There really is no telling how far the Boston Celtics could go in these playoffs. Sure, it's already been a bit of a bumpy ride, but there's a lot to like about this team's prospects as it currently stands. However, if they have the chance to get better, they would certainly take it, and apparently Kevin Durant is on their radar.
The Ringer's Michael Pina named the Celtics among the teams that will have interest in Durant should the Houston Rockets look to trade him.
"The Heat, Timberwolves, Blazers, Mavericks, Pistons, Knicks, Raptors, Hawks, Magic, Lakers, Nuggets, Hornets, Bulls, Wizards, Warriors, Pacers, Jazz, Sixers, Celtics, Cavaliers, Bucks, and Clippers would all have varying degrees of interest—pending how the rest of these playoffs go."
If Durant is even put on the market, time will tell as to whether their interest is legitimate. Since Brad Stevens took over, Boston has consistently been pretty tight-lipped when it comes to revealing who they want to go after. At the same time, he has also shown himself to never be afraid of making trades that may not sit well with fans, even if it's what's best for the team.
However, the Celtics have previously chased Durant and came pretty close to landing him in his prime in 2016. In the end, Durant chose the easy way out and joined Golden State. At 37 years old, Durant isn't the player he used to be, but he is impressively still one of the NBA's premier scorers. He's gone from arguably one of the top players in the league to more in the top 10.
Warts and all, it would be awesome to see him in a Celtics uniform, as he could vault Boston to the most unstoppable team in the league (which sounds oddly familiar). The only problem would be how exactly Boston would make it work.
As far as how they would make it work is anyone's guess
If Boston is serious about Durant, three Celtics should be off limits (and this should be a given): Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White. Yes, they absolutely can add Durant without dangling any of those three, but it would be difficult to see how Houston would agree to a trade with those three off the table.
They would first have to match contracts to acquire Durant, which is actually possible without the three aforementioned players, but only if they use the Anfernee Simons TPE. Boston can absorb $27.7 million in contracts, which they could use on expendable players like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and/or D'Angelo Russell.
Durant will make almost $44 million next season, so if they were to acquire said $27.7 million, that would still leave them with $17 million. Much of that could be covered by the near-$11 million they owe to Sam Hauser, but they would then have to include other players to match the contracts.
That is doable, but the other contingency is whether that would be the best offer the Rockets could getr for Durant. As previously stated, he still is among the NBA's best players even if he's not at the tippy top like he was before.
Because of that, teams probably have better draft assets and/or young players than Boston does to make a deal happen. One last thing about Stevens: if he has his eye on someone, he makes a deal happen. So regardless of how low the odds are, if Stevens thinks he can pull a trade like this off, he typically can.
And as long as it means Durant joins forces with the Celtics' star trio, Boston should be all for it.