The Boston Celtics Are Reportedly “Pissed” At The Bulls For Their Latest Subtle Roster Move
According to Heavy Sports’ Sean Devensy, the Boston Celtics are less than pleased with Chicago’s recent roster change. Considering the frustration stemming from a third team involved, the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston’s irritation shouldn’t be aimed at the bulls, but at their own failure to reiterate their bank depth over the trade deadline and buyout market period. Boston has growing concerns about the challenges the Bucks will face in the postseason, and those issues are now even harder to resolve. Milwaukee snapped up veteran point guard Goran Dragic after the Bulls bought out his contract, giving him an opportunity to sign a postseason roster. Let’s see why the Celtics are so upset with the Bulls’ decision to let the 15-year Guards veteran run.
The Bulls’ back seat is too crowded
Many knew that move could be on the horizon after the trade deadline was spent searching for a point guard, the buyout market phase was spent signing a point guard, and during the All-Star break the team gave up announced that Lonzo Ball has been sidelined for the remainder of the 2022-23′ season. The focus of the last two months in Chicago has been finding someone to fill the void Ball has left since his injury in January 2022.
“From everything I’ve been told, they want to fight for the playoffs. YOU TRY IT GET GUARD HELP IN THE TRADE MARKET… THEY WERE ACTIVE I’m trying to get a guard out there.”
Shams Charania until close of trade 2023
Dragic was brought in during free agency and many thought he could provide some of the things that would reveal Ball’s absence, but that wasn’t the case. He wasn’t as good a three-point shooter as the team had hoped, his defensive and facilitation skills waned as the season progressed, and he wasn’t good at anything to keep him up. He hasn’t scored 10 points or more in his last 19 games with the Bulls, and his three-point percentage had dropped to under 23% in the last two months of his tenure with Chicago. With only 42% shooting from the field and only 2.7 assists per match with 1.1 turnovers, the move to Patrick Beverley was essentially a parallel shift, adding defense and aggressive accountability in Dragic’s place.
Dragic is headed for the playoffs
As Chicago grapples with its way into the postseason and hopes are dwindling by the day, it looks like Dragic is heading there with flying colors with his new team. The Milwaukee Bucks have the best record in the NBA at 48-18, including a 9-1 record in their last ten contests. The second-seeded Boston Celtics are concerned things could be a little different with the additions of Jae Crowder and Goran Dragic when the two inevitably clash deep in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
When they last met, the Bucks had no player on their roster and were exposed for having noticeably less depth than the Celtics. Every single bencher for Milwaukee had a negative plus/minus, while all but one of Boston’s bench units had a positive. Boston’s top two benchers are Malcolm Brogdon and Grant Williams, who were +27 combined, with 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the game. If the two sides met in the playoffs, they would now have to deal with the defensively tenacious Crowder and the offensively cunning Dragic, which immediately boosts Milwaukee’s chances.
Chicago holds a 4-3 record against those two teams and will visit Milwaukee for the final matchup between those two in April. Is a Dragic revenge game coming? While Boston’s second unit is still stronger than Milwaukee’s by most reports, the Bucks have made significant improvements to what could be a championship-contesting roster. The Bucks and Celtics currently hold two of the top three odds of winning the NBA championship this season and the top two odds of winning the Eastern Conference Finals.
While Goran Dragic wasn’t in a Bulls uniform for long, he was momentarily a spark off the bench, a veteran leader of some of the younger guards on the roster, and surfaced some real issues Chicago faced early on. In many ways, he roused the team’s responsibility after the awkwardness earlier in the season in Minnesota.
It will be interesting to see if his addition will propel Milwaukee over the top. Boston’s concerns about the veteran guard are rooted in the 20.5 points and 4.7 assists he averaged against them in a 4-2 Miami Series win three postseasons ago. He has averaged at least ten points and 33% or more from three-point territory in each of his last three postseason runs. So don’t be surprised if his production increases in the playoffs.