Celtics May Flip Anfernee Simons To Free Up Room For Two Key Stars
The Boston Celtics' whirlwind offseason may not be finished just yet. After trading away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to clear salary and reshape the roster, Boston is reportedly exploring yet another cost-cutting move, this time centered on newly acquired guard Anfernee Simons.
Advertisement
Simons arrived in Boston as part of the Holiday trade with Portland. But despite his undeniable scoring ability and smooth offensive game, league sources told The Athletic's Jay King that the Celtics are considering flipping Simons and his $27.7 million expiring contract. The motive is clear: financial flexibility.
President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens wants to re-sign key veterans Luke Kornet and Al Horford while positioning the team below the luxury tax threshold. That's a tall order, even after the Holiday and Porzingis deals, and Simons' sizable expiring deal is an obvious lever to pull.
While Simons averaged 19.3 points and 4.8 assists on 36.3 percent shooting from three last season, his long-term fit in Boston's system under Joe Mazzulla was already in question.
He's best with the ball in his hands, and with Derrick White entrenched as the starting point guard and Jaylen Brown expected to take on even more creation duties while Jayson Tatum recovers from a torn Achilles, Simons could find himself the odd man out.
Advertisement
He has value as a score-first guard with deep shooting range, but his defensive limitations and need for usage make him a tough fit in Boston's defense-first identity.
More importantly, his expiring contract is one of the last big trade chips the Celtics hold. Stevens is laser-focused on avoiding the repeater tax, which penalizes teams that exceed the luxury tax in consecutive years.
Boston currently sits roughly $15 million over the tax line, and trimming that would not only allow them to avoid the financial penalties but also hit the NBA's 'reset' button.
Escaping the tax for two straight years wipes the repeater status, granting teams more flexibility in future seasons. That flexibility could prove crucial once Tatum returns and Boston decides how to maneuver around his upcoming supermax deal and maintain its core.
Advertisement
Veterans like Kornet and Horford are also part of the equation. Stevens called them 'huge parts of this organization' after the draft, making it clear that keeping them is a priority.
But to do so while staying under the tax, moving Simons might be the only way. Sam Hauser's name has surfaced as another possible trade chip, but the Celtics reportedly prefer to keep him due to his elite shooting and low cap hit.
Boston already shocked the league by unloading two of their starters just a year after winning a title. But the front office is embracing a long-term view. Tatum's injury gives them a window to regroup financially, and Simons' $27.7 million could be the key to unlocking it, just after saving $260 million in two trades.
While he may never suit up in green, Simons could end up playing a major role in helping Boston retain its core and preserve its flexibility for a more competitive return in 2026.
Related: Celtics Shut Down Jaylen Brown, Derrick White Trade Rumors With Strong Statement
This story was originally reported by Fadeaway World on Jun 28, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
24 minutes ago
- Washington Post
What does Trump's tax law mean for your health insurance?
RFK Jr. has big plans for your food. Here are the facts. May 2, 2025
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Opinion: How the Trump tax cut law will hurt the working class
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said it was 'agonizing' to vote for the tax cut bill President Trump signed on July 4. As details of the legislation come into focus, it's obvious why it might cause heartburn even for Republicans who passed it, with no Democratic votes. