I don’t think that either Davis or Leonard are likely to end up here, but I would think that Boston would have more interest in the former than the latter for economic reasons. But, let’s look at the pros and cons...
Pros
- It’s Kawhi fucking Leonard, a top fivish player in his prime (hopefully).
- You immediately become the most talented team in the league (sorry, Golden State) given that the depth allows your starters to stay on cruise control for the entire season.
Cons
- You only have him for one year guaranteed, if he leaves you’re screwed.
- He might have chronic injury issues.
- That team gets real expensive really fucking fast.
Both Leonard and Irving are free agents after next year, and are signing new max deals in the Hayward range, if they stay. If Horford doesn’t opt out the 2020 Celtics are going to have four max guys making a combined $130 million or so.
The further complication is that you really need to hold on to Brown to lighten the defensive load on Leonard, and while Tatum is absolutely great on the defensive end, Brown’s the sort of four positional defender that you need to help out Irving and Leonard. So then in ‘21 you’re still facing four max guys, but you can recoup some savings from Horford, but that payroll is still pretty stratospheric.
For all these reasons I expect them to just roll with what they have so that Brown and Tatum’s rookie deals help get them to Horford’s post-max deal without breaking the bank.
Now, if Davis were made available, that’s a different matter as you could use Horford as the salary ballast in that scenario (even if you’re just dealing him to a third team for more picks/prospects to sweeten the offer for the Unibrower) while allowing Boston to retain Tatum and his extra year of short wages to offset luxury taxes.