The Boston Celtics are the reigning NBA champions and 50 games into the 2024-2025 season they boast the third-best record in the NBA at 35-15, currently holding the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. It seems that Boston would have little to complain about. But they slogged through the month of January, going 6-6 from January 5 through January 27. In fact, the team that won 64 games last season and started 16-3 this time around managed just a 16-12 record from December 1 through January 27 before reeling off three wins in a row.
The mediocre stretch served as a reminder that this Celtics team has vulnerabilities, and that becoming the NBA’s first repeat champions since the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018 remains far from a sure thing.
With the same starting five and top three bench players as in their championship season, adding to that mix in any significant way at the trade deadline may seem unnecessary at best, a waste of trade capital at worst. But over the past two months the Celtic made it clear that adding reinforcements cannot hurt and may help.
Celtics May Seek to Reacquire 2016 First-Round Pick
Now, if Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens decides he needs to make a move, it appears that the Celtics reinforcement could arrive in the form of a former Celtic â one who was made a first-round draft pick by Boston nine years ago.
That was 2016 when, Celtics fans will remember, the team had a first-round draft pick acquired from the Brooklyn Nets in a blockbuster trade five years earlier that sent veterans and future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn. That pick came in at No. 3 overall. The Celtics used it to draft forward Jaylen Brown out of California, a player who went on to become an indispensable member of the Celtics championship team.
But Boston had another first-round pick in that draft â the one they earned themselves by winning 48 games and taking the East’s No. 5 seed in the previous season. That pick was the 16th overall.
With that one the Celtics looked overseas to take a player from the Rouen Métropole in France’s Ligue Nationale de Basket â Guerschon Yabusele.
But Yabusele could never find his way into the Celtics rotation, struggling for minutes and averaging barely more than two points per game over two seasons. After the 2017-2018 campaign, Yabusele returned to Europe where he spent five seasons playing in France, Spain and China, as well as for the French national team in the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.
Now Yabusele is back in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers and as the trade deadline of February 6 approaches finds himself at the center of numerous trade rumors. The Celtics are reported to be one of several teams showing interest in the 29-year-old native of Dreux, France.
‘Get Yabusele Back in the Building’
Yabusele is playing for Philadelphia on a $2 million expiring contract, making him a low-risk, half-season rental. His 11 points per game to go with 5.5 rebounds primarily off the bench would make him a valuable add-on to an already strong Celtics second team.
“Get Yabusele back in the building, acclimate him to the team, and let him be the potential dagger in the interior or from beyond the line that closes things out for Boston in pursuit of a 19th world title,” wrote Erik Beaston of Bleacher Report.
Meghan Ottolini of Boston radio station WEEI noted that the Celtics face severe restrictions on trades based on the fact that they are already a “second apron” team, meaning that their payroll exceeds the highest level of the NBA’s salary cap. But she added that Stevens should try anyway.
“If the front office can make the math work, a reunion between Yabusele and the Celtics would be a nice tweak ahead of the All-Star break to fill out the Celticsâ bench,” Ottolini wrote on Tuesday.
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