The second apron.
I am sure you have heard a lot about it and how the Celtics have to get under it.
You could be sick of hearing about it.
Well, after trading Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers and Kristaps Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks, the Celtics have gotten under the second apron… and added three 2nd round picks in the process.
It really is impressive work by Brad Stevens, Mike Zarren and the rest of the Celtics front office.
By trading Kristaps Porzingis to the Hawks and re-routing Terrence Mann and the 22nd pick to the Nets, the Celtics were able to save $22 million in a single trade. For a team that was $18 million over the 2nd apron when you take into account the two players they are likely to draft over the next two days, that is really important.
This deal makes the Holiday deal better. One of my, along with others, concerns about adding Anfernee Simons in the Holiday trade was that the Celtics didn’t save enough against the 2nd apron.
That is no longer a worry after this trade.
Many people thought that the Celtics would need to send out draft picks to get off of the remaining three years and over $100 million left on Holiday’s contract. It is really good work by this front office to be able to get off of that contract while getting additional draft assets.
There are reasons Portland wants Holiday — even if he doesn’t want them: his leadership and character are big helps for a young team building around two guards in Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe.
Another note about Portland, they are going to be brutal to score against.
These are things that the Celtics and the city of Boston will miss, but everyone knew that Boston wanted to get off of Holiday’s contract.
Another thing a lot of people said was that Boston was going to need to take back bad contracts in order to get off of Porzingis and Holiday, which would subsequently lead them to needing to move off of Sam Hauser. By having Brooklyn take the three years and $47 million Terrance Mann extension that he signed with the Clippers last September, Boston was able to dodge the apron without moving Hauser.
Of course, they very well might still move Hauser so they can re-sign Luke Kornet and Al Horford because they need a center.
However, they can also move Niang and Xavier Tillman to accomplish the same thing. That might cost them a draft pick to do so but they would be able to keep Hauser, something I would like them to do.
The Celtics were able to trade Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, get under the 2nd apron and it didn’t cost them any of their own draft picks. That is a huge win for Stevens and the front office.
