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The Boston Celtics have finally upgraded at center by trading guard Anfernee Simons and a second-round pick to the Chicago Bulls for big man Nikola Vucevic and a second-round pick, per multiple reports.
The NBA trade deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.
The Celtics needed some more frontcourt depth despite the positive contributions they’ve received from Neemias Queta and Luka Garza this season.
Vucevic adds plenty of size (6-foot-9, 260 pounds), rebounding and outside shooting to Boston’s lineup. The veteran center averaged 16.9 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, while shooting 37.6 percent from 3-point range in 48 games for the Bulls this season.
There are plenty of salary implications to this deal, too. Let’s go through a few of them.
Updated payroll and tax savings
Trading Simons and his $27.7 million salary and taking on Vucevic and his $21.5 million salary is enough to get the Celtics under first apron and puts them about $6 million away from getting under the luxury tax, per Spotrac’s Keith Smith.
Roster flexibility
As ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted on X, Boston’s tax bill drops from $39.5 million to $17 million as a result of this trade. It also allows them to sign a waived/bought out player whose previous salary exceeded $14.1 million.
Under the CBA rules, teams above the first apron can’t sign waived players whose pre-waiver salary exceeded the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is $14.1 million for the 2025-26 season. Now that this restriction is lifted, the Celtics will have more flexibility in the buyout market if a player they like is available.
The Celtics also will create a large traded player exception (TPE) in this deal, per Smith. TPE’s last for one year.
Will C’s extend Vucevic?
Vucevic, like Simons, is on an expiring contract and can become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Celtics extend Vucevic at some point, but a lot of that will probably depend on how he fits with the team over the next few months. Vucevic appears to be a pretty good fit on paper, but you don’t really know until you see it on the court.
Vucevic is 35 years old but has proven he’s still an effective player.
If the Celtics don’t work out a new deal with Vucevic before the summer, they’d have to go into free agency (or maybe the trade market) to find more frontcourt depth.