By Patrick Whalen

The day that most NBA fans had been anticipating over the last month has finally happened, Jimmy Butler has requested a trade from the Timberwolves. Now before the Boston media restarts, all the Butler to the Celtics rumors he has put out a list of three teams he wants to be traded to and the Celtics are not featured on the list. The 3 teams Butler named were the Clippers, Nets, and Knicks. According Woj Butler would prefer to go to the Clippers and join a second star in the offseason.

If the Celtics were even on the list it would still take probably at least Jaylen Brown and a high first-round pick at the minimum to acquire Butler if not more. In my opinion, it probably would take the Kings 2019 first round pick, Jaylen Brown, and either Terry Rozier or Marcus Smart which many can agree is too much for the Celtics to give up. Besides shaking up the team chemistry the Celtics would also have a big decision at seasons end to make by either giving Butler or Kyrie Irving a new max deal. Also, any deal that features multiple Celtics players would weaken a very strong bench unit for the Celtics, especially if the deal features a Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, or Marcus Morris.

But how does this affect the Celtics if Butler isn’t coming to Boston? Well, if Woj’s report is correct and Butler would prefer going to the Clippers than the supposed rumors of a potential Kyrie and Butler teaming up on the Knicks would be dead. If Butler gets dealt to the Clippers the Knicks would not have the resources to attract Irving away from Boston unless they were able to sign another star from the loaded 2019 free agent class. But the Knicks are a very young team that is not ready to compete with the Celtics, Sixers, and Raptors in the east this year and could only become competitive with the addition of multiple stars and a healthy Kristaps Porzingis. So now if Butler goes west a Kyrie departure to the Knicks is much less likely.

Now a departure to the Clippers is not out of the picture for Kyrie if he is seriously considering teaming up with Butler but if he sadly leaves for the western conference at least the Celtics would not have to deal with a new young team improving in the east. I still believe that Irving will ultimately return to the Celtics seeing how they’ll have a full year out of Gordon Hayward this year and a more mature Tatum, Brown, and Rozier to help show what this team’s full potential really is. I think as long as the Celtics make the finals Irving returns no questions asked and getting to the finals is very possible seeing how they were 5 minutes away last year without Irving or Hayward. Also, another factor in Irving returning could be if Kawhi Lenord chooses to leave Toronto in free agency for a Los Angles team like he had originally requested for in a trade. If Kawhi does jump ship to the western conference Irving should see that the Celtics only legitimate threat in the east would be the Sixers and see that the Celtics could go on a streak like the Cavs did making it to four straight finals out of a weak eastern conference. Plus if the Celtics are able to get the Kings 2019 first round pick, which they receive as long as the Kings pick isn’t 1st overall, they could add another young star to a roster that already features Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams.