Ramp to Camp: Exploring potential in-season moves for Celtics

Ramp to Camp: Exploring potential in-season moves for Celtics originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Brad Stevens isn’t one to get complacent.

A year ago, when Boston could have easily kept the core of its team together, Stevens took two big swings to land Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. Those moves helped thrust Boston to elusive Banner 18.

While it’s been a fairly quiet summer for Stevens — though he did re-sign a bunch of core players, ink Jayson Tatum and Derrick White to big-money extensions, and utilize the first first-round pick of his GM tenure — the Celtics essentially elected to run back the new core of this team for 2024-25 with hopes that chemistry might fuel a title repeat.

But that doesn’t mean Stevens won’t ponder potential moves. Even on the heels of Boston’s title season, he has noted how he wants to give this team a chance to keep the momentum going, but won’t sit on his hands if things go awry.

For the eighth installment in our Ramp to Camp series, we asked our NBC Sports Boston panel to play armchair general manager and pick one potential move that Stevens might make during the 2024-25 season.

(Check out the first seven installments of Ramp to Camp here.)

If first-round pick Baylor Scheierman carves out a Year 1 role, or if camp invite Lonnie Walker IV proves he can be an effective bench presence, then Stevens might not need to tinker much this season.

There will be obvious eyes on the big-man spot with Kristaps Porzingis sidelined to start the season following offseason leg surgery. But it feels like we spill a lot of ink fretting Boston’s center depth and the likes of Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta have proven they can hold the fort.

The one potential move we see in our crystal ball revolves around Jaden Springer. The Celtics acquired the former first-round pick at last season’s trade deadline, but he’s entering the final year of his rookie contract and will earn $4 million this season. (That’s basically what bench stalwarts Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet will earn combined this season.)

The Celtics, with their luxury tax concerns, might be willing to pay to let Springer…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/ramp-camp-exploring-potential-season-134344608.html

Author : NBC Sports Boston

Publish date : 2024-09-11 13:43:44

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.