Deadline day? Try deadline week.

The annual flurry of transactions before the NBA’s midseason trade deadline began earlier than usual this year. As of late Wednesday, a day before the league’s 3 p.m. ET Thursday cutoff for trades, at least 12 separate deals had been reported.

Those trades involved 18 different teams and a bevy of current or former All-Stars, including Anthony Davis (reportedly traded to Washington), James Harden (Cleveland), Jaren Jackson Jr. (Utah), Darius Garland (LA Clippers) and Chris Paul (Toronto). And that’s not even counting the early-January trade that sent Trae Young from the Hawks to the Wizards.

The Celtics, as they tend to be this time of year, also were active during the deadline lead-up.

On Tuesday, they reportedly agreed to a trade that will send guard Anfernee Simons to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic and a swap of second-round draft picks.

The move shores up Boston’s frontcourt — the 35-year-old Vucevic is an effective defensive rebounder and 3-point threat, though not much of a rim protector — at the expense of an important backcourt piece in Simons, who, despite his high-level play of late, always was viewed as an obvious trade candidate because of his $27.7 million expiring contract.

Are the Celtics done dealing? Or does president of basketball operations Brad Stevens have another card to play?

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Trade deadline history

Including this one, the Celtics have been active at each of the last six NBA trade deadlines, dating back to the final year of Danny Ainge’s tenure as president of basketball operations. Those have ranged from minor moves on the roster fringe (dumping Jaden Springer’s salary to Houston last year) to big, franchise-altering swings (acquiring Derrick White from San Antonio in 2022).

Most of Boston’s recent midseason deals fall into that first bucket. Its full list of deadline pickups since 2021: Luke Kornet, Evan Fournier, Moritz Wagner, White, Daniel Theis, Mike Muscala, Xavier Tillman, Springer and now Vucevic. The Celtics also signed depth wing Torrey Craig after last year’s trade deadline to fill Springer’s vacated roster spot.

Trade candidates

With Simons now gone, Chris Boucher moves to the center of Boston’s trade block.

The 33-year-old big man was expected to have a role in the Celtics’ new-look frontcourt when he signed last summer, but it took him less than two weeks to fall out of head coach Joe Mazzulla’s ever-evolving rotation. Boucher has appeared in just nine games for Boston, and just one since Thanksgiving: a four-minute garbage-time shift against Sacramento last Friday, during which he nearly sparked a postgame fight by hitting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in a Celtics blowout.

Multiple reports have listed Boucher as a trade candidate, and he sat out each of the last two games for personal reasons. He’s on a one-year veteran-minimum contract.

Fellow reserve big Tillman also has seen minimal playing time this season — recently, Mazzulla has favored two-way rookie Amari Williams when Neemias Queta and/or Luka Garza are unavailable — which makes him possible trade bait.

Josh Minott has been out of the mix since late December, but he showed promise earlier this season as a 3-and-D wing with stretch-five capabilities, and he’s only 23. Unlike Boucher and Tillman, Minott is under team control through next season.

Boston Celtics forward Chris Boucher looks to shoot in the second half of an NBA basketball preseason game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill)

Team needs

Nearly all the players linked to the Celtics in trade rumors were bigs, which spoke to the team’s desire to upgrade that position despite career-best seasons from Queta and Garza. Now that they’ve filled that need with Vucevic, where else could they look to add?

Bringing in a low-cost guard would make sense. Boston is light on ball-handlers after losing Simons, prompting Mazzulla to shift Payton Pritchard from the starting lineup to the bench on Tuesday to fill that void.

The Celtics also could have a tough time replacing Simons’ scoring in the short term. Getting Jayson Tatum back from Achilles surgery would solve that problem, but it’s unclear when or if he’ll return. Tatum recently expressed trepidation about reintegrating midseason, and he reportedly is “reevaluating” whether to play or sit out until 2026-27.

The uncertainty surrounding Tatum’s timeline makes it tricky to pinpoint Boston’s weak spots.

The Celtics have one vacant spot on their 15-man roster, which they’ve kept open since the start of the season.

Financial implications

The Celtics’ offseason exodus dropped them below the second apron of the NBA’s luxury tax. Trading Simons for Vucevic will save them an additional $5.9 million and push them under the first apron, assuming the terms of that trade are not changed before it is finalized. That puts Boston less than $6 million away from escaping the luxury tax entirely.

By leaving the first apron, the Celtics will have their pick of any player on the buyout market. Apron teams are only allowed to sign waived players whose previous salary was less than $14.1 million.

Moving Simons also creates a hefty $27.7 million trade exception that is valid for the next year — a valuable roster-building tool that could come in handy this offseason. The Celtics absorbed Vucevic’s $21.5 million salary into Kristaps Porzingis’ TPE.