Celtics must now turn their attention to trades

Well, that's it folks.  Our cap room is pretty well used up at this point.  They could get really creative to make some more moves, but it seems like our free agent flirtations are over for the year.

The draft and free agency are two of the biggest opportunities to make your team better, in particular if you have multiple draft picks (we did) and cap room (we did).  Those windows of opportunity have now closed.  In the draft the team added a point guard (Terry Rozier), a shooter (R.J. Hunter), an athletic big (Jordan Mickey) and a project guard that won't likely play with the team this year (Marcus Thornton).

Then the team used free agency to bring back two of their own guys (Jae Crowder and Jonas Jerebko) and add one veteran big man from the outside (Amir Johnson).

The Celtics were an overachieving team that gelled together to make a run to the playoffs where they overwhelmed by a superior opponent.  It was clear that the talent needed to be upgraded and Ainge has admitted that the team needs to consolidate the quantity of assets into quality talent.

Right now the jumbled up lineup looks like this:

Guards: Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner, James Young, Terry Rozier, R.J. Hunter

Wings: Jae Crowder, Jonas Jerebko, Gerald Wallace (Turner and Young can play here too)

Bigs: Amir Johnson, Tyler Zeller, Jared Sullinger, Kelly Olynyk, Jordan Mickey

That's a full 15 man roster if you assume Pressey and Babb are both gone.  There also isn't a franchise guy in the bunch and it is still loaded with guys that are borderline starters.

In short, the trades need to begin.  There's plenty of time to make trades, though some opportunities will present themselves in the next couple of weeks as teams make moves to free up cash for free agents and things of that nature.

The Celtics have to be ready to pounce on opportunities and adapt well to changes.  They also have to be patient enough to pass on deals that are obviously not good value.  We might have to roll into the coming year with this roster and hope for the right deal to become available by the trade deadline.  But before we go that far, remember that there's a long offseason ahead of us.

I don't have any more inside information than what can be found on twitter, but it sure feels like the Celtics are set up to make some trades.  We'll just have to see how long we'll have to wait for those deals to start happening.