Celtics lose Evan Fournier to health and safety protocol

Anyone with the name Celtics next to his title has a right to wonder what shoe could possibly drop next out of the sky.

As one of the teams most heavily hit by COVID and contact tracing this season, the Celtics didn’t even have a chance to get the newly acquired Evan Fournier into a game. Instead, he missed Saturday’s game against Oklahoma City due to health and safety protocol. And there’s no word on when he’ll suit up.

“I don’t really want to get into the specifics of everything, because I don’t know all the answers,” Brad Stevens said before the Thunder game. “As far as frustration, it’s been very consistent theme for us to be missing people. But hopefully that won’t be long term. We’ll see how this all goes and go from there.”

Danny Ainge has said he hopes to get Tristan Thompson and Romeo Langford back from health and safety protocol next week.

No dinner with Andre

Though the Celtics were very much in the mix for Andre Drummond, bought out last week by Cleveland, it didn’t appear as of Saturday that they were the rebounding seven-footer’s top choice.

According to a source, Celtics management has the impression that Drummond plans to sign with the Lakers.

It’s a business

Though he’s a seasoned 23, and has already been through his fair share of trade deadline rumors, Thursday’s trades marked the first time that Jayson Tatum actually had the experience of losing teammates in mid-season. The last time Ainge bought in at the deadline was in 2015, when he secured Isaiah Thomas, Jonas Jerebko and Gigi Datome in a pair of trades with Phoenix and Detroit.

But one move in particular stung Tatum, because one of the players to go was his good friend Javonte Green.

“Didn’t see that coming,” said Tatum. “Woo is someone I’m super, super close with. Loved having him around. That was tough for all of us, especially myself, somebody I’ve got real close with as a friend and he helped us in the locker room, and the time he did get an opportunity. But I guess that’s just part of it.”

Next German up

Among other things, the Celtics traded members of the German national team for each other — Daniel Theis and Mo Wagner. The latter knows the now-Chicago Bull more from afar than up close.

“In the sense that we’re both German and have kind of played for the German national team,” said Wagner. “But I haven’t really played a lot for the German national team and thus not really with him. So I don’t know Daniel that well. I will say that it’s obviously a little weird too. Always, it’s weird to get traded for somebody else, just because I mean I watch all these games, I know what he means to the team. And then to just come in and replace that or whatever it is is tough because everybody has relationships and I know how hard that is and I feel the same way. So it’s always an odd dynamic that you’ve kind of gotta get through.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3wg7q6K