O’Connor: Celtics ‘among the teams with interest in pursuing a deal for Beal’

With the 2021 NBA trade deadline firmly in the league’s rear-view mirror, you might think trade chatter is finally about to die down for a while, and by and large you would be right.

But some teams have already trained their eyes on making some big splashes in the future — some, the Boston Celtics likely among them, as soon as this coming offseason. With no big blockbuster of a trade coming at this year’s deadline, many Celtics fans were disappointed. But while there were no fireworks to be had, there was a retention of first-round draft picks the team will need to land any such target.

And The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor believes Boston is already scheming to pry a certain player loose from their current team.

That would of course be Washington Wizards guard and lifetime friend of Jayson Tatum Bradley Beal, who has long been loyal -- perhaps to a fault -- to his current organization. Should that change, expect the Celtics to be in the thick of things, perhaps even with an advantage should Beal wish to team up with Tatum by using the same sort of leverage Anthony Davis did to get himself to the Los Angeles Lakers. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1376566542155063305?s=20

To the surprise of virtually no one, O'Connor reports he's heard from multiple league sources that Boston is among clubs "with interest in pursuing a deal for Beal." While for now the focus should remain squarely on the present for this team, you have to imagine the front office has already had extensive internal discussions about how to make this prospective deal a reality. https://embed.sendtonews.com/oembed/?SC=0zPIYk2ih2-1222620-8380&autoplay=on&V=2&format=json [lawrence-related id=48433,48431,48427,48397] [listicle id=48412]

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