Celtics Looking to Deal: Barbosa and Fernandez on Wish List

According to the Boston Herald the Celtics are looking to help beef up the bench this season and have talked about trading for either Phoenix Suns swing man Leandro Barbosa or Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard Rudy Fernandez.

League sources said yesterday that the Celts have expressed trade interest in guards Leandro Barbosa of Phoenix and Rudy Fernandez of Portland.

The Celtics probably are using Rasheed Wallace’s contract in their attempt to acquire Barbosa, who averaged 9.5 points in 17.9 minutes for the Suns this season.

Barbosa will make $7.1 million in 2010-11 and has a player option for $7.6 million the following season. Wallace is on the books for $6,322,320, which is well within the acceptable range (125 percent plus $100,000) for a trade under NBA rules.

The Suns then could let Wallace retire and be responsible on their cap only for the buyout, which the C’s could help with, too.

Either one of these guys would be a great pick up for the Celtics as Fernandez would be nice considering TA is getting talked about around the league this off season and may not be back. Rudy would be a nice piece off the bench and is a knock down three point shooter, also can slash to the hole when he wants and is a good three throw shooter. Barbosa would be interesting as yes he does have a big cap number but he would come in right away and spell minutes for Pierce and Ray(if Ray comes back). Barbosa can play starter minutes if you need him to and would compete for the NBA sixth man award next year. Would love love to get both guys, but if we can only get one it would still be a good move.