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Celtics reportedly had their eyes on Houston’s Alperun Sengun in 2021 draft

Don’t look now, but word is the Boston Celtics had their eye on Houston Rockets big man Alperun Sengun in the 2021 NBA draft according to new reporting from Heavy.com’s NBA insider Steve Bulpett.

The Celtics did not have a pick to work with in that draft after having dealt it away as part of the trade that sent veteran point guard Kemba Walker to the Oklahoma City Thunder for old friend Al Horford and Moses Brown to kick off the 2021 NBA offseason. But before that had happened, Boston evidently had had eyes for the Rockets big man as a potential draft prospect.

And in an interesting twist of fate, Houston felt the same and ended up using that pick to trade for Sengun in a draft-night deal via the Thunder.

“Alperen Sengun was the Celts’ guy if they had kept the pick,” wrote Bulpett in a recent piece in which he detailed some thought from an anonymous NBA personnel man who described the Turkish center as “a tough kid”.

“He’s a little raw, but he’s been playing with adults overseas for years. He’s going to be good. Him and (Rob) Williams would be a really good tandem.”

It’s tantalizing to think about what might have been had Boston kept the pick, but events surrounding the late-career arc of Walker has shown is was a prudent move to get off of the UConn product’s contract.

Could the team have found another way to move off of Walker’s deal? Perhaps by including the contract of Marcus Smart, or having the stomach to eat some of that salary in a buyout.

But given Boston’s desire for flexibility with regards to the salary cap, other paths to shedding Walker’s deal were far from certain and came with costs of their own.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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