In my favorite yearly tradition, the Boston Celtics are involved in trade rumors that almost certainly will not happen.
This time, the trade speculation comes to us about two of the team’s stashed draft picks from a year ago. Following via Sean Deveney of Sporting News:
The assets being overlooked in discussing potential Celtics deals, though, are the draft-and-stash players the Celtics selected last year when they had three first-rounders and three second-rounders. As much as the Celtics’ trove of picks in the next two years, NBA sources said, it is those players who are attracting pre-deadline attention.
“They did a nice job of getting guys they could develop, and if you know you can’t get the big picks they have this year or next year, the players they took last year, that is where you can get a lot of value,” one general manager told Sporting News.
Those players are, of course, Ante Zizic and Guerschon Yabusele. If you’re wondering who they are, you’re not the only one. Yabusele is a Frenchman picked 16th overall last summer and currently playing in China. Zizic, the more well-known and promising prospect is a Croatian picked number 23 overall. He is currently playing in Turkey under former Cavs head coach David Blatt.
Consider me skeptical about this report in general. Zizic and Yabusele are fine players, I’m sure, and some teams may be interested in seeing how they develop but I don’t see anybody clamoring to trade for them. The Celtics are notorious for leaking trade speculation to the media to try to drum up more interest; if I had to make a wager, I would say this is a similar situation.
That said, a team engaged with the Celtics in trade talks could try to negotiate to get either of those players. But Ante Zizic and Guerschon Yabusele are not more valuable than one of the bevy of first round picks the Celtics can trade.
