Free Agent/Trade/Waiver Thread, 2025-26, part 2

[bucknersrevenge]

You would think Simons is worse than Jordan Walsh by some of the comments here.

[tfribs45]

You would think Simons is worse than Jordan Walsh by some of the comments here.

seriously....I bet he becomes a fan favorite after the first few weeks or so. Kid can ball and get to the rack. Defense is an effort issue, these guys aren't going to let him slack!

[bisme37]

You would think Simons is worse than Jordan Walsh by some of the comments here.

I get why the team might want to move him for money reasons, but I don't know why fans want to move him for money reasons. He's the best thing we got in an otherwise depressing Celtics summer and can actually play. Like how depressing do we really need to be?

[Celts17Pride]

Basketball players play basketball. Tatum is not going to sit on his hands and wrap himself in bubble wrap because some fans are dreaming of tanking. Vets don’t care about rookies and draft picks.

Has nothing to do with tanking. Celtics are not going to clear Tatum to play this year and anyone thinking otherwise is dreaming. Celtics are not going to rush back their 27 year old all-star. Players that come back too early tend to have injuries to other parts of their legs. Celtics are going to give Tatum until next season to come back. Best, smart move!

[fallguy]

You would think Simons is worse than Jordan Walsh by some of the comments here.

Oh, he can absolutely score. He will be superficially attractive if he gets off to a hot start.

[Curmudgeon]

I'm predicting 50 wins, with or without Simons. I'm a believer in Queta and Garza. In fact, if Stevens were willing and able to package Queta in the deal, Simons would be gone tomorrow, because Queta has been on everyone's radar since Utah State.

[Shak_Celts]

Basketball players play basketball. Tatum is not going to sit on his hands and wrap himself in bubble wrap because some fans are dreaming of tanking. Vets don’t care about rookies and draft picks.

Has nothing to do with tanking. Celtics are not going to clear Tatum to play this year and anyone thinking otherwise is dreaming. Celtics are not going to rush back their 27 year old all-star. Players that come back too early tend to have injuries to other parts of their legs. Celtics are going to give Tatum until next season to come back. Best, smart move!

What will you say if he plays? No one knows if he will or not. Everybody, including the one who want him to play, wants him to wait until he’s cleared. No one wants him to rush. We all want him to be healthy when he does play. I have only seen people not agreeing on the timeline. You think next season, some people think he’ll be cleared sooner.

If he’s cleared and plays before you say he should doesn’t mean he is coming back too early. KD took his year, as you suggest, and still came back to get injured pretty much every season since. Injuries happen.

[Celts17Pride]

Basketball players play basketball. Tatum is not going to sit on his hands and wrap himself in bubble wrap because some fans are dreaming of tanking. Vets don’t care about rookies and draft picks.

Has nothing to do with tanking. Celtics are not going to clear Tatum to play this year and anyone thinking otherwise is dreaming. Celtics are not going to rush back their 27 year old all-star. Players that come back too early tend to have injuries to other parts of their legs. Celtics are going to give Tatum until next season to come back. Best, smart move!

What will you say if he plays? No one knows if he will or not. Everybody, including the one who want him to play, wants him to wait until he’s cleared. No one wants him to rush. We all want him to be healthy when he does play. I have only seen people not agreeing on the timeline. You think next season, some people think he’ll be cleared sooner.

If he’s cleared and plays before you say he should doesn’t mean he is coming back too early. KD took his year, as you suggest, and still came back to get injured pretty much every season since. Injuries happen.

No chance Brad Stevens has Tatum on the court this year but people can dream all they want.

[bucknersrevenge]

You would think Simons is worse than Jordan Walsh by some of the comments here.

I get why the team might want to move him for money reasons, but I don't know why fans want to move him for money reasons. He's the best thing we got in an otherwise depressing Celtics summer and can actually play. Like how depressing do we really need to be?

