{"id":101067,"date":"2025-07-29T03:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T03:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/101067\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T03:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T03:42:09","slug":"why-the-nets-could-be-a-trade-partner-to-watch-for-the-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/101067\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Nets Could Be a Trade Partner to Watch for the Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_bu7jdxdbt\">When the Nets moved to Brooklyn, some of their first major offseason moves came while partnering with the Boston Celtics over a decade ago. As the Nets emerge as an ideal landing spot for any team looking to shed some salary, there\u2019s a chance they could be doing business with Boston again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_iyx8tfnt2\">One player to keep an eye on is Anfernee Simons, who Boston has <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/sunday-best-the-latest-hottest-and\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly been exploring<\/a> trade options for since he was traded from the Trail Blazers in exchange for Jrue Holiday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_9u83aqvco\">In a post to The Third Apron newsletter, NBA salary cap analyst <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thirdapron.com\/subscribe?simple=true&amp;next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thirdapron.com%2Fp%2Fthe-brooklyn-nets-still-have-a-lot&amp;utm_source=paywall&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;utm_content=169414413\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yossi Gozlan<\/a> named Brooklyn as a potential suitor for Simons, explaining that Boston would fall below the luxury tax line and dodge a projected $70.75 million tax penalty if he were traded to the Nets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_2hvsckmvr\">Simons was Portland&#8217;s leading scorer last season, averaging 19.3 points, 4.8 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game while shooting 42.6% from the field and 36.3% from beyond the arc. His best game of the season came against the Philadelphia 76ers, when he scored 34 points on 50% shooting while grabbing four rebounds, dishing out three assists and notching two steals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_7p7mhhfy9\">Over the past three seasons, Simmons has blossomed into a 20+ point per game scorer. The best season of his career came during the 2023-2024 campaign, when he averaged a career-high 22.6 points, 5.5 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_wwdnlowzp\">Ahead of the 2022-2023 season, he re-signed with the Trail Blazers on a four-year, $100 million deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_csb7crj4q\">While his explosive scoring ability is intriguing, especially for a team that has lacked offensive firepower, the move would only make real sense if Cam Thomas doesn&#8217;t return. While the Nets don&#8217;t seem to be making much progress in offseason talks with Thomas, he also doesn&#8217;t seem to have <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_1fly2ec\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/news\/nba-free-agency-reportedly-no-market-brooklyn-nets-cam-thomas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many other options<\/a> up to this point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_1lxt19pow\">With Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. already on the roster, Simons would likely come off the bench. If the Nets were to commit to a contract of that size, it&#8217;d make more sense to use it on a proven distributor who can run the offense or a frontcourt piece to pair with Nic Claxton in the paint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Nets moved to Brooklyn, some of their first major offseason moves came while partnering with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":101068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-101067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114934457594904258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}