Word: I’m going to overlook Keith Smith on this weblog for lots of causes, however he shall be explicitly missed on days when we’ve cap questions in regards to the Celtics. With that mentioned, he has discovered a brand new full time dwelling on Spotrac and we couldn’t be happier for him. We will even fortunately combination the articles he writes over there. Simply don’t neglect to click on by way of! A lot of good info and evaluation (as you’ll anticipate)!
Now that the crew has traded Marcus Good of Kristaps Porzingis, the following instant query turns into what to do with restricted free agent Grant Williams.
Keith Smith talks about this decision on Spotrac:
As for the remainder of the roster, the Celtics are proper up in opposition to the tremendous tax line. Which means they’re principally re-signing Grant Williams, shifting him in a sign-and-trade or shedding him for nothing. Even when Williams leaves city, Boston could not discover sufficient wiggle room to make use of the $5 million Taxpayer MLE.
Contemplating the downward stress that the brand new CBA is placing on groups identical to the Celtics, many have assumed that the crew will (in a method or one other) have to maneuver on from Grant. Particularly after the crew simply traded for an enormous man.
Nonetheless, I’m unsure whether it is that lower and dry. There’s a pathway for preserving Grant in Boston, but it surely comes with a price.
There’s a faculty of thought that claims the Celtics ought to re-sign Williams and let tomorrow’s issues be tomorrow’s issues. That’s completely legitimate, given Boston is a title contender proper now. However finally that invoice comes due. So long as Brad Stevens and his workers notice they will’t delay it perpetually, and have a long-term plan, there’s no purpose they will’t carry Williams again for this season.
That “invoice” may embrace needing to make use of draft capital to be able to dump wage subsequent summer season. We’re speaking about an offseason the place a number of groups may very well be determined to dump wage, which may put the Celtics at a drawback from a leverage standpoint.
With that mentioned, the Celtics ought to be working from a win-now perspective. They’ve already signaled that they intend to present Jaylen Brown the supermax. That places them on a highway to be tax payers anyway. Perhaps you simply chunk the bullet and pay the value down the highway.
The crew is already going to be below an entire lot of stress to win subsequent season. If issues go sideways, the crew goes to have some very tough choices about the way forward for the franchise.
In fact the willingness to pay that invoice has rather a lot to do with the instant precise value that Grant instructions on the free agent market. Already we’ve heard about a number of groups which might be greater than prepared to present him above the mid-level exception. How far above may have rather a lot to say with the Celtics’ choice.
There are nonetheless a number of choices for Brad Stevens and the Celtics. Is the crew prepared to push all-in with Grant and work out “the invoice” down the road? Do they transfer off of Brogdon’s wage as a substitute? Who and what can the crew get again in trades? Heaps and many questions nonetheless to be answered. We must always begin to get some solutions right here in just a few days as the marketplace for Williams develops.
