Celtics Reportedly Still Shopping Kristaps Porziņģis After Jrue Holiday Trade
The Boston Celtics aren’t done yet.
After trading Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, the Celtics are reportedly still looking to trade another one of their key players.
The Athletic’s Jay King reports that Boston is “still trying to trade Kristaps Porziņģis even after dealing Jrue Holiday to Portland.”
“Sources believe the Holiday trade will be only the first domino to fall for Boston, (which) is looking (to) get under the salary cap’s second apron,” King wrote.
The Celtics got an impressive return for Holiday, with the Trail Blazers sending Anfernee Simons and two second-round picks. Simons is entering the final year of his deal, making him a prime candidate for an extension, having averaged 19.3 points across 70 games last season. And with that, it saves Boston roughly $4.7 million in salary next season but roughly $40 million in luxury tax penalties, as Holiday has three years and $104.4 million left on his contract.
This was just the first move to get the Celtics under the second luxury tax apron, but they still have more to do.
Trading Porziņģis makes too much sense, as the star center is entering the final year of his contract. And ESPN’s Brian Windhorst certainly agrees based on what he said on Get Up! on Tuesday.
“Porzingis, I definitely think that they are in discussions with,” Windhorst said. “And again, you can’t just trade him off, they would be trading him for a player, probably who makes less money. That’s what this was, Anfernee Simons kind of fits with Boston as a three-point specialist. They would need someone to sort of be a big man, a starting-level big man for Porzingis if they made this deal. But look for a Porzingis thing.
“As for the other two star players, I don’t think Derrick White and Jaylen Brown are players that they want to trade. Having said that, if somebody calls with a gigantic offer, I think that they would have to discuss it. I think they’d be looking at their other supporting players, maybe like Sam Hauser, that they would be looking to do. But as (Bobby Marks) described, they probably are going to have to make multiple more moves to save this money that they need to save.”
It’s just the start of a busy offseason for the Celtics.