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as the law is clumsily known, will literally make the rich better off and the poor worse off. Some conservatives who want to pare the 'welfare state' may not care. But imposing austerity on millions of working-class voters is a stunning political risk for a party that is supposedly following President Trump's populist instincts. The law has two main elements. The first is a sweeping series of tax cuts and tax cut extensions that will generally benefit everybody but add trillions of dollars to the national debt. The second is a set of benefit cuts that are meant to reduce the overall cost of the bill. Those will hit working-class Americans and make the net effect of the bill punishing to them. The biggest part of the OBBBA is an extension of the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017. Those were due to expire at the end of this year. The OBBBA makes the current individual income tax rates permanent. Those are not 'tax cuts' per se, since tax rates will be the same in future years as they are in 2025. But the law does prevent what would have been a de facto tax hike if the 2017 rates expired and the higher 2016 rates went back into effect. The law also includes some new tax breaks, such as the elimination of tax on income from tips and overtime pay, up to certain limits. There's also a new tax break for some seniors and a much higher cap for deducting state and local taxes, which will mostly benefit wealthy homeowners who itemize deductions on their tax returns. The tax provisions generally benefit everybody, but the wealthy will gain the most. The average savings for all taxpayers will be about $2,900, compared with what the tax bill would have been if current rates expired, according to the Tax Policy Center. Those with incomes above $1 million would save nearly $60,000 on average. But the savings for workers with incomes below $30,000 would be less than $200 per year. Those provisions, at least, do no harm to most taxpayers. But the harm arrives when factoring in cuts to Medicaid, subsidies for people to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, and food aid known as SNAP. The healthcare cutbacks will leave an additional 16 million people without coverage by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Cutbacks to the SNAP program could reduce or eliminate food aid going to 22 million families, according to the Urban Institute. Those changes will leave millions of Americans worse off. When accounting for the tax changes and benefit cuts combined, people in the lowest income quintile, with incomes below $13,500, will lose an average of $600 per year, according to the Yale Budget Lab. The next quintile will lose $65 per year. The healthcare and food aid cuts will have little impact on top earners, for obvious reasons. The top quintile will gain $6,500 in after-tax savings from all of the law's provisions, while the top 1% will net more than $30,000. This is what economists call a 'regressive' policy change because the economic burden falls more heavily on those with lower incomes. 'The bill has four overriding characteristics,' Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center wrote recently. 'It is regressive, expensive, complicated, and it treats people who make roughly the same amount of money in very different ways.'Tax cut defenders often point out that the wealthy typically get the biggest tax cuts because they pay the most taxes in the first place. That's generally true. But the wealthy are a distinct minority, which means a regressive law such as the OBBBA dis-serves millions of voters, and possibly a majority of them. The bottom two income quintiles, for instance, include roughly 92 million taxpaying units, whether singles, married couples, or other designations. There are only 26 million taxpaying units in the top quintile. Maybe that's what Murkowski found so agonizing. 'Do I like this bill? No,' she told a reporter on July 2. 'I know in many parts of the country there are Americans that are not going to be advantaged by this bill.' Trump can point to working-class provisions such as the elimination of taxes on tip income and overtime pay, with limitations based on the type of work and the amount of income. Some workers will in fact benefit from those carve-outs. But tax analysts argue that favoring certain types of work in that manner violates the principle of 'horizontal equity,' the idea that similar incomes should be taxed in similar ways. To use the example of a restaurant, a waiter earning tip income would get a tax break that a cook paid hourly would not. That distorts the tax code, creates incentives to cheat, and generates legitimate grievances among the unlucky workers not gifted a tax break. The OBBBA is already unpopular, with 64% of Americans disapproving and just 35% approving, in one poll. The real vote will come in the 2026 midterm elections, when Americans will express whether they feel better off or worse off under unified Republican control of government. Getting Americans to like this law might be a more agonizing ideal than passing it. Rick Newman is a senior columnist for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Bluesky and X: @rickjnewman. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices.
