Brad Stevens sheds light on Celtics' trade deadline plans as Jayson Tatum's potential return looms
Boston's season has gone surprisingly well, and Stevens said 'nothing is holding us back' as the team assesses the deadline
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4 min read
At 15-11, with the NBA's sixth-best net rating, the Boston Celtics are way better than most of us thought they'd be. Instead of chasing lottery balls, they're fourth in the East, and they already have wins against the two teams above them in the standings. Last week, Jayson Tatum posted several videos of himself on the court on Instagram, and the Boston Globe reported that he has continued to tell people within the organization that he wants to play this season.
If the Celtics are a good team right now, how good could they be with their franchise player? And if Tatum's return from a torn Achilles is realistic, should they be looking to make win-now moves between now and the Feb. 5 trade deadline?
According to team president Brad Stevens, the team is open to the idea of improving the team to increase their short-term chances of competing for a title. "There's nothing holding us back, necessarily, from that," he told reporters Wednesday, via CLNS. He added, though, that "there's a lot of things that have to go right in a deal," and that the front office is still assessing this year's team.
Boston is a half-game behind the third-place Toronto Raptors and 3½ games behind the second-place New York Knicks, but Stevens pointed out that "hardly anything" separates the Raptors (16-11) from the ninth-place Miami Heat (14-12). If the Celtics lose their next two games, which happen to be against Miami and Toronto, they could drop several spots.
"We're all still trying to figure out who we are and what we can be," Stevens said. "We will not put a ceiling on this group. If it makes sense for us to look for things that can help us, we certainly will. But it all has to be within good deals and it all has to be within the ultimate goal, which is the North Star of retooling so we're in a position to compete for what we want to compete for."
Stevens said that the Celtics "always listen" and are always looking at ways to improve the roster. He noted, though, that improvement can also come from "people in the room getting better," pointing to center Neemias Queta and forward Jordan Walsh as examples of players who have made the most of their opportunities.
Queta and Walsh have both been revelations as role players, and Jaylen Brown's scoring has been spectacular in a lead role. Even after the big "retooling," though, Boston isn't in a position to throw money around to add reinforcements. Yes, the Celtics got under the second apron last summer, but they're still about $12.1 million above the luxury-tax line. To avoid the repeater tax, they may be motivated to shed salary -- specifically Anfernee Simons' $27.7 million expiring deal or a combination of Sam Hauser's contract (which pays $10 million this season) and smaller ones.
Simons has averaged 23.7 minutes per game off the bench for Boston. He has played a much smaller role than the one he was used to with the Portland Trail Blazers, but Stevens praised his mindset, saying that that he's "really trying" and has "made great strides" defensively. It is unclear what value he has on the trade market.
As for Tatum, Stevens confirmed what the Boston Globe reported last week: He wants to come back, but must clear several hurdles before he and the team can make a decision about that.
"There's a strength threshold he has to meet, and then, after that, several weeks of progressions," Stevens said.
Tatum has "obviously made great strides," Stevens said, but is still focused on gaining strength. Eventually, he'll be able to ramp up his on-court workouts: "scripted against small groups, scripted against bigger groups, scripted in five-on-five, unscripted, random, all the way up through those. But it's a long progression." As he works his way up, he will also be "reconditioning to play real minutes, whatever that looks like."
The Celtics are "not putting a timeline on it, as we haven't the whole time," Stevens said. "I mean, I think that one of the things that everybody can see is we didn't apply for a [disabled player exception] this year, which was a conscious decision for a lot of reasons. But the reality is he's not going to be back until he's 110% healthy and he feels good about it. And that's a big part of it. Obviously he's itching to play. Obviously he hates watching. But he's also -- I don't want to speak for him, but [he's] very cognizant of the need to meet any threshold and why there are those things that are put in place. But we've had a lot of great talks about it."
If Boston had been terrible this season, then its situation would be simpler in some ways. There would be no talk about making upgrades at the deadline, and there would be far less talk about Tatum's potential return, too. Given how well the team has played, Stevens' front office has plenty to feel good about, but it's also facing a real challenge: building another title contender without the promise of a great pick in the 2026 draft. When he says that the Celtics will look for upgrades "if it makes sense" and if it aligns with their "North Star," it means they're not going to overreact to the first third of this season. Sure, they could do something before the deadline that makes them better in the short term. But only if it also sets them up to compete for another championship down the road.
