The Boston Celtics aren’t exactly the Washington Wizards this year, but they have hit some tough sledding of late.

Following Boston’s 119-115 overtime heartbreaker to the Atlanta Hawks, the team has fallen to an 8-7 record across its last 15 contests, and a still-good 29-13 record on the year.

In 2023-24 en route to the NBA Finals, Boston went 64-18 last season and sported the best record in the Eastern Conference by 14 games. This year’s model will be hard-pressed to catch the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have only lost six of their first 41 contests.

The Celtics as a team have struggled with their 3-point shooting for the past several weeks, while their All-Defensive guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are looking worse for wear after a long postseason and their run in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Should the club pursue an actual, significant trade to shake up its veteran personnel a bit?

Due to serious CBA restrictions, guard Jaden Springer is probably the likeliest player to be moved for the capped-out Celtics.

But if team president Brad Stevens is feeling risky and looking to spice things up amidst an uncharacteristically lackluster recent run, there are some bigger fish he could offload.

The second tax apron is incredibly punitive when it comes to dealmaking, so from the Celtics’ perspective, the easiest moves for trading non-minimum salaries would be trades where incoming and outgoing contracts match.

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With Kristaps Porzingis missing of the year so far with various maladies, Porzingis’ nominal backup Al Horford has actually started 25 of his 33 healthy contests.

He remains a solid two-way player.

Al Horford blocks Bruce Brown pic.twitter.com/a6J4bojKUN

— Danielle Hobeika (@DanielleHobeika) January 16, 2025

Horford remains a solid role player even in his dotage, but there’s no question the Celtics will at some point need to find a younger model during the prime of All-Star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

The former five-time All-Star, now the club’s sixth man, turns 39 this summer, after the end of his 18th season. The 6-foot-9 vet is currently on the second season of a two-year, $19.5 million deal. Perhaps he could be moved for a longer-term solution at the five spot behind Porzingis, or affordable defensive wing help.

Or maybe Stevens will just replace him this summer.

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Kristaps Porzingis

This would be a big pivot.

Stevens took a major swing in the summer of 2023 when he traded to acquire Porzingis. A talented two-way big man who can nail a deep jumper and block shots with equal aplomb, the 7-foot-2 former All-Star was a massive risk given his lengthy injury history.

And, indeed, he played just 57 games last season, and missed most of the playoffs. When available and healthy, he was a forced to be reckoned with for opposing centers.

This year has been much the same — when available, Porzingis has been great.

But he also hasn’t been very available, appearing in just 18 contests so far this year.

He sat out the Hawks game. He’s averaging 18.8 points on .465/.381/.831 shooting splits, 7.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 0.7 steals a night.

Porzingis is in the first season of a two-year, $60 million contract extension he inked with the Celtics in 2023. It’s an agreeable price for a talented big man, but moving on from him would be a major sea change. Then again, will he ever be healthy enough to survive an entire playoff run for a team looking to win multiple titles?

White and Jrue Holiday were critical parts of Boston’s NBA Finals push last year, but both seem to be a bit gassed at this stage of the new season. White had looked like a borderline All-Star to kick off 2024-25, but has since regressed a bit. He’s younger and more affordable than Holiday, but moving off him would be risky, given his two-way upside when he’s healthy.

That’s TWO threes for Derrick White in overtime pic.twitter.com/kORKeGNxea

— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) January 19, 2025

In 39 contests this year, the 6-foot-4 Colorado product is averaging 16.1 points while slashing .432/.372/.825, 4.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

In his last five healthy games prior to the Hawks bout (he had 21 points on 7-of-20 shooting from the floor and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line), White posted paltry averages of 7.6 points on .271/.139/.778 shooting splits, 2.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.0 steals in 29.4 minutes a night.