I don't know. I would be surprised if Pritchard started over Simons. I have some doubt about the veracity of this reporting. I see Pritchard as worthy of starting but he is such a weapon off the bench. There could be a scenario where they see Pritchard as the starter in 2026-27, with Simons not in the equation. If that is the case, then it makes some sense to start Pritchard this season.
And still no press conference or other official introduction of Simons. Definitely could be that he is already traded but they are waiting for some trade restrictions to expire. There are many reports like this one claiming to know that BOS is "struggling to find a trade partner". That may not be true either.
I think the most likely scenario is that Simons is the day 1 starter, but not all that much more likely than being traded this off season. And even if he does survive the off season, he still may well be traded by the deadline.
I hope Simons hasn't been traded yet because Brad is looking for some kind of value that might be equal to a late 1st round pick.
We're not just dumping the salary of a bad player who has two years left on his contract. Simons could be a useful weapon by signing him to a new deal, and if not his expiring salary could help a team not already close to the repeater tax.
I still would think Brad would exercise patience, set Simons up to succeed here, and then trade him at top value.
We all saw what Brad did with Evan Turner. While we didn't trade him, he signed a four-year, $70MM deal with Portland when he left the Celtics.
I agree. No need to just dump Simons. If there is no trade market now, fine, give him a chance. Let's see first hand what he is. You can always dump him later. But I have not given up on the idea that he might be salvageable
I don't think his status has much to do with him NEEDING to be "salvageable" in the sense that I don't think he's broken, bad, or even a negative value contract.
The issue is less about him, imo, and more about the unique circumstances the Celtics find themselves in. If they were a normal team operating without a huge tax bill, repeater tax, penalties ect over their heads I think it would be pretty easy to trade him, probably even for first round pick type value. The issue is the Celtics DO have those constraints, namely:
1) They probably want to get under the tax, or very close. They can't trade him for anybody making more money than him or even making similar money, it needs to be a trade that saves a significant chunk of money.
2) They don't want to take on more years. Because they want to compete in the future they don't want money on heir books going forward that might make them more expensive.
3) They don't necessarily want to be good next year. They appear to be at least soft tanking.
4) Its "late" in the offseason now. Many teams have done their big work and have set up their teams and want to get a look before making any changes at the deadline.
5) He plays a small combo guard role, one of the most stacked roles in the NBA.
What I'm trying to say is even if he played incredibly I'm not sure how much easier trading him gets given the constraints the Celtics were working under.
