December 15th signals the beginning of the 2021-22 NBA season trading in earnest, with a number of players signed over the summer beginning to become available to trade.
And the Boston Celtics are almost certain to make some moves around the margins even if a big splash of a trade is not a slam-dunk to go down for the team before the trade deadline rolls around in February. Our sister site HoopsHype put together a recent podcast that saw Yossi Gozlan and Michael Scotto outline a number of likely candidates to be on the move, and a trio of them might make sense for Boston to make a call about.
Let’s take a look at the three players who might conceivably be worth looking into for the Celtics in mid-December.
Boston fans are fixated on who might be joining the team, but they should also consider who might be on their way out. https://t.co/lK6pMZpBgM
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 3, 2021
While Olynyk may not know the new coach or system the team that drafted him now plays, he’s familiar with the team and has played with several players on it in the past.
And while we have pointed to old friend Daniel Theis as a potential target in a similar role recently, the Gonzaga product’s shooting is more reliable at 34.1%.
Muscala is another interesting option for the Celtics to consider and plays for a team with little use for his skills.
Shooting 43.5% from deep while pulling down 3.3 boards per game in a bench role for the Thunder, the 30-year-old veteran would likely be a low-cost option who could add some shooting and emergency frontcourt depth.
Dougie McBuckets is another option to add some shooting with size to the roster, but would cost more in terms of both cap hit and ask.
While he can’t really play the five for more than short stints, he can play down to the three if called on and is shooting 42.9% from 3 on 4.8 attempts per game.