The Celtics are acquiring a new piece in their frontcourt on Tuesday after agreeing to trade Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Nikola Vucevic. The deal is still not official at this point as both sides leave the door open for potential tweaks ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.
Boston will also be doing some useful salary cap maneuvering as part of the deal, assuming it remains as currently constructed. The Celtics will be using a sizable TPE created in the Kristaps Porzingis trade ($22.5 million) to absorb the salary for Nikola Vucevic ($21.5 million) in the deal. By using that tool now, they can also create a much bigger trade exception for Anfernee Simons salary ($27.7 million) to potentially use for future deals.
The creation of that Simons TPE is valuable for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s bigger than the Porzingis TPE ($22 million) so that will give Boston the flexibility to take in a bigger salary in a future trade. Additionally, the Simons TPE won’t expire for one year after the deal becomes official. That gives Boston the ability to make a major addition either in the offseason or during the 2026-27 season into that slot. The Porzingis TPE was set to expire in early July so the creation of a new one for Simons helps Boston roll over some flexibility into next year.
The Simons TPE currently ranks as the second-biggest TPE in the NBA right now so it should be a very valuable weapon for Boston as they attempt to build a formidable contender for next year once Jayson Tatum returns to full health.
For now, the Celtics are adding some depth to their frontcourt in Vucevic as he joins a surprisingly successful center rotation of Neemias Queta and Luka Garza. Boston also benefits financially in the deal, cutting about $5.9 million from their payroll with the trade by turning Simons’ $27.7 million salary into Vucevic’s $21.5 million. Additionally, Boston reduced its repeater tax penalty by $21.8 million by trimming payroll. They currently stand at $5.9 million over the luxury tax line, which would leave the team with $17.7 million in luxury tax penalties.
The door remains open for them to dodge the luxury tax line entirely this year, but it would involve them trading multiple players that aren’t on a veteran’s minimum deal.
The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 5 at 3 p.m.