National Basketball Association

Boston Celtics showing interest in Goran Dragic

Published Feb. 18, 2015 10:46 a.m. ET

foxsports

Are there dragons on the East Coast? There might be soon.

With the trade deadline only a day away, the Phoenix Suns are trying to unload one of their own, Goran Dragic, after Dragic informed the team that he likely won't be extending with it over the summer. From ESPN's Marc Stein:

The Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks are destinations at the top of Dragic's wish list, sources said, with the Miami Heat also in the mix. But sources told ESPN.com that at least three teams Dragic does not have on the list of preferred landing spots furnished to the Suns -- Houston, Sacramento and Boston -- all remain interested in pursuing a trade for him before the deadline, confident that they could sway Dragic to consider them long-term once they get him.

Sources say that the Celtics, in particular, are emerging as a dark-horse contender for Dragic, given the numerous future draft picks Boston president Danny Ainge has amassed in recent months to offer Phoenix as well as his strong relationship with Suns general manager Ryan McDonough.

"Dark-horse" is a key term there.

The Celtics are hardly the favorite to win over the Suns combo guard, who is averaging 16.2 points and 4.1 assists per game this season, but they do have a shot. As Stein reported, Dragic has supplied the Suns with a list of the top teams for whom he would want to play: the Knicks, Lakers and Heat. No Celtics. But Boston apparently doesn't see much of a problem with that. (Neither do the Kings or Rockets.)

Celtics general manager Danny Ainge has draft picks on draft picks to trade. You want assets? He's got them, and it's hard to discount the working relationship between Phoenix and Boston, anyway.

Suns general manager Ryan McDonough, a former assistant GM for Ainge in Boston, has shown a propensity to make deals with his previous colleagues. He worked his way into a three-way deal so that he would snag Eric Bledsoe from Doc Rivers' Clippers a year-and-a-half ago. He snuck away with Reggie Bullock after injecting himself into a trade which would bring Austin Rivers from Boston to LA, a three-way deal made up of former and current Bostonians. He even worked out a swap to bring Brandan Wright over from the Celtics earlier this year.

The Celtics have assets and desire. That's a scary combination for other teams competing for Dragic, even if the star point guard doesn't commit to Boston right away.

Dragic is generally considered one of the more underrated guards in the NBA. That's possibly why the cities on his list of desired destinations are New York, Miami and L.A., ones with major exposure. But Boston is one of the few teams not on the list which can offer comparable lifestyle and stardom.

The seventh-year guard has made it clear he believes himself to be a max player. With the five-year max under next year's projected cap, such a deal would come out to a little under $114 million over that half-decade, considering next year's salary cap expects to rise to about $66 million.

It sounds like a lot of money (and it is), but 2015 will provide us with one of the most financially fascinating offseasons in NBA history, as teams start to adjust to a 2016 cap rise anticipatorily. With new money flowing in from the NBA's freshly-signed nine-year, $24 billion television deal, the yeast-infused cap is expected to pass $80 million. Adjustments will certainly come a year early, and Dragic will be one of the more interesting case studies.