Celtics Mailbag: What can Boston do with Kristaps Porzingis trade exception?

The Celtics are less than two weeks away from the NBA trade deadline and have to feel good about their position in the Eastern Conference as the No. 2 seed. The trade market remains quiet for now as teams around the league wait for bigger dominoes (Giannis Antetokounmpo?) to fall before making other moves. Let’s answer a couple of questions on what options the Celtics will be weighing as deadline day approaches in this week’s mailbag.

Hey B Robb besides a big, who are quality potential adds for the Celtics this year? — Carlo C

It’s a fascinating question to think about what else the Celtics might be looking for in the next two weeks beyond a big. One area to keep in mind would certainly be picking up another ball handler in the event that Anfernee Simons is moved for a big. Jayson Tatum returning will help on this front but Boston’s backcourt suddenly gets pretty shallow if Simons is dealt (especially since he’s played every game this year). The Hugo Gonzalez playing point experiment has not gone great this year in very few opportunities so shoring up that spot in the aftermath of a trade should be a priority.

Boston could go bargain basement hunting since any acquisition here would probably only be needed in the event of an injury to Derrick White or Payton Pritchard. Luckily for Boston, those guys are probably the most durable players on the roster. With Boston deep in the repeater tax, any non-big additions will likely be of the veteran’s minimum variety or potentially via the buyout market depending on who shakes loose there.

Do the Celtics own a trade exception from the Kristaps Porzingis deal? Any chance that gets used at the deadline? Does it expire at year end?

The Celtics do own a sizable trade exception from the Kristaps Porzingis trade that is worth $22 million and is good through July 7 (one year from the trade being official). There is a pretty important caveat with this trade exception though and it involves where the Celtics are in relation to the second apron.

Brad Stevens spent his entire offseason ensuring Boston was able to duck below the second apron and the team currently sits $7.8 million under that mark. Needless to say, the Celtics will not be going back over that second apron this year for the basketball and financial penalties involved.

So what does that mean for the Porzingis exception? The Celtics won’t use it to absorb a big contract unless they are also sending one out as well (Anfernee Simons in all likelihood). Otherwise, this trade exception would be much more likely to be used this offseason to absorb a bigger contract in July once Simons’ deal expires.

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Boston also has a number of smaller trade exceptions at their disposal (Georges Niang, Jrue Holiday) worth between $4 and 8 million each, so those could be used for a smaller contract while keeping the Porzingis exception intact for the summer.

Ultimately, I think the odds at this point are that this exception goes unused at the trade deadline unless the Celtics move Simons. In that situation, they could make a bigger TPE with Simons contract ($27.6 million) and reset the clock on using that for a year, giving them the ability to have a usable big TPE up until next year’s trade deadline.

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