During an appearance on Thursday in 98.5 The Sports Hub “Toucher and Rich”, Ainge admitted that the team’s greatest need is to “kick with size” and suggested that the March deadline is probably the sweet spot to strike with the greatest exception of player traded in the history league.
But to maximize returns, Ainge will have to offer more than just a break from the wage ceiling. In the search for impact talents – players like Harrison Barnes, Nikola Vucevic, Maxi Kleber or Aaron Gordon – the Celtics would have to offer more than just a break from the salary cap and part with some combination of future choices and young talent to facilitate these deals.
Unfortunately for Boston, the team surplus of future first-round players finally dried up after using the Bucks and Grizzlies picks in November. The Celtics have only their choices in the first round to deliver at the moment.
Therefore, we will classify the best available assets of the team to discuss in trade negotiations, while recognizing that we are not including the best commercial assets that the team has – Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown – since the purpose of this exercise is to determine how Boston you can add talent around that double star with TPE.