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The young and flexible Boston Celtics are potentially on their way to be younger and flexible-r. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the Celtics are offering Aron Baynes to teams in order to create more cap space:
Boston has offered center Aron Baynes -- $5.4M expiring contract -- into salary cap space elsewhere, league sources tell ESPN. Without Kyrie Irving and Al Horford on the books, moving Baynes without taking back salary could get the Celtics to $23M in space.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2019
This comes in light of the news that Al Horford is looking elsewhere for a deal this summer. Baynes opted into his $5.4M player option last week with the expectation that he wouldn’t immediately be traded this summer. After the Horford news, it’s possible that Baynes changed his mind so that he could compete for a different team this year as the Celtics dive headfirst into the youth movement.
The Celtics will likely operate as a cap space-oriented team this summer. This also likely won’t last long, as they’ll be facing a Jaylen Brown extension offer this Fall with Jayson Tatum being eligible the next year along with Gordon Hayward’s existing deal. Boston can open $23M in cap space this year after trading Baynes with Horford and Irving’s free agent rights renounced and potentially more if the team gets creative with their 3 first round draft pick selections and depending on what free agents Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier do.
If the Boston Celtics can trade Aron Baynes without taking any salary back, and then renounce all of their FAs, they should have enough space to make a max offer to a 7-9 years of service player with a starting salary of just under $33M for 2019-29.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 20, 2019
In short, things are about to get wild one way or another.