Who the Celtics should go after in free agency

What can or will the Boston Celtics do this off season via acquisitions that will bring them closer to a championship? That is the ultimate question. Many people have answers. Some are pie in the sky like getting Kevin Durant. That is not happening.

So what is Plan B which is really Plan A for Danny Ainge. I doubt he'll ask me. I'll tell him anyways. Hassan Whiteside.

First let's look at the Top 20 players based on Win Shares for the 2015-16 season. Interesting to note that the 20 players have less combined championships than Tim Duncan does by himself.

The 5 free agents are in yellow.

NAME	AGE	WS	RD	PICK	CHAMPIONSHIP	TEAMS	TRANSACTIONS
Stephen Curry ▪ GSW	28	16.3	1	7	1	1	0
Kevin Durant ▪ OKC	28	13.5	1	2	0	1	0
Russell Westbrook ▪ OKC	28	13.4	1	4	0	1	0
Kawhi Leonard ▪ SAS	25	12.9	1	15	1	1	0
LeBron James ▪ CLE	32	12.1	1	1	2	3	FA twice
Chris Paul ▪ LAC	31	11.8	1	4	0	2	Trade
James Harden ▪ HOU	27	11.7	1	3	0	2	Trade
Kyle Lowry ▪ TOR	30	11.4	1	24	0	3	Traded twice
DeAndre Jordan ▪ LAC	28	11.0	2	35	0	1	0
Draymond Green ▪ GSW	26	10.1	2	35	1	1	0
LaMarcus Aldridge ▪ SAS	31	9.7	1	2	0	2	FA
Isaiah Thomas ▪ BOS	27	9.4	2	30	0	3	Traded twice
Paul Millsap ▪ ATL	31	9.4	2	47	0	2	FA
DeMar DeRozan ▪ TOR	27	9.3	1	9	0	1	0
Hassan Whiteside ▪ MIA	27	9.1	2	33	0	2	FA
Kemba Walker ▪ CHO	26	9.0	1	9	0	1	0
Al Horford ▪ ATL	30	8.9	1	3	0	1	0
Damian Lillard ▪ POR	26	8.7	1	6	0	1	0
Paul George ▪ IND	26	8.3	1	10	0	1	0
Gordon Hayward ▪ UTA	26	8.1	1	9	0	1	0

Top need for the Celtics is a rim protector. My choice would be Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside had knee problems early in his career but has recovered to become a force in the NBA in the last 2 years. Is he a risk? Yes. But the Celtics aren't getting Lebron or Durant. So they need to shoot for high risk, high reward. He reminds me of Dennis Rodman on the defensive end plus he can score. Whiteside hasn't logged a lot of minutes in his career and he is one of the youngest free agents available. Oh, and thankfully he is not one of those bigs that feels the need to fire up 3's. He has never attempted one.

Here are Whiteside's career numbers.

Season	Tm	G	FG%	2P%	FT%	TRB	BLK	PTS
2010-11	SAC	1	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.0	0.0	0.0
2011-12	SAC	18	0.444	0.444	0.417	2.2	0.8	1.6
2014-15	MIA	48	0.628	0.628	0.500	10.0	2.6	11.8
2015-16	MIA	65	0.618	0.618	0.635	11.8	3.8	14.1

Al Horford does nothing for me. Good player on decent teams for years in Atlanta. However, the Hawks just hover in that middle of the pack and were never able to get over the hump.