Anfernee Simons in Boston Celtics green jersey on court.
Getty
Anfernee Simons during his time with the Celtics.
The Boston Celtics made a major trade on Tuesday, shipping 26-year-old guard Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls for 35-year-old, 15-year veteran big man Nikola Vučević, with some second-round draft picks shifted between the two teams. The deal did not go over well with Celtics players, who universally praised Simons, or with fans who were largely let down by losing a player who had become a fan favorite with his often explosive scoring outbursts in his four months in Boston.
But Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens appears to have had more going on than was immediately clear from the specifics of the trade. In fact, according to analyst Ben Handler of the Celtics site Hardwood Houdini, Stevens set up the situation in a way that could bring Simons back to the Celtics in a relatively short time.
In other words, if what appears to be Stevens’ plan comes to fruition, the Celtics would end up with both much-needed depth at the center position in Vučević — and Simons with his 14.2 points per game off the bench as well.
Celtics Now ‘Massive Players’ in Buyout Market
“The tough part about this deal, and the thing that makes it disappointing, is that it was clearly motivated by money,” Handler wrote immediately after the trade. But 24 hours later, a scenario emerged that makes the disappointment easier to bear.
Simons came to Boston over the summer when Stevens was forced to trade away or not re-sign several high-priced players in order to get under the “second apron” payroll threshold that would bring significant penalties. One of those was guard Jrue Holiday, who was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for Simons.
Simons came with an expiring contract that paid him $27.7 million for the current season — which is why it was widely expected that the Celtics would free themselves of his paycheck at the trade deadline.
The move got the Celtics under the first apron cutoff line, because Vučević makes about $6 million less than Simons. By doing so, they got out from under a restriction that prohibited them from signing any player as a buyout whose previous contract topped $14.1 million.
At the same time, the Celtics created a new trade exception based on Simons’ salary of $27.7 million.
What does that all mean? Very simply, it means that once the buyout market heats up after the trade deadline, the Celtics are free to sign almost any available player without incurring any new salary cap-related penalties.
How Simons Could Return to Celtics
As explained by Handler in his analysis published Wednesday, the plan to re-acquire Simons depends on the Bulls’ current revamp as they try to quickly rebuild around their young players. With an excess of guards, a scenario in which Chicago flips Simons in another trade before the Thursday deadline appears — while still improbable — to be at least a real possibility.
If Simons is traded again, then bought out by his new team, he becomes eligible to sign with the Celtics as a free agent again.
“If anything, the Bulls should be trying to make their team worse and get the best draft pick possible,” wrote Handler. “If they can use Simons’ deal to bring in another second-round pick or something of that ilk, it’s a no-brainer. That would open the door for Simons to be on the move before ever even arriving in Chicago. He would likely be used mostly as salary filler, and whatever team adds him may have no use for him and his expiring deal, especially if it’s a young team that’s not trying to compete.”
The scenario counts as “yet another stroke of brilliance by Brad Stevens,” according to Handler. “Trading (Simons) and a good second-round pick for Nikola Vučević was a tough pill to swallow, but if he ends up back in Boston a week or so from now, that would be quite the coup from the Celtics.”