Celtics Linked to Trade for Player You Wouldn’t Believe
The Boston Celtics have kind of gone nuclear this offseason, trading away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis in an attempt to shed some salary. There were even rumors that Jaylen Brown and Derrick White were on the table, but nothing came of that.
However, the Celtics may not be done wheeling and dealing.
Remember: Boston acquired Anfernee Simons in the trade that sent Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers, and many feel that Simons — who is on an expiring contract — will be flipped elsewhere.
Because Simons averaged 19.3 points per game last season and logged over 20 points a night in the two preceding campaigns, he should certainly have his fair share of interested suitors, because microwave scorers are valuable, even if they aren’t exactly the most efficient.
Connor Thoms of Bleacher Report has pitched some potential trade ideas for Simons, and in one proposal, he has Boston landing a player you wouldn’t believe: Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma.
More specifically, Thomas has the Celtics sending Simons to the Bucks in exchange for Kuzma and a 2032 top-10 protected first-round pick.
Why would Kuzma be such an unbelievable addition for Boston? Well, remember: once upon a time, Kuzma played for the Los Angeles Lakers, and years ago, there was actually a debate between Lakers and Celtics fans about who was better between Kuzma and Jayson Tatum (even though it was obvious that the answer was Tatum right from the beginning).
Kuzma, like Simons, is a rather inefficient scorer who never really materialized like many NBA fans hoped. He split the 2024-25 campaign between the Washington Wizards and Milwaukee, registering 14.8 points and 5.7 rebounds over 29.8 minutes per game on 43.6/30.7/63.4 shooting splits. Not exactly pretty.
The lure for the Celtics would obviously be the first-round pick, although they probably wouldn’t be thrilled about the two years remaining on Kuzma’s contract.
Simons may very well get dealt before the start of the regular season, but it seems somewhat hard to imagine that Boston would take on Kuzma just to get rid of Simons, a first-round pick notwithstanding.