And the team has made it clear that they will NOT move him for money reasons. If they did, they would have already done so. Brad has already been on record saying that we are now past the point of dumping players for strictly money purposes without bringing in an upgrade. We're far under the 2nd apron now. Everyone can relax. We don't have to worry about the roster building penalties anymore. Don't know why saving money would be a concern for anyone right now especially because any money Brad spends now is because he believes that player can help this team win another title or his salary can facilitate bringing in a player that can help do so.

[165bows]

Celts will only keep Simons for the entire season if Cs are at around the #2 or #3 seed.

If Cs are a team on pace for 45 to 50 wins, there's a strong possibility Cs are holding on to Simons.

Simons isn't really much of a good player though. You left out the part about them being on 45-50 win pace and him being a positive part of that. That's important. if they're 45-50 win pace and he's an ancillary or even negative contributing piece, I'd expect them to still dump him to avoid the tax because that's simply good business. Tatum's recovery timeline also plays into it.

Assuming they found a Simons deal that sheds $12.1M to avoid the tax, the financial implications would be:

1) $12.1M salary saved
2) $39.5M tax bill erased
3) get payout from tax paying teams of about $10-15M as a non-taxpaying team
4) pay regular rates instead of repeater rates next year - for comparison, at the $12.1M we're in the tax now the tax bill would be $9.1M instead of $39.5M if we were at regular rates vs. repeater rates, so net savings of $30.4M

All together, that could be close to $100M of savings that come from trading Simons to duck the tax this year (assuming they go back over it to about the 1st apron next year). I doubt they're going to forego that kind of savings to keep Simons as a "meh" contributor on a 1st or 2nd round playoff team.

Pat with the facts as usual. That's a great breakdown, and the total includes bringing back player(s) that make around $15M so that might actually be a good player in there that fits as well.

I've got nothing against Simons I'm rooting for him here, but it's just reading the writing on the wall.

[Celts17Pride]

I've got nothing against Simons I'm rooting for him here, but it's just reading the writing on the wall.

This is what people don't get. If Simons is on the Celtics, I will be rooting for him just like every other Celtics player. I hope he does very well. That being said, the Celtics have not been shy at all in getting signals out that they do not have any interest in Simons staying on the Celtics. I still say Simons will probably be gone after the Sep 7th trade restrictions end.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

You would think Simons is worse than Jordan Walsh by some of the comments here.

I get why the team might want to move him for money reasons, but I don't know why fans want to move him for money reasons. He's the best thing we got in an otherwise depressing Celtics summer and can actually play. Like how depressing do we really need to be?

Lots of Bill Chisholm accountants on this forum apparently.

[Celts17Pride]

Read on Twitter

Gallo!!!

[Shak_Celts]

Has nothing to do with tanking. Celtics are not going to clear Tatum to play this year and anyone thinking otherwise is dreaming. Celtics are not going to rush back their 27 year old all-star. Players that come back too early tend to have injuries to other parts of their legs. Celtics are going to give Tatum until next season to come back. Best, smart move!

What will you say if he plays? No one knows if he will or not. Everybody, including the one who want him to play, wants him to wait until he’s cleared. No one wants him to rush. We all want him to be healthy when he does play. I have only seen people not agreeing on the timeline. You think next season, some people think he’ll be cleared sooner.

If he’s cleared and plays before you say he should doesn’t mean he is coming back too early. KD took his year, as you suggest, and still came back to get injured pretty much every season since. Injuries happen.

No chance Brad Stevens has Tatum on the court this year but people can dream all they want.

Didn’t answer the question, but okay.

[Celts17Pride]

What will you say if he plays? No one knows if he will or not. Everybody, including the one who want him to play, wants him to wait until he’s cleared. No one wants him to rush. We all want him to be healthy when he does play. I have only seen people not agreeing on the timeline. You think next season, some people think he’ll be cleared sooner.

