The NBA trade deadline never fails to entertain the entire league, and today was a prime example.

Numerous moves were made today, with some big names being traded to contenders (Aaron Gordon dealt to Denver, Victor Oladipo dealt to Miami, Nikola Vucevic dealt to Chicago, just to name a few). With today’s deadline, we saw a few contending teams attempt to strengthen their roster in hopes of building a championship squad. We also saw non-contending teams make trades for young developing talent and draft picks.

In comes Boston.

The Celtics have struggled tremendously this year, sitting with a 21-23 record, and hanging by a thread for the last playoff spot. I myself had been advocating for months now to shake up this roster and to make a move, since this team is going sideways. Lots of pressure has been put on Danny Ainge, mainly because this current group just wasn’t working, and fans like me were pushing him to trade and change the team up.

With rumors recently going around that Aaron Gordon being a possible trade target for Boston, Ainge went a different route today, and traded for his now former teammate, Evan Fournier, for the low price of Jeff Teague, Javonte Green, and 2 2nd round picks.

Fournier, 28, is having a career year, with averages of 19.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists, while shooting 46% from the field and 38.8% from 3. His numbers are somewhat of an anomaly, due to the fact he was on a bad Orlando Magic team and had a high usage rate (a percentage of plays a player was involved in that ended in a field goal, free throw, or turnover).

From Ainge’s perspective, I think he envisions Fournier as Boston’s primary 6th man to come off the bench. The Celtics bench has been one of the 1,000,000 issues they’ve dealt with this year, and this move will hopefully help in a large way. Evan Fournier can hit 3’s at a great rate, and provide the Celtics with another scoring option, which will take *some* pressure off of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. This also means that this will open up some more opportunities for youngsters like Aaron Nesmith and Romeo Langford, with Green and Teague gone.

There is some risk to this deal, as Ainge used $17 million of the $28 million trade exception from Gordon Hayward. Ainge could have waited this off-season to perhaps trade for a better player with a larger contract, since the availability of stars and superstars traditionally open up in the off-season and free agency. The other risk is that Fournier is on an expiring contract, so he could possibly leave this summer.

Now that may sound bad, but there are positives to this deal. If Fournier were to walk and leave in free agency, Boston owns his bird rights (the availability to re-sign a player while going over the cap), which pretty much means they can create a second trade exception by having him sign with a different team via sign and trade. That would open up at least the $17.5 million he makes right now, so Boston would hold two large trade exceptions.

Danny Ainge made a second deal today, and traded away Daniel Theis. Since entering the league, Theis was an un-drafted free agent that came from overseas. He served the Celtics well, being one of the more underrated players in the league. Theis was dealt to Chicago, and in return Boston received Mo Wagner. Wagner, 23, is a young Center who can stretch the floor (when needed to) and provide Boston with quality minutes.

The Celtics definitely addressed their bench issue today, and changed up their roster like us fans were hoping for. At 21-23, hopefully these moves can be a start to get Boston back on track. We shall see.