This is post 4 of 9. For the rest of my Team Free Agency Questions, click here!
The Boston Celtics, who looked dead in the water after both Kyrie and Horford decided to walk on them two weeks ago, look like they are primed to recover and be a major player in free agency! They cleared a ton of cap space and drafted two players with a ton of potential in the draft which leaves them with about $30 million in cap space once they renounce Terry Rozier’s rights.
So my first question is this: what will happen when they renounce Rozier? Will he trust them and agree to a more team-friendly deal? He went on a scorched earth tear while on ESPN a few weeks ago, but I could see a world where Rozier and Danny Ainge agree to just get over this and move on.
However, if another team offers him more than $15 million per year, I think the Celtics would be more than willing to walk away and just find someone else. They seem to be accepting the fact that they won’t be competing for a title this year, so they are more than willing to take this year to recover and then come back stronger in one to two seasons.
Obviously, it’s nearly impossible to replace both Horford and Irving one-for-one, but with rumors out there that the Celtics are in the running to land Kemba Walker, Nikola Vucevic, or Malcolm Brogdon - all of whom could do 75% of what both of those previous players did.
Kemba, while being ball-dominant, is a better player off the ball than I think Kyrie is, so he fits in better overall with Boston’s system. I think they will land any one of those three so they will land some star in free agency. They also have some other options because obviously they can’t sign both of these players without moving most of their roster.
Another rumored move they may be making is a trade for Steven Adams whose deal is killing the Thunders’ cap. If they took on Adams’ deal, they probably could also get a first round pick out of the Thunder because that’s the going rate for a salary dump. Steven Adams is also a good rebounder and defender who Boston fans will love because of his tenacity. It would also be interesting to see him on a team where he isn’t just boxing out for Westbrook to get triple doubles.
I think it’ll be interesting to watch Boston and Los Angeles battle each other in free agency for top stars after the Lakers landed Anthony Davis, the coveted player Boston had been pursuing for two seasons now. I think some of these teams’ agents could use these two franchises against each other to try and get the other to overpay if a player’s final two choices come down to the Celtics and Lakers.
The Celtics will land someone in free agency, and it seems like it could be Kemba, which is a big win for them. How will their division rival the 76ers fair? Well, their free agency fortunes depend on a variety of factors.