The 2024 NBA draft is approaching as it is less than a week away and one of the major talking points has been what teams are interested in Bronny James. While the USC guard has only worked out for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Phoenix Suns officially, his agent Rich Paul has said there are multiple other teams who are also interested.
On the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, he discussed what the Boston Celtics should do with the 30th overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft. It is an idea that people have not really done before so it would definitely be interesting to see how it would be perceived.
“Here is my case: everybody says this draft sucks. The Celtics are so deep… anyone in this draft isn’t going to play for them. Why not take Bronny and you basically hold him hostage? Because all these other teams want him, right?… The Lakers, you want him? Well, we took Bronny, give us Max Christie. How bad do you want him? I would say Bronny the asset at 30 as a trade thing is worth more than anyone they could get here.”
This could be something that is not out of the ordinary to a degree as there have been players drafted and immediately traded. One of the more notable and recent situations was between the Dallas Mavericks and the Atlanta Hawks where Luka Doncic and Trae Young were traded on draft day for one another.
However, the Boston Celtics have their top handful of players signed for next season already and do not necessarily need anyone in the 2024 NBA draft class to bolster their roster after winning the NBA Finals. Using the asset that is Bronny James as trade bait is something that can be viewed as disrespectful to some of the parties.
While Rich Paul has said drafting Bronny James does not necessarily mean that LeBron James will be part of the package, it is something to also add to the thought of these general managers as well. It will be interesting to see which teams actually are interested in Bronny James
Why drafting Bronny James would be an issue for the Boston Celtics
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The idea in theory is a great thing to do. Drafting a player with some buzz with the sole idea of trading them away. However, this is not fantasy sports and there are significant ramifications of doing something like this.
Bronny James’ agent is Rich Paul, one of the most powerful in the entire National Basketball Association. If the Boston Celtics do this and then try to dangle Bronny James to be traded right away, that could get some people annoyed. If that were the case, that could cause a rift between the Boston Celtics and Klutch Sports going forward.
While it is a business, there are players that the Celtics could target as potential signings or trade pieces that are under Klutch Sports Group. Boston currently does not have any players with Rich Paul but some of the top players in the sport are signed by Paul including Dejounte Murray, Zach LaVine, Draymond Gren and Anthony Davis to name a few.
It is a risky move if the Celtics were to do just that and the reigning NBA Champions could realistically do this as a draft-and-trade candidate.
About the Author
Vincent Pensabene graduated from Saint Leo University in 2019 with a B.A. in Sport Business and has focused on the media side of sports. He writes for multiple publications and is interested in the reasoning of why things happen. Feel free to follow him on social media @TalkVinTalk and discuss all things sports.
