"Interested in" season rolls along, and the latest player the Celtics are being linked to is Bulls forward Lauri Markkanen.
According to Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer, Boston is one of four teams that have shown interest in the 24-year-old restricted free agent, along with Dallas, New Orleans and Minnesota.
How the Celtics would pull off such a move is where things get complicated, though. They won't be able to sign Markkanen outright because they don't have the money to offer more than the Bulls would be willing or able to match.
So, it would have to be a sign-and-trade, but that would likely require the Celtics to both move out matching salary and send draft-pick compensation to Chicago.
With Markkanen expected to get around $15 million annually from any new team, according to Fischer, such a move could hard-cap the Celtics for this season and limit their financial flexibility moving forward. That would seemingly run counter to everything else they've done this offseason.
Markkanen, a 7-foot stretch power forward, had his most efficient season shooting-wise last year (58.2% on twos, 40.2% on threes), but also had career lows in minutes per game (25.8), points per game (13.6) and rebounds per game (5.3). He has battled injuries throughout his career, including missing 21 games last year.
Markkanen was somewhat surprisingly not included in the Bulls' trade to get DeMar DeRozan from San Antonio, and he is reportedly unhappy with his situation in Chicago.
But given the complications for any suitor to acquire Markkanen, Fischer reports that "there's a belief among many league personnel" that Markkanen will be forced to settle for a one-year, $9 million qualifying offer that would allow him to become an unrestricted free agent next year.
So, file this one under "unlikely" for the Celtics for now, but perhaps they'll surprise us.
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