Celtics 2026 NBA trade deadline grade after 4 deals

The madness of the NBA trade deadline has officially passed, and the Boston Celtics were busy for almost the entirety of the chaos.

To kick things off, they pulled a somewhat surprising move on Tuesday afternoon by dealing guard Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for center Nikola Vucevic. This deal also included a swap of second-round picks, which Boston then put to use on Thursday.

The Celtics packaged the second-rounder they got in the Vucevic trade in their Thursday afternoon deal to send forward Chris Boucher to the Utah Jazz, according to Tony Jones of The Athletic.

Since Utah’s front office is managed by two executives with ties to Boston, including former Celtics general manager Danny Ainge and former Celtics Director of Player Personnel Austin Ainge, it’s no surprise that current Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens approached them at the deadline.

Boston’s work wasn’t done, though. The Celtics then shipped forward Josh Minott to the Brooklyn Nets in a trade that featured no other players or draft picks, per Erik Slater of ClutchPoints.

Lastly, following the end of the deadline at 3 p.m. ET, it was revealed that the Celtics made one last tweak to their roster before the final buzzer. The Green Team traded big man Xavier Tillman Sr. to the Charlotte Hornets, losing another member of their 2024 title team.

So, with the deadline officially over, let’s evaluate the Celtics’ four trades and look into why they were more active than usual around this time of year.

Grading the Celtics’ entire 2026 trade deadline

The Vucevic-Simons swap has already been discussed at length, but it was certainly the most noteworthy move the Celtics made.

They dealt Simons — who was producing on offense while shooting almost 40% from beyond the arc — in order to land more depth at the five spot, something the Celtics desperately needed at the start of the season.

Additionally, this trade saved the C’s around $6 million and helped them get one step closer to ducking the luxury tax. The rest of Boston’s deadline deals got it to the finish line and demonstrated that Stevens and company were committed to regaining financial flexibility.

The Celtics nearly paid the Jazz to take Boucher (who they ended up waiving) and a second-round pick so that they could cut costs. And while such a maneuver would typically be judged as egregious salary dumping, Boucher wasn’t bringing much to the table — and it was later revealed that the C’s acquired 2025 second-round pick John Tonje in the deal, too, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.

Boucher never carved out a role for himself in Boston and averaged just a little over 2 points per outing in nine games. The 33-year-old would much rather spend his playing days actually playing, making this trade beneficial for all parties involved.

As for Minott, his trade also appears to be for tax purposes. The youngster is getting paid a little north of $2.5 million a year and despite a strong start to his Celtics tenure, he eventually fell out of the rotation.

The fact that the Celtics received nothing for trading a 23-year-old player with flashes of real upside shows that Boston’s front office was prioritizing saving over any actual return.

Tillman Sr. was the cherry on top, as losing his contract finally allowed the Celtics to dip under the luxury tax. With this newly acquired flexibility, the C’s can now hit the buyout market, unfreeze their picks, and attempt to avoid the repeater tax as well.