waived in the next few days. And Amari signs a 2-way when he gets back in the states (per X, looks like he's back home in England working out right now)

Or maybe both Luis and Norris come to training camp and they compete for the 2-way spot.

However, I don't think we will go that long with Amari unsigned..can't see us drafting a guy (especially as high as 46th pick) but bringing him to training camp, without having a contract signed by then..

And I don't believe we're allowed to have 4 guys signed to a 2-way contract at the same time. And currently, we have Luis, Norris and Shulga all on 2-way contracts so I don't believe we're allowed to sign Amari to a 2-way until we waive either Shulga, Norris or Luis..

[31to6]

Sarcasm, man.

Hard to tell with words on a screen, especially when talking to strangers.

My bad

All good. Just think "Wow, do I really have to explain these basics to djFan71? Or might he actually know a thing or two?"

[djFan71]

Hard to tell with words on a screen, especially when talking to strangers.

My bad

All good. Just think "Wow, do I really have to explain these basics to djFan71? Or might he actually know a thing or two?"

[Bad-Thoma]

Hard to tell with words on a screen, especially when talking to strangers.

My bad

All good. Just think "Wow, do I really have to explain these basics to djFan71? Or might he actually know a thing or two?"

[Hal14]

Celtics social media account announces it and writes 2 paragraphs about him.

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

So it seems like he's staying..

Seems like Miles Norris might get waived any day now so we can sign Amari to his 2-way.

Luis is 3 yrs younger than Norris..and Norris wasn't that good in SL this year for us..

[djFan71]

Celtics social media account announces it and writes 2 paragraphs about him.

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

So it seems like he's staying..

Seems like Miles Norris might get waived any day now so we can sign Amari to his 2-way.

Luis is 3 yrs younger than Norris..and Norris wasn't that good in SL this year for us..

It is a little interesting. But, if there are other moves that get us close to the tax line and needing to fill one more spot, it's conceivable one of the 2-ways (Amari?) get the super cheap 2nd round exception deal. I don't feel any of them actually earned it in SL, but... who knows.

Your scenario where one just gets waived is probably more likely. I'd think if we trade Simons we end up taking an extra guy back if anything, if we can't send X out in the deal.

At least we know Brad isn't done yet.

[Curmudgeon]

Nice to get Boucher for the vet minimum. Helpful rotation player.

[Fierce1]

Perfect time to try to win the NBA Cup in Vegas this year.

[celtxman]

https://youtu.be/tDnAzGpxR4k?si=QkBcUH6Yw5ifg4vs

In a series of cost-cutting maneuvers, the Boston Celtics have reduced their projected salary and luxury tax payments for the 2025-26 season from $540 million as of June 15th to $239 million as of August 5th, according to ESPN's Bobby Marks. This represents a reduction of $301 million.
A record that will never be broken!

[ConstableGeneva]

I didn't even know that Kevin Durant was a free agent. Good job, Brad, even though KD is even older than Tillman.

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

When you've lost Greenie, you know it's going to be a long season... Or, he's more objective about the team than a lot of people here. How is that even possible?

Read on Twitter

[jmr07019]

https://youtu.be/tDnAzGpxR4k?si=QkBcUH6Yw5ifg4vs

In a series of cost-cutting maneuvers, the Boston Celtics have reduced their projected salary and luxury tax payments for the 2025-26 season from $540 million as of June 15th to $239 million as of August 5th, according to ESPN's Bobby Marks. This represents a reduction of $301 million.
A record that will never be broken!

That’s great and all but what actually matters is winning basketball games.

[Celts17Pride]

I'll be the first to say it, after the inevitable Simons and Tillman trades, I wouldn't be shocked if both Amari Williams and Hayden Gray end up with standard contracts on the Celtics this season. In my mind, I think that's the Celtics plan.