Celtics reportedly looking into trading Anfernee Simons to help keep Al Horford, Luke Kornet
The Celtics acquired Simons in a trade with the Trail Blazers late Monday night.
Anfernee Simons might not get a chance to empty his luggage in Boston after the Celtics landed him in a deal with the Trail Blazers.
The Celtics are “exploring” the idea of trading Simons in order to create more roster flexibility and a greater path to keep their top two free agents, Al Horford and Luke Kornet, The Athletic‘s Jay King reported.
While the Celtics were able to get under the second luxury tax apron by trading Jrue Holiday to the Trail Blazers and Kristaps Porzingis to the Hawks, they’re still in the luxury tax by a considerable amount of money. They stand at roughly $203 million in committed salary for next season when you account for 2025 first-round pick Hugo Gonzalez’s rookie contract, which is $4 million shy of the second apron.
Trading Simons would be one of the easier ways for the Celtics to create more space against the salary cap and luxury tax. He has a $27.7 million salary for the 2025-26 season and is entering the final year of his contract, potentially making him a more appealing trade candidate.
However, a Simons trade alone likely wouldn’t get the Celtics out of the first tax apron or the luxury tax in general. The Nets are the only team that can absorb his salary without dealing another player, while the 28 other teams are practically at the salary cap or above it. Because of that, the Celtics can only clear around $7.5 million in cap space in any deal involving Simons, unless more than two teams are involved in the deal.
Boston is roughly $16 million north of the luxury tax ($187.9 million) and $8 million north of the first luxury tax apron ($195.9 million).
As of Saturday afternoon, the Celtics have yet to announce the Holiday-Simons trade, which included Boston landing two second-round picks from Portland. The fact that they haven’t announced the trade yet could make it easier to add more teams, which is something traditionally done in offseason trades to help teams move players around and manage their salary situations.
The only restriction the Celtics currently face with regard to trading Simons is that they can’t move him in a deal where they aggregate his salary. Of course, that shouldn’t be an issue for Boston if it’s only looking to move Simons in a deal where it sheds salary.
Outside of trading the 26-year-old Simons, who scored 19.3 points per game this past season, the Celtics’ other easiest avenues to shed salary would be to move Jaylen Brown ($53.1 million in 2025-26), Derrick White ($28.1 million), Sam Hauser ($10 million), or Payton Pritchard ($7.3 million). However, Stevens mentioned a few players from that group as the team’s core moving forward.
“We’ll do our best to put the right group together,” Stevens told reporters on Wednesday. “We’ve got the foundation, obviously, with Jaylen and Jayson and D-White and Payton and all those guys that a lot of teams would love to have.”
As Stevens will look to rebuild around that foundation, acquiring a center has become paramount for the Celtics following the Porzingis trade. Xavier Tillman Sr. and Neemias Queta are the only bigs under contract for next season with NBA experience.
Stevens is hoping that the recent trades will help Boston keep Horford and Kornet as they’ll officially become free agents on Monday.
“As you look at the rest of the team and what we’re trying to do, there is no question our priorities would be to bring Al and Luke back,” Stevens said on Wednesday. “Those guys are huge parts of this organization.
“They’re going to have, I’m sure, plenty of options all over the place, and that’s well-deserved, but I think that would be a priority,” Stevens added. “At the same time, I don’t want to put pressure on them. It’s their call, ultimately. But, yeah, we would love to have those guys back.”
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