BOSTON — The Celtics made four total trades throughout the week, getting under the luxury tax while also shoring up their front-court depth. The team no longer has Chris Boucher, Xavier Tillman Sr., Josh Minott and Anfernee Simons. In return, the C’s acquired Nikola Vucevic from the Bulls and two-way guard John Tonje from the Jazz.
Jayson Tatum’s potential return is a big part of the Celtics’ subplot when it came to deadline decisions and the season as a whole. His comeback would be a massive boost for Boston. C’s president Brad Stevens spoke about how a Tatum return factored into their plans on the week.
“It had very little impact on that singular decision,” Stevens said Friday from the Auerbach Center. “Just because at the end of the day, if you kind of look at who you have to go through, the paths you might have to take, you just can’t get worn down physically. And we were going to be much smaller. And now we at least have big options.
“Obviously, any team with Jayson Tatum’s going to be better, so if that happens, that happens. And if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But we just thought that redistributing our positional needs was probably the most important thing.”
The Celtics’ main trade this week was to acquire Vucevic from Chicago. The other three deals were minor and involved players who weren’t in the rotation between Boucher, Tillman and Minott. But the C’s did lose a scoring threat off the bench in Simons, who enjoyed a solid season in Boston.
If Tatum comes back this year, he’ll pick up a big part of the scoring responsibility like he has throughout his career. But it sounds like, regardless of Tatum, the Celtics just wanted more size to round out their roster in acquiring Vucevic. The C’s also promoted two-way big man Amari Williams to the active roster, bumping their total up to four centers. As Stevens alluded to, there are plenty of physical, big playoff teams in the East like the Pistons, 76ers and Cavaliers.
“He’s been a good player for a long time,” Stevens said of Vucevic. “Obviously, the shooting and scoring get a lot of attention. The passing is a big factor for us, and it’s something we really like in bigs. So it’s just something that gives us another look and I think our two guys that have played the majority of the minutes at that position have been outstanding.”
The Celtics still have to make some additions to their roster following the deadline deals. They’re currently at 12 players on the standard roster, meaning they’ll have to add two more guys to get to the minimum of 14. It’s likely they bring in some guards or ball-handlers after losing Simons in the trade.
The front office importantly got under the luxury tax this season, which means a lot for future financial flexibility. It also means they’re allowed to sign any player on the buyout market instead of being limited with their options as a first-apron team. So while the Celtics’ main guys remain untouched, they did look to improve their roster on the margins.
“The directive was always just see what we can do with the team,” Stevens said. “After the Vuc trade, then we saw that as an opportunity. But next year if there’s something we look at and we say we’ve got to take advantage of it right now, then we’re gonna try to take advantage of it. The tax, for me, was there was an opportunity with two days left before the trade deadline we didn’t necessarily think would be there.”