The Boston Celtics have strengthened their hand for the future.
The C's created five new traded player exceptions via their NBA trade deadline activity, The Boston Globe's Adam Himmelsbach reported Friday, citing an NBA source. Boston reportedly created two new TPEs by trading Bol Bol (worth 2.2 million, per NBA writer Keith Smith) and P.J. Dozier ($1.9 million) to the Orlando Magic. The Celtics created three new TPEs by trading Dennis Schröder ($5.9 million), Enes Freedom ($1.7 million) and Bruno Fernando ($1.8 million) to the Houston Rockets as part of package, which netted Daniel Theis.
The five new TPEs add to the Celtics' arsenal, which already included the $17.1 million TPE they created last summer by trading Evan Fournier to the New York Knicks.
The Celtics reportedly used the $9.7 million TPE they created last summer in the Tristan Thompson trade to acquire Theis.
TPEs offer teams the flexibility to make trades without having to match the salaries of the player(s) they hope to receive in a deal. They expire one year after their creation, so the Celtics might be busy again in the summer market and ahead of next season's trade deadline.
