Green Kai goes to fight! Exposed sale of Nian, signing Butcher

Celtics trade Georges Nion to sign Chris Butcher

The Boston Celtics have reportedly reached a one-year minimum contract with forward Chris Butcher.

Rating Rating: A

Celtics reached two related deals today, trading Georges Nion to the Utah Jazz, and winning two second-round picks at the same time in exchange for rookie RJ Louis who signed a two-way contract. Essentially, Butcher will replace Nion into the roster, a move that not only saves about $6 million in salary but also saves more than $30 million in luxury taxes. Since the draft, it took 51 days to sell the Pope God, Holiday Brother, and let Horford go! As a backup striker, Butcher may be better than Nian in ability. I once placed him at No. 22 on this summer’s free agent roster. Currently, only two of the top 25 free agents have not yet signed: Malik Beasley, who is undergoing a federal investigation related to gambling charges, and Al Horford.

With Horford expected to join the Golden State Warriors, the latter will finalize a new contract for restricted free agent Jonathan Cumingga, in which case Butcher is the best player available in reality. Last season, he shot 36% from three-pointers and 63% from two-pointers, showing extremely high efficiency and also showed excellent defensive ability when playing on the wing position in the second team.

In Boston, Boucher is expected to take on the power forward role, helping to open up space for the Celtics' non-shot centers (Nimias Quita and Xavier Tillman) and provide additional rim protection with Luca Galza.

Neon, a Massachusetts native, will not be able to return home, which is indeed a pity, but for Boston, the financial incentive to keep moving forward seems too significant. Combined with the three-team deal, the deal brought Nyan to the Celtics, who have now completely escaped the $30.7 million burden of Christapus Pozigis, at the cost of a second-round draft pick. But they still retained their core double-Tanhua. When Tatum returns from injury, Lu Kai is still the king!

This season, it is entirely possible for Boston to avoid paying luxury taxes. Cutting the remaining $11.7 million salary will require handling another player at the same time, which could be backup forward Sam Hauser ($10 million a year) or Anthony Simmons ($27.7 million a year) in exchange for a lower-paid candidate.