NBA Free Agency 2017: 5 teams that should be looking at Chris Bosh
By John Buhler
Boston Celtics
East, Atlantic
The Boston Celtics are a good, but not a great team. Honestly, the Celtics organization would be the first group of people to tell you that. However, we should expect a handful of moves to better help them contend for an NBA Championship in 2018.
Boston has the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. The Celtics could use that pick any number of players including Markelle Fultz, Lonzo Ball, or Josh Jackson. We should also expect Boston to be actively pursuing players like Gordon Hayward in the free agency market. That being said, they could use some help down low.
Boston is atrocious at rebounding. When you spend top dollar on finesse stretch-five like Al Horford, this is what you inevitably sign up for. So how would adding Bosh help Boston in this regard? While he and Horford would be a bit of a redundancy in the frontcourt, Boston needs at least one other reliable big man to pair with Horford down low.
Maybe Horford would prefer to play the four like he did in college at Florida next to Joakim Noah. Bosh isn’t the muscle at the five that Noah was in his prime, but he can offer a great deal of variety to playing center. In an increasingly position-less NBA, it’s just guards and bigs really. If DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis can play alongside each other in New Orleans, why can’t Bosh and Horford coexist?
The only real issue besides health that could be a concern for the Celtics signing Bosh is that they have some tough decisions to make in free agency. Do they go hard after Hayward to pry him away from the Jazz? Does Boston want to max out point guard Isaiah Thomas? How can they afford to keep Avery Bradley around long term? Bosh would have to take a discount to play for the Celtics, hence the reason this is a good, but not preferred landing spot for him.