Celtics interested in Damian Lillard, by relationship; Would a deal make sense? – NBC Sports Boston

We have another potential turn of the plot in the low season that alters the Boston Celtics franchise.

The Milwaukee Bucks made the extraordinary decision on Tuesday to give up the All-Star guard Damian Lillard, lengthening 112.6 million dollars remaining on his contract in the next five years to free space to sign myles Turner of Big Manm Myles Turner in Libero Ar.

While Lillard torn Achille’s tendon in the first round of the 2025 playoffs and it is expected that most or the whole 2025-26 season will be missing, several teams are interested in signing nine times all-stars now that it is a free-one agent of which, apparently, Celtics is.

The Celtics, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers are “known to be among the many teams that would be interested in making an agreement (with Lillard) first rather than after”, according to Athletic’s Eric Nehm, Sam Amick and Joe Vardon.

Boston has been busy losing his salary and becoming younger this summer, separating with Jrue Holiday (trade), Kristaps Porzingis (trade) and Luke Kornet (free agency) by acquiring Luka Garza and 22 years old Josh Minott in the free agency.

So why are the Celtics interested in a 34 -year -old veteran who has undergone a devastating injury?

To begin with, the C could actually make the financials work, since Lillard will earn $ 22.5 million a year from the dollars and probably will not require a heavy contract while working behind from his injury.

Assuming that they succeed under the second apron of the luxury taxation, they are beyond that threshold of less than $ 1 million after adding Garza and Minott-I Celtics could give Lillard the minimum veteran in 2025-26 (about 3.6 million dollars), then sign up again under the non-non-unxpayer exception (approximately $ 5.9 million) in 2026-27.

In that scenario, the 2025-26 season would probably be a washing with Celtics Jayson Tatum star also put aside because of a broken Achille. But in 2026-27, Boston could launch a formation with an attractive “Core Four” of Lillard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown and Tatum, with the flexibility of adding support pieces and making another serious race. (If the C is the part of Sam Hauser, they would not have a player who earned more than $ 10 million in 2026-27 outside Tatum, Brown and White.)

This is the case For Sign Lillard, but there is also a strong case against.

While Lillard published impressive statistics for the Bucks last season – 24.9 points and 7.1 assists per game; 37.6 percent rate of 3 points-it will be 36 years old entering the 2026-27 season and will not have played in 18 months assuming that it is missing all the next season. Lillard has lost at least 24 games in three of the last four seasons, so the Celtics would have corrected a great risk in the hope that it is healthy and productive in 2026-27.

The acquisition of Lillard would also give Boston essentially a window of the title of a year with the Lillard-White-Brow-Tro-Tamo-Tamo fourth fourth the Celtics want to put all their eggs in that basket or maintain their flexibility and continue to become younger around Tatum, brown and white?

The first path is at high performance but with high risk, which is why the latter path seems more likely for the president of the Basketball Operations Brad Stevens and the Celtics.