Celtics Reportedly Trying to Trade Up for Lottery Pick After Porzingis, Holiday Deals
If you thought the Boston Celtics were done wheeling and dealing after getting under the second apron by trading away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis, well, think again.
According to Steve Bulpett of Heavy, the Celtics reportedly "are said to be trying to make a trade to move up in the draft, with particular interest in projected lottery pick Kasparas Jakučionis."
The Illinois guard is currently projected to go No. 13 overall to the Atlanta Hawks, per B/R's Jonathan Wasserman, while The Athletic's Sam Vecenie had him off the board to the Brooklyn Nets at No. 8 and ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo projected him to go to the Chicago Bulls at No. 12.
The Celtics currently hold the No. 28 pick in Wednesday's first round, so if they indeed want to get into the lottery, they'll have to pay a significant price to do so.
"It remains to be seen whether Boston can get up where they'd need to be to draft him, but there are definitely teams up high that are looking to trade back," a front office source told Bulpett. "The question is how far back those teams are willing to go and what Boston is willing to offer to get them to do it."
It would make sense for the Celtics to prioritize the addition of young talent, however. The team severely depleted itself for next season by trading away Holiday and Porziņģis, and it's possible that Jayson Tatum will miss the entire season with a torn Achilles. There will be minutes to be had on this roster, in other words, and developing some young and cheap talent in a lost season—at least from a title-contention perspective—would make sense.
The Celtics are pretty clearly building around the trio of Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White going forward—barring a stunning trade that moves either Brown or White—but in the 2026-27 season alone that trio will account for $150 million of the team's payroll.
That doesn't make it easy to fill out the depth chart and remain under the second apron, unless you are able to add a few contributors on cheap rookie contracts (alongside the usual collection of veterans on minimum, or manageable, deals).
Whether Boston can get all the way up to the lottery is questionable, but it would hardly be surprising if the team made a move or two at the draft as they look to improve their long-term depth.
