The Boston Celtics have already made one major splash this summer, signing prized big man Al Horford to a five-year deal, and they may not be done.
According to Kevin O’Connor of CSNNE.com, the Celtics are still very busy.
“Well, I feel the phones are definitely ringing. Danny is definitely talking to people for sure, and has indicated that our work is not yet done,” said Boston owner Wyc Grousbeck, via O’Connor.
Danny Ainge echoed that statement, saying, “We are still looking at doing deals and we’re certainly not finished for the summer,” per O’Connor.
What could Grousbeck and Ainge possibly mean? All of the free agents are off the board, so what do they have up their sleeves?
Grousbeck extrapolated on the matter on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Felger & Mazz, hinting that it the C’s have been in talks to attempt to trade for a player whom they have targeted in the past.
Now, that’s no short list, as the Celtics have reportedly gone after the likes of Jimmy Butler, Khris Middleton, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor and DeMarcus Cousins
But let’s narrow it down a bit.
Recently, Ainge said that Boston needs a “stronger center,” per Brian Robb of Boston.com.
That eliminates Butler and Middleton, and it probably takes Noel out of the picture because he doesn’t necessarily fit that bill.
So, by the process of elimination, that leaves Okafor and Cousins, and Michael Felger of Felger & Mazz believes the player is, indeed, Cousins.
I am going to have to agree with Felger here.
First of all, Okafor does not make much sense for the Celtics now that they have Horford.
The 20-year-old is almost strictly a low-post center with limited floor vision and very little defensive upside, so bringing him aboard when you already have Horford to man the center position seems superfluous.
If you are going to supplant Horford from the 5 and move him to power forward, you are going to want to make sure the player you are getting is superior to Horford.
Okafor is not.
Also, Boston has a bit of a hole on its interior regarding rebounding, and Okafor is not a great rebounding big man. He averaged only 8.4 boards per 36 minutes this past season, and he posted a pedestrian total rebound percentage of 12.8 percent.
As evidenced by those numbers, Okafor isn’t the solution there, either.
February 19, 2016: Philadelphia 76ers center Jahlil Okafor (8) drives to the basket against New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday (11) during the NBA game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA. (Photograph by Stephen Lew/Icon Sportswire)
Finally, based on Ainge’s history, you know he isn’t going to give up significant value without getting a generational player in return. Okafor is not that player.
That brings us back to Cousins, the man whose name has been tossed around in Boston rumors since the 2011-12 campaign.
While there have never been any concrete rumors about what type of package the C’s have offered for Cousins, one can make fairly obvious assumptions.
It would cost the Celtics at least one of their remaining Brooklyn Nets draft picks–and probably both–and a couple of their young players.
For someone of Cousins’ caliber, that is more than fair.
Given the fact that Boston does have the goods to make an acceptable offer for Cousins and that he would obviously fit the type of player that Ainge has been referring to, it’s not crazy to think he is the guy Boston is after.
While Cousins and Horford may seem like a strange pairing on the surface, they could certainly slot in next to one another and be just fine. Cousins is a solid defender, can spread the floor and is a fantastic facilitator. Plus, he would cover up Horford’s one weakness: rebounding.
So, pursuing Cousins makes complete sense.
Of course, we do need to qualify this by saying that the Sacramento Kings have not given any recent indications that they want to move their star big man. He is under contract through 2018, and he has not publicly criticized the front office or anything of the sort.
We can try to read into Cousins’ draft night tweet in which he wrote, “Lord give me strength,” but the 25-year-old later said that the tweet was in reference to a “hot sculpting class” (per Ian Begley of ESPN.com) and followed that by saying, “It’s not as bad as people try to make it seem (in Sacramento)” (per Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post).
We’ll take your word for it, DeMarcus…
Anyway, despite the fact that the Kings may not be shopping Cousins around, that does not mean they won’t listen to offers. If Ainge can come up with something that Vlade Divac and Co. find enticing, perhaps something could happen?
It’s not like Divac is going to leave his phone off the hook so no one can call him.
It’s apparent that Ainge and the Celtics are in win-now mode, and acquiring Cousins would absolutely be filed as a “win-now” move. He is arguably the best center in the league, and he would instantly make Boston a clear-cut top two team in the Eastern Conference.
You can put the pieces together yourself, but signs seem to be indicating that Cousins is the player Ainge covets.
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