The Boston Celtics have assets, but they’re unwilling to sacrifice for stars with expiring contracts such as Al Horford and Dwight Howard.
The Boston Celtics have more assets than any other team in the NBA right now. From a plethora of talented role players that can help anyone to their horde of draft picks (most notably the Brooklyn Nets‘ 2016 first rounder), they have the ability to pull off something big before the deadline. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll sacrifice all these assets just to make a deal.
Specifically, they won’t send away key players like Avery Bradley and Jared Sullinger or their top draft picks if they don’t receive the right return. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has reported that this applies to star players with expiring contracts such as Al Horford and Dwight Howard.
Sources: So far, Boston's showing unwillingness to pay premium prices on rentals for Al Horford and Dwight Howard.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 18, 2016
The definition of “premium prices” isn’t certain, but it’s pretty safe to say this may rule out the Nets’ pick and someone such as Bradley or Jae Crowder.
While an All-Star like Horford, who can space the floor, defend, pass, and serve as a new option besides Isaiah Thomas is a worthy target (for a fair price), the Celtics should stay clear of Howard. He isn’t technically on an expiring contract as he has a player option for 2016-17, but there have been plenty of murmurs that he may test free agency this summer to look for a max contact.
This isn’t something the Celtics can afford to let happen. Even with the rising cap, Dwight isn’t worth the $23.2 million he’s set to make next season and they certainly shouldn’t offer him a pay rise on that.
Besides the important matters of personality, health, and age (30), he isn’t the kind of superstar who can dominate as he did with the Orlando Magic. At the very least, Dwight isn’t the best option to be the Celtics’ franchise center of the future. They’re displaying such immense potential right now at third place in the Eastern Conference, and potentially adding Howard just seems like a step in the wrong direction.
If the Celtics can acquire Horford and believe they can re-sign him, he’s still seriously worth pursuing thanks to his two-way ability and great floor spacing at center. Otherwise, if the asking prices are too high, perhaps these are two centers that Danny Ainge will need to look past for the good of the team’s future.