Celtics Reportedly Offering Up Aron Baynes To Clear Cap Space
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The great veteran exodus continues out of Boston. With the NBA Draft here, the Celtics are reportedly looking to deal veteran center Aron Baynes to clear up some cap space.
The C's are offering up Baynes and his $5.4 million contract to teams looking to add a small amount of salary, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The Celtics would like to shed Baynes' contract without taking on any in return, which would give them $23 million in cap space this offseason.
Though Baynes picked up his player option for next season just last week, quite a bit has changed over the last seven days. Kyrie Irving appears destined for Brooklyn (or, gulp, Los Angeles) and news of Al Horford looking to sign elsewhere shocked everyone on Tuesday night. Without that veteran core, Baynes becomes pretty expendable for the rebuilding Celtics. Baynes is a gritty defender and a much-needed presence on a contender, but cap space is a lot more important to the Celtics at the moment.
If the Boston Celtics can trade Aron Baynes without taking any salary back, and then renounce all of their FAs, they should have enough space to make a max offer to a 7-9 years of service player with a starting salary of just under $33M for 2019-29.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 20, 2019
Someone please check on Tommy Heinsohn. He's gonna be pretty miffed if the Celtics trade away all of Australia.