The Celtics’ search for help in the middle reportedly reached all the way to Sacramento, with Boston checking in on Domantas Sabonis during the offseason before anything ever got close.
That nugget came out of ESPN’s Anthony Slater, who reported that the Kings had conversations about Sabonis with multiple teams as they weighed a roster reset. Charlotte was the more obvious name attached to the big man, but Boston also surfaced as a club that made at least one call.
“There were predraft conversations about Sabonis with the Charlotte Hornets (who held pick Nos. 14 and 18) and at least one phone call with the Boston Celtics, team and league sources said, but nothing materialized,” wrote Slater.
The Hornets’ angle made sense on paper. Slater noted that the plan would have been to pair Sabonis with LaMelo Ball, but Charlotte instead moved Ball for draft picks and committed further to its youth movement.
Boston’s exact offer to Sacramento is still unknown, and it’s possible the Celtics were simply doing their homework. What is clear is that they were hunting for a center after Nikola Vucevic’s exit, and they eventually addressed the need by signing Mitchell Robinson in free agency.
For the Kings, Sabonis remains the centerpiece anyway. He’s set to begin his sixth season in Sacramento and, despite the offseason trade chatter, still profiles as the team’s most important player.
The arrival of Darius Acuff Jr. and the upside of Maxime Raynaud do not change that. Sabonis is the anchor.
He’s also coming off a difficult year. A knee injury limited him to a career-low 19 games last season, and he finished with averages of 15.8 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists. Even with that setback, his all-around game is exactly why teams kept calling.
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