Celtics may not trade who everyone is expecting

The Boston Celtics are trading Sam Hauser to cut payroll this offseason, right? Possibly wrong.

A new story by Jay King in The Athletic paints a surprisingly different picture of the Celtics' strategy this summer. He's been told by multiple "league sources" that the Celtics have "explored the idea" of flipping the expiring contract of Anfernee Simons, who's on the books for just one year and $27.7 million. The C's just acquired Simons in a package for point guard Jrue Holiday, shedding his long-term deal from the books and helping the team get under the second apron of the luxury tax.

According to King, the aims of getting rid of Simons' contract are "regaining more roster flexibility and setting up a path to retain free agents Luke Kornet and Al Horford." And despite that, there's still Hauser, who's on the books for four years and $45 million -- but according to King, the Celtics are "more focused on avenues that would allow them to hold onto" Hauser.

^{Anfernee Simons}

As for dumping Simons' salary, that could prove challenging, even though the Celtics are now under the second apron. But now that they accomplished that, they could create a trade exception, which they could use now to save money and later to add a player worth the same amount or less.

So, after trading away Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis, it sounds like Celtics president of basketball ops Brad Stevens actually prefers to keep the rest of the band together. But it sounds like the Holiday and Porzingis trades were only the start of what could be a busy July in Boston.