{"id":175328,"date":"2026-01-31T11:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=175328"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T16:11:25","slug":"will-celtics-let-trade-assets-waste-for-the-third-year-in-a-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/31\/will-celtics-let-trade-assets-waste-for-the-third-year-in-a-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Celtics Let Trade Assets Waste For The Third Year In A Row?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BOSTON \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/category\/celtics\/\" target=\"_self\">Boston Celtics<\/a> are third in the East with a 30\u201318 record. They are mounting a surprise playoff challenge. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum\u2019s<\/a> return could elevate that into a serious title push. It remains unclear if they will pull every lever to contend. Will the Celtics, for the third year in a row, let their trade exceptions expire?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Will Celtics Let Trade Assets Waste For The Third Year In A Row?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>Why the Exceptions Went Unused<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_156725\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-156725\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Mar 27, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic (9) shoots over Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes (11) during the first quarter at United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-large wp-image-156725\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_25784210_168402037_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-156725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mar 27, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic (9) shoots over Los Angeles Lakers center Jaxson Hayes (11) during the first quarter at United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Over the last three NBA seasons under the 2023 CBA, the Celtics generated trade exceptions they never used. The main reason is structural. Boston operated as a second-apron team in both 2023\u201324 and 2024\u201325. Under the 2023 CBA, teams above the second apron cannot use trade exceptions. That restriction froze Boston\u2019s flexibility, even when exceptions existed. The result is a multi-year pattern of unused assets. Payroll positioning, not roster indifference, drove it.<\/p>\n<h3>What Boston Has This Season<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Celtics reportedly offered Anfernee Simons, a first-round pick, and a first-round pick swap to the Clippers for Ivica Zubac, but the Clippers showed no interest, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeAScotto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MikeAScotto<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the Clippers were struggling with a 6-21 record to begin the season, the Celtics inquired\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lHX4QvBeZr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lHX4QvBeZr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/2016623292145140013?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This season, Boston has three active trade exceptions. They include $4 million from the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sprinja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaden Springer<\/a> trade. They also include $4.7 million from the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holidjr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jrue Holiday<\/a> trade. The largest is $22.5 million from the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/porzikr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is<\/a> trade. The Springer exception expires on Feb. 6. The other two expire in July. Brad Stevens has shown little urgency to use them. He likely wants to reduce tax exposure for Brad Chisholm\u2019s ownership group. Boston <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/01\/31\/celtics-to-use-forgotten-trade-asset-to-add-njkola-vucevic\/\" target=\"_self\">could target<\/a> players like <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vucevni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107<\/a> or <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sharpda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Day\u2019Ron Sharpe<\/a> using these trade exceptions. Cost control, however, remains the priority.<\/p>\n<h3>Frontcourt Focus, Unclear Action<\/h3>\n<p>Stevens has expressed interest in improving the team\u2019s frontcourt. The Celtics have engaged in trade discussions for Vu\u010devi\u0107 and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/z\/zubaciv01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ivica Zubac.<\/a> Whether that interest turns into action remains the central question.<\/p>\n<p><label>Credit:<\/label><span><\/span>\u00a9 Winslow Townson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOSTON \u2014 The Boston Celtics are third in the East with a 30\u201318 record. They are mounting a surprise playoff challenge. Jayson Tatum\u2019s return could elevate that into a serious title push. It remains unclear if they will pull every lever to contend. Will the Celtics, for the third year in a row, let their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":175332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,5,3,4721],"tags":[50244,49671,474],"class_list":["post-175328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-2025-26-nba-season","tag-exceptions","tag-nikola-vucevic"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175333,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175328\/revisions\/175333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}