Celtics reportedly eyeing noteworthy veterans ahead of NBA free agency
Even after a pair of weekend moves, the first of which saw Tristan Thompson shipped to Sacramento and another that brought Josh Richardson to Boston from Dallas, Brad Stevens and the Celtics are not done.
And with free agency upon the league, it would appear that the Celtics have found their ‘primary target’ on the open market, according to the latest report from The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.
“According to a league source, the Celtics prefer to pursue a player with extensive experience and are focused on adding size and shooting, and forward Jeff Green is believed to be a primary target,” Himmelsbach wrote. “Green played for the Celtics from 2011-2015, including a season and a half with Stevens as his head coach.”
Most recently with the Brooklyn Nets, the 34-year-old averaged 11 points and 3.9 rebounds in 26:59 per night over a 68-game run with Brooklyn, and averaged 8.2 points per night and shot 48.5 percent from the field in a six-game playoff run. Green’s run with the Nets also came with new C’s coach Ime Udoka serving as one of Brooklyn’s assistant coaches.
But Green is not the only name on the C’s board, according to Himmelsbach, who also mentioned Rudy Gay, Kelly Olynyk, Avery Bradley, and Patty Mills as potential options for the Green in free agency.
Gay, a veteran of over 1,000 NBA games, is coming off a 2020-21 campaign that featured 11.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per night for the Spurs, along with a 38.1 percentage from beyond the arc. Like Green, Gay is connected to the Celtics via Udoka, who served as one of San Antonio’s assistant coaches during the early portion of Gay’s time with the Spurs.
Same goes for Mills, too, who has been with San Antonio since 2010 and averaged 10.8 points and 2.4 assists per game last year. Mills could also be a fit for the Celtics’ needs for a player with significant postseason experience, too, as he’s set to hit the open market with 90 games of playoff experience in his career, along with a ring as a member of the 2014 Spurs.
Olynyk and Bradley, meanwhile, are connected to the Celtics from their past tenures with the club, and under Stevens.
Bradley has certainly bounced around the NBA since leaving Boston in the 2017 trade for Marcus Morris, with six different stops since Boston, and a 2020-21 season featuring 6.4 points and 1.7 assists per game over a 27-game run. The 6-foot-11 Olynyk is coming off a year of career-bests, however, with single-season highs in points (13.5), assists (2.9), rebounds (7.0), and field goals made (4.8) per game in a 70-game year split between the Heat and Rockets. Both Bradley and Olynyk began their 2020-21 seasons with Miami but ended them in Houston as pieces of the Heat’s deal for Victor Oladipo.
The Celtics’ interest in some of the market’s veteran options comes on the heels of multiple reports indicating that the Celtics are unwilling to meet the increasingly-high asking price on an Evan Fournier extension.
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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.
