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Report: ‘Extremely active’ Boston Celtics looking to get younger, cheaper at the trade deadline

If the Boston Celtics get their way by the 2022 NBA trade deadline due to arrive this Feb. 10 at 3 pm ET, the ball club will be both younger in age and cheaper in terms of salary owed according to reporting by Heavy.com’s NBA insider Steve Bulpett.

With the trade of Juancho Hernangomez to the San Antonio Spurs as part of a three-team deal that sent Boston Bol Bol and PJ Dozier in return with a lighter hit on their cap sheet, it has become near canon that the team would probably be angling to get under the luxury tax if possible ahead of the deadline.

In a recent article, Bulpett related that he’s been hearing this is indeed the goal, along with a desire to free up space on the roster to let the team’s younger players show what they have in the second half of the 2021-22 season after being buried behind vets in the first half.

“According to sources around the league, the Celts have been extremely active in trade talks ahead of the February 10 deadline, looking to reconfigure the pieces around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, writes the veteran NBA insider.

“The club also seems ready to alter a course charted with last summer’s transactions. ‘It’ll be interesting to see if something like (Jayson Tatum’s 51-point game) makes them back off a little or makes them patient,'” Bulpett relates a rival GM as saying.

“But they’ve definitely been looking to get something done.”

“Significantly in the larger sense, it was Marcus Smart’s first game back after six out with a thigh bruise and health and safety protocols, giving the club back its starting five and most desired rotation overall from the first half of the season,” notes the Heavy.com analyst.

“Those starters have been together just 13 games (8-5), and there may be some interest in seeing how they and primary subs Grant Williams, Josh Richardson, and Dennis Schroder can function over the next two weeks.”

Also, citing the team’s uneven play, Bulpett shared that “sources are indicating that first-year head of basketball operations Brad Stevens is at the very least looking to unload some salary cap burden (as he did in moving … Hernangomez last week) and clear a path for Payton Pritchard, Aaron Nesmith, and Romeo Langford to get more playing time.”

While no word on what the Celtics might have in mind, recent rumbles tying Marcus Smart to the Dallas Mavericks suggest that there are indeed plenty of calls being made regarding the Celtics ahead of Feb. 10.

And for now, all we can do is wait with an ear to the ground for what might be coming next.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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