Charlotte Hornets: Boston Celtics to target in NBA free agency

As a part of our series detailing which players the Charlotte Hornets should target in NBA free agency, our attention shifts to the Boston Celtics. The Celtics finished with a 51-31 record, which earned them a 2nd-place finish in the Eastern Conference.

With Boston making their first NBA Finals with their core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams, the ceiling is ultra-high for the C’s in the coming years. With each of those players under contract for next season, this summer is going to be a rather uneventful one for Brad Stevens and company.

Sam Hauser and Juwan Morgan possess the only type of options in the 2022 offseason. Both having club options, Boston could bring these benchwarmers back to fill out a roster. They would provide cheap, team-friendly contracts for a team that should be looking to save money at every turn.

For restricted free agents, Brodric Thomas and Matt Ryan are the pair of prospects. Similarly to Hauser and Morgan, these two were brought in to be cheap options to help supplement the full roster. Neither should be considered in Charlotte’s offseason plans.

The lone unrestricted free agent is Luke Kornet, which means that Boston is five-for-five on uninteresting free agents. Kornet could provide the Hornets with cheap height, but Charlotte should be pursuing a plethora of other options before resorting to Kornet’s services.

For a team in the Finals, Boston has a lot of contractual security. Usually, there are expiring contracts, and the Finals-bound teams get picked cleaned in the subsequent offseason. That will not be the case this year for the C’s. Stevens has set this team up to be successful for quite some time, which means that the Hornets will eventually have to go through Boston if they want to make deep playoff runs in the upcoming years.