Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney caught up with an Eastern Conference executive to discuss which contenders in the league have glaring holes to fix. When the Boston Celtics came up, the one position was brought up as a glaring hole for them was their wing depth.
Outside of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics don’t have any other proven traditional wings on the roster. Marcus Smart, Derrick White, and Malcolm Brogdon can play on the wing, but because of their heights, they are used as wings exclusively in smallball lineups. At six-foot-six, Grant Williams has the height of a wing, but is used more as a power forward and center by the team.
To fix this hole in the Celtics’ roster, the following trade was proposed between the Celtics and their Atlantic Division rival, the Toronto Raptors.
Celtics Receive: OG Anunoby
Raptors Receive: Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Two First-Round Picks (2025 and 2027)
Deveney revealed why the Raptors have considered trading Anunoby and why he would fit on the Celtics were he available to acquire.
“There have been rumblings that the Raptors would consider moving Anunoby in light of the rise of Scottie Barnes on the wing,” Deveney said. “No substantive talks have taken place on that, but if Anunoby should become available, he is potentially the missing piece in what would be a dominant Boston lineup on both sides of the ball.”
Keep a spot open for OG Anunoby on your All-Defense teams this season pic.twitter.com/fYLQ1bin8j
— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) October 20, 2022
When the Anunoby-to-the-Celtics trade was proposed, the executive believed that for a trade like that to happen would depend on what Raptors’ President of Basketball Operations Masaji Ujiri would want.
“You never know how a trade discussion is going to go,” the executive said to Deveney. “But that’s a low offer for Anunoby and Masai (Ujiri) will walk away if he is getting low-balled. Maybe they value picks, maybe they value Pritchard and White. I’d say they’d have to include Rob Williams or Grant Williams or (Marcus) Smart to make it work.”
Anunoby is 25 years old and has career averages of 10.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.1 steals with career shooting percentages of 47 percent from the field and 37.2 percent from three. Anunoby has been a starter for the Raptors since 2019.
Anunoby also won a championship with the Raptors in 2019, although he did not play a game for them during the majority of their 2019 playoff run because of an emergency appendectomy due to acute apendicitis. Anunoby was active during the 2019 NBA Finals, but did not play.
The executive revealed his thoughts on the other wings the Celtics have on their roster while revealing why they could use another wing in their second unit.
“We’ll see how things work for them with Sam Hauser and (Justin) Jackson but if there is a spot where they want to maybe find someone else, it’s at that wing spot. They have great backcourt defenders and frontcourt defenders when they’re healthy but someone off the bench who can be a wing-stopper would be big for them,” the exec said.
Jackson did not play in the Celtics’ season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers, while Hauser only played three minutes, where he put up no statistical output outside of one personal foul.
12.0 PPG ☘️ 51.5% FG ☘️ 48.1% 3PT#GLeagueAlum Sam Hauser shot LIGHTS OUT for the @celtics in #NBAPreseason. pic.twitter.com/U3CgrdamM1
— NBA G League (@nbagleague) October 17, 2022