Forbes
26 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Most Important Packers: No. 10 — Tucker Kraft
Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) was a Pro Bowl alternate last season. The Green Bay Packers went 11-6 last season, sweeping the NFC West and the AFC South along the way. Overall, though, no one in the building was happy. The Packers failed to build on their terrific finish to the 2023 campaign, settled for the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs, and lost a Wild Card game to eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia. Afterwards, general manager Brian Gutekunst turned up the heat on everybody in the building. 'We need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency,' Gutekunst said. 'I think it's time we started competing for championships.' Those are fair expectations. The Packers return 20 of 22 starters, and appear to have upgraded the roster via free agency and the draft. With several third and fourth year players trending upward, Green Bay should be poised to make a move. 'I think they're ready,' Gutekunst said. Now, it's time for the Packers to prove their G.M. right. Green Bay's first training camp practice is July 23. Between now and then I will count down the '30 Most Important Packers' heading into the 2025 campaign. At No. 10 is tight end Tucker 10 Tucker Kraft, TE Last season Kraft was a Pro Bowl alternate after starting all 17 games and finishing second on the team in receptions (50) and yards (707). Kraft also led the Packers with seven receiving touchdowns. Kraft became just the fourth tight end since 2000 to have 80-plus catches, 1,000-plus receiving yards and average at least 13.0 yards per reception in his first two seasons. The others were New England Rob Gronkowski, San Diego's Hunter Henry and Baltimore's Mark Andrews. Kraft's 707 receiving yards last year were also the most by a Packer tight end since Jermichael Finley (767) in 2011. Kraft's average of 9.1 yards after the catch was also tops among all NFL tight ends and the second-best mark since 2000, trailing only San Francisco's George Kittle (9.9) in to date Kraft, a third round draft pick from South Dakota State in 2023, looked lost much of his rookie season. Kraft took off, though, after a kidney injury to Luke Musgrave in Week 11 of 2023 and finished the year with 355 receiving yards. That was the second-most in franchise history by a rookie tight end, trailing only Bubba Franks (363 in 2000). Kraft also finished with 31 catches in 2023, which was third in team history among rookie tight ends behind only Franks and Musgrave (both 34). Kraft didn't have his first reception of his rookie season until Week 4. In his last eight games of that year, though, Kraft had 29 catches for 321 yards and two touchdowns. 'A lot of it for him at the beginning was just assignment stuff, lining up in the right spot, getting off on the right snap count, blocking the right guy and then after that, like using good technique and all that stuff,' Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said of Kraft. 'So he was a little behind from that aspect, as far as the fundamental core issues that you have. Kraft ran the 40-yard dash in a respectable 4.73 coming out of SDSU. He also tied for the most bench press reps of 225 pounds (23) among the tight end group at the 2023 NFL Many expected Kraft and 2023 second round draft pick Luke Musgrave to split time last season. Instead, Kraft left Musgrave in the dust during training camp and established himself as Green Bay's No. 1 tight end. Kraft played 85.33% of the Packers' snaps, while the oft-injured Musgrave played just 13.38% of the snaps. Now, the question is how does Kraft move from good to great? Kraft is a tireless worker who wants to win as badly as anyone in the building. He's also developed into a leader rather quickly. Jermichael Finley holds the Packers' record for most receptions by a tight end in a single season (61) and Paul Coffman holds the mark for receiving yards in a season (814). Don't be surprised if Kraft surpasses both of those numbers this Said It … 'The great thing about Tuck is he'll do whatever you ask him and he's working his tail off to be a complete player, so you can get him the ball in different ways, whether that's route running, different types of routes, where you put him. Obviously that's our job to put him in those spots and he works his tail off to when he does get in those spots to do something with the ball.' — Packers tight ends coach John Dunn on Kraft'One thing we spent some time on this offseason is just kind of where we can get him to take the next step and I think just his route-running ability, getting him on more individual things like that, and just kind of growing him there. I think he did a really good job in the run game. That's one thing that hopefully he can keep improving there to be a dominant player up front. Just trying to find different ways to give him the ball, that's gonna be the big thing for us.' — Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich on Kraft'One thing I feel like I could've done better is separate in man-to-man. Most of my game was check downs underneath and my yards after catch ability, so I'm looking to put it all together. I'm looking to have every resource I need based off the repetitions I've gotten over and over and over this offseason. Last offseason, I had a torn pec. I didn't get a chance to have an opportunity to do any of this, so really being able to apply my technique and stack reps, coverages and schemes and fronts, I just got a much better feel of the game this offseason.' — Kraft on improving this seasonTHE TOP 30 • No. 30 — RB MarShawn Lloyd • No. 29 — WR Dontayvion Wicks • No. 28 — S Javon Bullard • No. 27 — WR Savion Williams • No. 26 — LB Isaiah McDuffie • No. 25 — OL Jordan Morgan • No. 24 — WR Matthew Golden • No. 23 — CB Carrington Valentine • No. 22 — WR Romeo Doubs • No. 21 — QB Malik Willis • N0. 20 — DE Lukas Van Ness • No. 19 — RG Sean Rhyan • No. 18 — LT Rasheed Walker • No. 17 — DT Devonte Wyatt • No. 16 — S Evan Williams • No. 15 — CB Nate Hobbs • No. 14 — LB Quay Walker • No. 13 — OL Aaron Banks • No. 12 — CB Keisean Nixon • No. 11 — K Brandon McManus
