Boston Celtics

"I certainly have not sensed any great urgency from them to break up their team."

​The Celtics have been linked to two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo throughout this offseason as Brad Stevens and Boston’s top brass weigh sizable roster changes.

But longtime Boston sports scribe and founder of The Ringer Bill Simmons isn’t so sure that Stevens and Co. have an appetite to uproot key pillars of their team — such as Jaylen Brown — in order to try and land a player like Antetokounmpo.​

“I keep saying it, I don’t think Boston is in on Giannis,” Simmons said on the latest episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on Sunday.

“I certainly have not sensed any great urgency from them to break up their team,” NBA writer Zach Lowe added.

“I think the reason to trade Jaylen would be to not want to have two 70 million dollar guys in two years,” Simmons replied.

This isn’t the first time that Simmons has noted that there might be some trepidation on the part of the Celtics in terms of giving up significant assets for a player in Antetokounmpo who — despite the chances of raising Boston’s collective ceiling — is 31 years old, dealt with injury last year, and would cost both a significant trade package and likely a hefty new contract moving forward. 

Antetokounmpo is eligible for a four-year, $275 million extension as soon as this October — or six months after he’s traded to a new team.

“I think Giannis wants to go to Boston and I’m not sure Boston wants Giannis,” Simmons said earlier in May on his podcast. “I think that’s the push and pull right now. … I think he wants to stay in the East. I think a certain guy on the Celtics has the same shooting coach as him. I think there’s a lot of respect for the organization. I just think that would be a team he would be interested in. I also think Miami is another team he would want to go to.”​

Simmons is far from the only established NBA voice who doesn’t believe that the Celtics are at the front of the line in what should be a sizable list of suitors for Antetokounmpo’s services this summer.

“I know some people are linking him to Boston, but I have not personally heard that Giannis, Boston and Milwaukee are serious about it,” ESPN NBA reporter Brian Windhorst told ESPN Cleveland last week. “That’s out there. I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened, but I haven’t heard it.”

Even if the Celtics aren’t necessarily in the running for a player like Antetokounmpo, that doesn’t mean that Boston isn’t listening in on offers for players like Brown and others, either.

NBA insider Marc Stein reported last week on his Substack that there is “belief in some corners of the league that the Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, and Portland Trail Blazers all have expressed interest in Brown.”