NBA rumors: Trail Blazers laugh Heat off, Celtics trade hopes, more
By Josh Wilson
With NBA free agency cooling down, NBA rumors are focused in on trade possibilities around the league for Damian Lillard. The Heat and Celtics have emerged as main characters.
Here’s the latest you need to know on the NBA trade rumors front, with all things swirling around Damian Lillard’s recent trade request.
Celtics won’t extend Jaylen Brown yet because of unsettled trade hopes
The Boston Celtics clearly want to be players in the now-bustling trade market. They’re rumored to be interested in the Damian Lillard sweepstakes, and that domino could trigger a number of other trade opportunities around the league as well.
To be engaged in the market, you have to have tradeable assets, and one particular asset the Celtics have comes with inflexibility if they extend his contract: Jaylen Brown.
If the Celtics extend Brown, they can’t trade him for an entire year. The Celtics, as first pointed out by Brian Windhorst on ESPN (H/T SI), might delay extending Brown until they’re certain they don’t need him to be included in a trade to upgrade the team.