The Golden State Warriors has snagged the biggest prize from the NBA free agency, Kevin Durant. Boston was also interested in him but is said to be eyeing Russel Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Rumors have surfaced that Westbrook will not be extending or renegotiating his contract with OKC. The 27-year-old point guard has one year left on his contract with the Thunder and may open him up for trade rather than wait and lose more when he is in free agency. Celtics may grab this opportunity to have a stronger line-up next season, Sportsrageous reported.
If the Celtics will be able to acquire Westbrook, they may have the NBA star they have been looking for for a time now. Adding Jimmy Butler and Jahlil Okafor, they may pull the team back to title contention. Al Horford is already onboard after signing a US$113 million contract.
Butler of the Chicago Bulls and Okafor of the 76ers are also options for the Celtics. Chicago is still open to trading if the Celtics will agree to their price. However, getting them is not as easy as a draft night so Boston needs to try harder this time, Celtics Blog reported.
After Derrick Rose left the team, Butler took the position as the alpha male, but Chicago has signed up Rajon Rondo, another alpha male. Rondo is known to have 11.9 assists per game, but it is also known that the point-guard will only pass the ball when the recipient is wide open and won't initiate or setup a play. This situation may help Butler to decide in just leaving the team.
There is still a big amount of time for Celtics to decide. They can try to be patient and hope that the other teams will lower their asking price for the trades, or another team may offer another deal that will be too good to pass up on.
