The Celtics have been exploring the possibility of pairing Payton Pritchard and Danilo Gallinari in an outgoing trade package as they seek frontcourt reinforcements, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
Pritchard and Gallinari are earning a total of approximately $8.72MM this season, so if the Celtics traded them together, they could take back a player earning up to nearly $11MM (125% of the outgoing salary, plus $100K).
As Fischer observes, the group of players earning less than $11MM includes centers like Jakob Poeltl of the Spurs and Mohamed Bamba of the Magic, though I suspect Boston would need to include at least one more sweetener to land Poeltl and may be hesitant to part with Pritchard in a deal for Bamba.
Here’s more on the Celtics:
- Pritchard spoke to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe about his role in Boston, expressing conflicted feelings about having the opportunity to play for a legitimate title contender while not seeing the court as much as he’d like. The third-year guard said the team’s success doesn’t “necessarily” make it easier to accept his limited minutes. “I’m a competitor and I want to play,” Pritchard said. “I’d play this game for no money if that’s what it means, because I love it. So the biggest thing for me is being somewhere I’ll play and really contribute to winning.”
- Speaking to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Gallinari addressed his ongoing ACL recovery process and said he’s prepared for the possibility of being on the move at the trade deadline. “(The front office and I) haven’t talked about the trade situation,” Gallinari said. “But I’m 34 years old, I’ve been in the league 15 years. Whatever happens, happens. It’s out of my control, and I’m focused in on my job.”
- Jay King of The Athletic evaluates several hypothetical trade proposals submitted by fans, considering whether any of them are realistic. King’s favorite of the bunch is a theoretical deal that would send Pritchard and a second-round pick to Utah for Jarred Vanderbilt.
They need to trade Grant Williams, hes useless now that teams close out on him.
How’s Prichard so valuable?
Have you seen him shoot?
Shame we never really got to see Gallo, on the other hand there are only so many minutes to go around. Who else would have been the odd man out?
Pritchard is great but feel like he’ll always be situational. Could be interesting on the Lakers…
I would LOVE to see them get Bamba.
Go away traders! We don’t want to see any Celtics trades. Though we could as the owners have publicly told President Brad Stevens to do something to win now, this year. Unnecessary pressure like that was & is not helpful!
Go Celtics!
Jarred Vanderbilt? He doesn’t even shoot threes and can’t make foul shots. Celts shoot lots of threes & are near the tops in foul shooting percentage. We want to improve, not weaken the team. Go Celtics!
Agreed. They should trade Time Lord and Horford too. Threes for everyone! /s
Pritchard is a good shooter but gets burnt bad on defense! That’s why he is sitting!
I really hope Bamba can get out of Orlando, and he can get a fresh start somewhere else.
It’s clear things just haven’t worked out as either party expected, so I think it would just be best for The Magic to go ahead and see what they can get for Bamba..
Honestly, Pritchard could really mesh with the Magic as well, so ot could be a win-win for both teams.
I know Orlando already has a few, young PGs thay they’re trying to assess and get going with the rest of their young core, but none of their PGs have really gone and proven they’re the franchises future..
Between Anthony, Fultz, Hampton, and Suggs they’ve each been able to show some promise and have each had some hot streaks for the club, but really only Anthony has shown he’s been able to hold down the position with any consistency.
This is going to be an interesting trade deadline for the Magic, and it’s about time they started separating their young core and rotation players moving forward from the guys that are just too inconsistent….
They can go ahead and move on from some of their younger guys, because they’ll still carry enough value and some of them still hold some promise, so I think Orlando can get something useful for a guy like Bamba and/or Fultz