If he’s cleared and plays before you say he should doesn’t mean he is coming back too early. KD took his year, as you suggest, and still came back to get injured pretty much every season since. Injuries happen.

No chance Brad Stevens has Tatum on the court this year but people can dream all they want.

Didn’t answer the question, but okay.

If Tatum comes back early then I'm sure the Celtics and the medical staff are 1000% sure he can come back. I just don't see them taking that risk and I think the probability is under 2%. It just doesn't make any sense. As Brian Scalabrine said, teams will be gearing up for the playoffs and Tatum would be like starting pre-season. It just doesn't make any sense.

[Bad-Thoma]

No chance Brad Stevens has Tatum on the court this year but people can dream all they want.

Didn’t answer the question, but okay.

If Tatum comes back early then I'm sure the Celtics and the medical staff are 1000% sure he can come back. I just don't see them taking that risk and I think the probability is under 2%. It just doesn't make any sense. As Brian Scalabrine said, teams will be gearing up for the playoffs and Tatum would be like starting pre-season. It just doesn't make any sense.

That's a reasonable response and your last response on Simons was as well. I wouldn't have guessed from the way you usually post about Simons being traded that you would be rooting for him, fyi, sometimes things get lost in this format.

[fallguy]

No chance Brad Stevens has Tatum on the court this year but people can dream all they want.

Didn’t answer the question, but okay.

If Tatum comes back early then I'm sure the Celtics and the medical staff are 1000% sure he can come back. I just don't see them taking that risk and I think the probability is under 2%. It just doesn't make any sense. As Brian Scalabrine said, teams will be gearing up for the playoffs and Tatum would be like starting pre-season. It just doesn't make any sense.

I'd actually be fine with him playing short minutes in meaningless games in April if he's cleared. But to put him into high intensity high-leverage games? Way too risky given that we're not winning anything this season.

[Fierce1]

Tatum returns in March and the Cs will have 3 scorers.

It will be like what Jordan Poole was to GSW in 2022.

Yeah, JT is not coming back this upcoming season and why would he? This is likely a play-in team so I am not seeing the point of him returning when the team has zero shot at a title. Better to start him off fresh in 2026 when he can get plenty of regular season games to get his footing back.

People acting like its all JTs decision too.

JT just signed a MASSIVE contract, team just sold, team has ZERO chances of winning a title this upcoming season (especially with no front court and simons on the team)

JT is NOT coming back this season. Would be a terrible professional choice for JT and a terrible business choice for the Celtics.


Anyone who doesnt see that are just delusional at this point.

Like you said trading JB is what's best for the Celtics?

Guess you don't know JT all that well.

JT is known to be stubborn when it comes to returning from injury or not missing games.

If doctors clear JT, he's playing.

It's also delusional to think team owners only think about championships.

The deeper the Celtics go in the playoffs, the more revenue they generate, for obvious reasons.

[Fierce1]

If JT is running by December, some of the Celtic fans will look silly for not factoring what really happened to JT after injury.

Having surgery just 12 hrs after injury was something that has not been done in the past.

JT is only 27 years old, not 32 or 34 years old.

So clearly JT is ahead of schedule.

I'm not saying you guys are wrong for expecting JT to miss all of the 2026 season, but it's about knowing JT's tendencies.

Ever since JT does not like to miss games.

If doctors clear him, JT will play.

Of course JT will not play if doctors does not clear him.

[Fierce1]

Compare JT to Haliburton.

JT's posting videos about how hard he's training and working out.

You don't see that from Haliburton because Haliburton is taking his time.

What JT did just 45 days after injury is very telling.

It's not even 2 months and he's already back at the gym?

Come on, guys.

JT this intense only means he's trying to return as soon as possible.

And let's not forget that his recovery is supposed to be 8-9 months.

January is 8 months.

February is 9 months.

If the Celtics are around the #4 or #3 seed after All-Star break, expect JT to return for the final 20 games.