Avery Bradley has Been Traded to the Pistons
Sources: Detroit sending forward Marcus Morris to Boston for guard Avery Bradley.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 7, 2017
The Celtics are sending Avery Bradley and a second round pick to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Marcus Morris. I get that the Celtics had to move either Bradley, Smart, or Crowder to make space for Hayward. I don’t hate Marcus Morris at all, but why in the hell would they choose Bradley and not at the very least get somebody who can get a damn rebound? Morris only averaged 4.6 RPG last year, so he probably isn’t going to be much help on the glass.
They also are losing arguably a top 3 defender at his position, which is going to show a lot when they go up against the elite 1’s and 2’s next season. I’m sure they felt like he was going to be the guy they couldn’t re-sign next off-season and wanted to maximize his value now before he just walked off for nothing. Assuming that’s the case, I understand why they chose Bradley, but you have to get more for him. He’s one of the most underrated players in the league and was underappreciated by a lot of Celtics fans. Unless Ainge has another trade or FA signing up his sleeve, this is just a bad deal. I have a hard time believing he couldn’t have done better, but what do I know. I’ll miss ya, Avery.
So assuming no other huge moves are made, the Celtics roster currently looks like this:
PG: Isaiah Thomas
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Gordon Hayward
PF: Marcus Morris
C: Al Horford
Bench: Jae Crowder, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Terry Rozier, Ante Zizic
I expect the rest of their roster to get filled out with summer league players and maybe FA’s who will sign for cheap, but they still have a huge hole to fill when it comes to rebounding. A free agent who might be able to solve this problem on the glass is Dewayne Dedmon from the Spurs. He’s an undrafted center out of USC who’s been bouncing around the league since 2013 but he appeared to have a lot of value last year for the Spurs. He only averaged 6.5 RPG, but many people believe he can improve on those numbers. Looking at who is left in free agency and how much Dedmon would probably demand salary wise, signing him would make a ton of sense.
Written By: Nick Cherico (@NickCherico2)