Two small trades and fully sign one of our two-way players would make a huge change to our team. These three things help us this year plus in the up coming years.
Trade One
Celtics - Luke Kornet, Svi Mykhailiuk, Two 2nd rounders
Hornets - Nick Richard
Hornets are in rebuild more with now trading Rozier so draft capital they're looking for. Honestly if they wanted our first this year instead of two seconds I do it still. Richard is sign for 2 more years after this, younger, better rebounder and roll to the backet player. Plus could be in a trade next year.
Trade Two
Celtics - Two 2nd rounders
Grizzlies - John Konchar
Grizzles looking for draft capital and we get to use our TPE. Also by doing this Konchar is signed for 3 more years after this and could be pair after this year with a player like Pritchard to bring in a more expensive player if he doesn't work out. Konchar also gives us another 2/3 which it seems we're always going to need.
Fully sign Neemias Queta. Yes, he's not the most refined player but when he's playing he's energetic, boards and plays defense. Celtics sign him to a two or three year deal and he becomes a valuable backup for us. Come playoffs the game can slow down and having a young big can come in handy specially with Horford and Porzingis needing to keep minutes down during the season.
This also gives us the ability to keep Pritchard. Honestly I'm not a huge fan of him so I'd be willing to package him in deals but he might be worth more in the offseason.
Who are some of your not well known players you'd like the Celtics to trade for and think they could help win.
Is Richard an upgrade over Kornet? I have my doubts.
He's a major upgrade over Kornet, between stats he puts up, a rim runner and also a better paint defender. Plus he's signed cheap for the next 2 years after this year.
Richards is currently playing 24 mpg, which is 10 more than Luke. Their per-36 and per-100 stats are actually quite similar. Kornet has better efficiency, has a better offensive and defensive rating (though that's probably because he has better players around him), and is better across a wider range of stats (offensive rebounds, assists, steals, blocks).
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We could argue that if Richards was playing with teammates that Luke has his stats would be better, but he's also on $5m, which is $3m more than Kornet. So he would fit into the GWill TPE. Not a big deal until you realize we're already over the luxury tax, so that extra $3m costs (if I calculate the luxury tax correctly) $9m in tax for a total of $12m. And we're over the 2nd apron so that's $3m more we would have to cut to get back under it if we had to.
Most importantly, where would the extra 10 mins for him come from? I guess it would be Horford who is currently on 27 mins. But Horford is shooting 41% from 3 and Richards is shooting 0%. I don't really see him as a Horford replacement because he doesn't really spread the floor - he's more like a more polished, more expensive version of Queta. Would he be happy with a reduced role and reduced minutes to get a ring, when he might be trying to get paid? Or would he get frustrated and get disruptive in the locker room?
No doubt he'd be a contributor, a lot of teams would love to have him, I just don't know if it would be worth the cost for what his role would be in this team and I'm uncertain if the fit is right. Now if we lose KP or Horford to injury that would change our need and his fit might be better, but only then I think.
Our constraints - both financial and the fit/role a player would have in our team given any backup we get would not get a lot of minutes - make it really hard to find the right fit of player at the right cost. I'm sure they are out there though, somewhere