Given that star Boston Celtics small forward Jaylen Brown happens to hail from the greater Atlanta, Georgia area, we understand why he is so often a focal point for fake trades to the Atlanta Hawks.
But we would think that by now analysts would take the Celtics organization at their word that they have no intention of trading the Marrietta native to another team any time soon. Still, the lingering effects of Boston’s uneven play makes the team — and Brown — constant fodder for trade proposal articles like a recent piece from Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes specifically created to focus on such unlikely-to-move-players.
Even the biggest fans of Brown on and off the court have to admit that there are packages the team ought to say yes to, even if it is unlikely the Celtics ever see such an offer in the short term future.
Hughes posits a trade that would send the Georgia native to the Hawks to help that team consolidate talent while giving Boston the tools it would need to retool the roster to more strongly focus on teammate Jayson Tatum.
The package would include De’Andre Hunter, Kevin Huerter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, a 2022 first-round pick owed Atlanta by the Charlotte Hornets, and a 2023 first-round pick belonging to the Hawks.
Hughes begins his pitch by correctly noting that the “Hawks will have to pull off quite a sell job to convince Boston that this package is enough to pry loose an All-Star.”
While Hunter flashes star potential, he is still pretty far from being considered one, and Bogdanovic and Huerter are both very solid supporting players. The draft assets are not bad, but not especially good — both likely to fall outside the lottery.
The folks at Tankathon are projecting that Boston leans into their defensive identity at the 2022 NBA draft with this pair of projected picks. https://t.co/7jtnrKfXif
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) January 31, 2022
“It helps that Hunter has shown flashes of being a high-end starter when healthy and that Huerter is the kind of facilitating wing who could get the ball moving in the Celtics’ sticky offense,” suggests the B/R analyst.
“If I’m Boston, I want at least one more first-rounder and a discussion about including Onyeka Okongwu instead of Huerter, who comes with a poison-pill provision in his contract,” astutely notes Hughes.
Another pick and Okongwu instead of Huerter would indeed be hard to pass on for the Celtics, but also probably too much for the Hawks.
For Robert Williams III, the money is made by lurking, patiently waiting for action. Just when his teammates do enough to manipulate a defender on the way to the rim, or when an opposing shooter th… https://t.co/FumxXraAj4
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) January 30, 2022
Noting that the Celtics tax concerns also suggest additional moves — perhaps involving Schroder — would also likely need to happen, the Bleacher Report writer notes this proposal “is about the Hawks turning several good wings into a great one.”
And given the premium on that sort of talent in the NBA of today, that may simply cost more than Atlanta should be expected to want to pay.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
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