Celtics Listed as Betting Favorite to Land Bradley Beal

Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards.


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Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards.

The Boston Celtics lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, but that doesn’t mean their season was a complete failure. Of course, the team will walk away feeling disappointed that they didn’t meet their ultimate goal, but this season should give fans plenty of reasons to be excited for the years to come.

As Boston gets ready for this offseason, major changes likely won’t be needed. Their entire core rotation is under contract for next season, so there’s no real need to make big-time changes. However, recent odds indicate that they might do just that.

SportsBetting.ag lists the Celtics as the most-likely team to acquire Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal this summer (if he doesn’t return to the Wizards). Beal has a player option for next year that he is expected to decline in favor of hitting the open market.

This past season, Beal appeared in only 40 games due to a wrist injury. In those games, he averaged 23.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 6.6 assists on45.1% shooting from the field and 30.0% shooting from behind the three-point arc.

Boston’s path to acquiring Beal wouldn’t be easy, though, as they’d have to include multiple valuable rotational pieces in a sign-and-trade.


Former NBA GM Explains Potential Beal Trade

Ryan McDonough, the former GM of the Phoenix Suns, recently spoke with NBC Sports Boston to break down the idea of Beal heading to Beantown. According to him, the Celtics would have to ship out Al Horford and other valuable pieces in order to facilitate the move.

“Al Horford’s contract would probably be in there — $26.5 million on an expiring deal. And then what does Washington want? Do they want Robert Williams, Grant Williams, draft picks? Those are Boston’s most valuable assets outside of [Jayson] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown,” McDonough explained.

Horford just wrapped up an amazing postseason in Boston where he averaged 12.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.3 blocks on 52.3% shooting from the field and 48.0% shooting from three-point range. In addition, both of the Williamses are coming off of career years.

The Celtics would essentially be gutting their roster in order to form a Big 3 of Tatum, Brown, and Beal. But on top of that, McDonough doesn’t believe that it would happen anytime soon, despite the odds.


Beal-to-Celtics Wouldn’t Happen Immediately

According to McDonough, a potential Beal trade wouldn’t happen this summer for the Celtics. In fact, he doesn’t think it would come to fruition until the trade deadline or possibly even next offseason.

“I think the Celtics could acquire Beal, but I think the way that would happen would be a trade either at the trade deadline or next offseason,” McDonough said. “I think it’s very unlikely that Beal ends up in a Celtics uniform to start this season.”

Again, trading for Beal would almost certainly require the Celtics to completely upend their depth. Whether or not that is worth it will be up to Brad Stevens and the front office, but as of now, they are the favorites to land him this summer. (Despite McDonough’s doubts.)

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