Boston Celtics Looking to Move Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley

By Noriel See, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, July 06, 2017

The Boston Celtics finally hit the jackpot when Gordon Hayward agreed to sign a four-year, $128-million deal with them. But in order to make room for the All-Star forward, the team will have to find ways to shed salary and they will have to let go of some of their key players to do so.

The Celtics have already opened up some salary cap room by withdrawing their qualifying offer to Kelly Olynyk, thus making him an unrestricted free agent. But he won't be the only one who's leaving this offseason.

ESPN has reported that the Celtics have placed Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley on the trading block in a move to create more salary cap space for Hayward's salary.

"The Celtics have to make a complicated series of moves to create enough space to sign Hayward to the full max. But because the salary cap did not rise as much as projected, they likely will have to trade one or more of those three players to sign Hayward. Sources told ESPN that Boston has discussed trade concepts involving Smart, Crowder and Bradley with at least half a dozen teams on Wednesday," Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski wrote in their report for ESPN.

According to the report, the Celtics and the Jazz have been discussing a potential sign-and-trade deal that will send Crowder to Utah for Hayward.

The Celtics have Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum on the roster, so the impact of losing Crowder will not be that bad.

This should be beneficial for both sides. The Jazz will get something back for Hayward and the Celtics can move Crowder's contract to free up cap space.

However, Hayward will have to agree to do a sign-and-trade first before they can work on the deal. The All-Star forward has a good relationship with the Jazz, though, so that shouldn't be a problem.