It seems like former All-Star center David Lee is again on the trade market as reports say the Boston Celtics are open to trading him with his expiring contract this season.
In a report by David Aldridge of the National Basketball Association (NBA) he wrote, "The Celtics have been very solid, but Coach Brad Stevens has a minutes problem, as evidenced by the lack of time for David Lee — whose expiring contract is available, per league sources."
Lee joined the Celtics via trade deal during the offseason from the Golden State Warriors who are the reigning champions.
Last season with the Warriors, Lee played a lesser role as the "small ball" style of play brought success to the team which later led to the NBA title.
Because of Lee's great relationship with the Warriors, they promised to trade him to a team where he can have a much bigger role.
That is why the 32-year-old center ended with Boston, where he started to emerge in the preseason but in the regular season again saw limited playing time averaging 7.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in so far a career-worst 15.8 minutes of action per contest.
The Celtics are filled with talented young big men and that might be the reason why Lee is finding it hard to land significant playing minutes despite his skills.
Basketballinsiders.com suggested in its report that Lee's expiring $15.493 million contract can get the Celtics something of value if they decide to deal it away.
NBC Sports said Lee provides great passing for a big man if ever he gets traded, but it is hard for the Celtics to deal him because teams "will have trouble aggregating enough salary to satisfy the league's trade-matching rules without including players more valuable than Lee."
It is uncertain what the future holds for Lee, but if he is searching for a bigger role, the Celtics is currently not the team for him as it is evident with the playing time he is getting.
