{"id":22561,"date":"2019-06-25T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T02:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22561"},"modified":"2019-06-25T22:00:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T02:00:05","slug":"nba-rumors-nikola-vucevic-to-the-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/06\/25\/nba-rumors-nikola-vucevic-to-the-boston-celtics\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors: Nikola Vucevic to the Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/nba-teams\/boston-celtics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boston Celtics<\/a> are on the verge of losing two of their starters. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/horfoal01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Al Horford<\/a><\/strong> are likely to walk away and look elsewhere after the up and down season the Celtics had last season. The Celtics should now be looking for a replacement for their two starters and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vucevni01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Vucevic<\/a><\/strong> is one of the best available players for the center position. There is a lot of smoke blowing that the Boston Celtics will target Nikola Vucevic in free agency.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Boston Celtics are Interested in Nikola Vucevic<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to Shams Charania, the Boston Celtics are interested in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnba.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/nba-teams\/orlando-magic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Orlando Magic<\/a>&#8216;s Nikola Vucevic.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After drafting Romeo Langford and trading away Aron Baynes, the Celtics are in for a busy summer. Live from the Barclays Center, our <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ShamsCharania<\/a> has the latest on Boston&#39;s plans, including their interest in Nikola Vucevic. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cutfL9Ku4j\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/cutfL9Ku4j<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Stadium (@Stadium) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium\/status\/1141925806110924804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Nikola Vucevic is coming off the best year of his career averaging career highs of 20.8 points, 12 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. He also earned his first all-star appearance. The Celtics recently dealt <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/baynear01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aron Baynes<\/a><\/strong> so they lack depth at the center position. Signing Vucevic would give them an all-star center that can fill Al Horford&#8217;s place.<\/p>\n<p>As the Boston Celtics deal with major changes this offseason, they will have to adapt quickly to maintain their contender status in the Eastern Conference. Losing both Irving and Horford means that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tatumja01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jayson Tatum<\/a><\/strong> will to take over the primary leadership and scoring roles. There is no assurance that the Celtics can retain even <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roziete01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terry Rozier<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/morrima03.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Morris<\/a><\/strong>. Both Tatum and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownja02.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaylen Brown<\/a><\/strong> will be the future of the Celtics.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the Celtics land Vucevic, Tatum will still be the first option especially on the offensive end of the floor. Vucevic can help him carry the load. He can score inside and out. He&#8217;s a very consistent player and just entered his prime. He is impressive on the glass. He&#8217;s also a little underrated as a big man passer, an aspect the Celtics will surely need as they ran a lot of offense through Al Horford. He will only get better from this point of his career, so securing him to a long term contract is a smart move.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"rqPlWyhsRIFp3H-nGKi2ig\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/896398704\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'rqPlWyhsRIFp3H-nGKi2ig',sig:'iRBs7aZtfpaCzG4PoJL6fDr7QmJsrxE5W9jRgmPr3og=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'896398704',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boston Celtics are on the verge of losing two of their starters. Kyrie Irving and Al Horford are likely to walk away and look elsewhere after the up and down season the Celtics had last season. The Celtics should now be looking for a replacement for their two starters and Nikola Vucevic is one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3110,"featured_media":22590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[5,1608,62],"tags":[250,302,450,798,406,474,136,427],"class_list":["post-22561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-al-horford","tag-boston-celtics","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-nikola-vucevic","tag-orlando-magic","tag-terry-rozier"],"modified_by":"Tyler Marling","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22561","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\/3110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}