Just a few hours before, any Kristaps Porzingis trade to the Celtics seemed DOA. All day the three sides at the time — the Celtics, Wizards and Clippers — were working out a three-team trade that sent Porzingis to Boston and Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers. Then, after thinking about his medical situation — he has a history of injuries, including a partially torn elbow ligament in the Eastern Conference Finals — the Clippers pulled out of the trade leaving it dead in the water.
In stepped the Grizzlies.
This new trade gets Porzingis to Boston but at a substantially higher price for the Celtics, who send out Marcus Smart in the deal (but do add a couple of first-round picks).
Let’s look at the details of the trade:
Boston receives: Kristaps Porzingis, Grizzlies’ No. 25 pick this season, Warriors’ 2024 first-round pick (top four protected, which had belonged to Memphis)
Memphis receives: Marcus Smart
Washington receives: Tyus Jones, Danilo Gallinari, Mike Muscala, Celtics’ No. 35 pick
Who won and who lost? Let’s break it down.
WINNER: Memphis Grizzlies
First off, the last two Defensive Players of the Year now play for the Grizzlies, Smart and this year’s Jaren Jackson Jr. That’s as good a start to an elite defense as a team can have.
Beyond that, this Grizzlies team needs maturity and focus, and they just landed a fiery veteran leader who will not put up with crap from an immature team. Someone intense and who will talk smack but does not lose focus. Someone who will call out anyone, including the biggest star on the team, if they are a distraction or not pulling their weight.
Marcus Smart can be that guy. He leads by example. He plays hard on every play. While it stings to lose a quality backup point guard in Tyus Jones, he will make $14 million this season and then be an unrestricted free agent that will be hunted by teams looking for a starting one. He was about to get too expensive and Memphis was going to have to trade him. So they did.
Also, Smart helps in the 25 games to start the season while Ja Morant is serving his suspension.
LOSER: Boston Celtics fans
This feels like a change of eras in Boston.
That may not be a bad thing, this Celtics team just kept coming up a little bit short — against the Heat this season in the Eastern Conference Finals, against the Warriors in the Finals the season before — but this was a good team and Smart was the emotional leader. Whatever comes next in Boston, for better or worse, will be different.
Smart, for all his flaws, was loved by Celtics fans because he left his heart on the floor when he played. Losing Smart stings — even if you loved the trade for the Celtics, and there are reasons to love the potential this trade brings.
Saying Celtics fans are losers in this may be a bit strong of a phrasing (it is a winners and losers column, that’s a rather binary choice) but there should be a little sadness with this deal.
TBD: Boston Celtics
If you ask the Magic 8 Ball if the Celtics are winners or losers in this trade, it would respond “Ask again later.”
That’s because, first, the Celtics are not done yet. They are trying to move up in Thursday’s draft and there will be other trades and signings to round out the role players on this roster. That grade is incomplete.
It’s also because these Celtics will be quite different from the ones we saw last season. Boston did on paper what it wanted to do this offseason, thinning out the too-deep guard ranks while getting bigger and deeper on the front line. This particular trade comes with risks and with potential.
The biggest risk is health. Boston is understandably concerned about the durability of 37-year-old Al Horford about to enter his 17th NBA season. They are understandably worried about the knees and durability of Robert Williams III. So they answer those questions with Porzingis? The Porzingis from last season who played 65 games and averaged 23.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a night playing at an All-Star level on both ends of the court, absolutely helps this team. But those 65 games were the most he has played in a season since his second year in the league in 2016-17. Can KP stay on the floor?
Along those same lines, without Smart the Celtics are leaning more into Brogdon, who played 67 games last season in winning Sixth Man of the Year, but he hadn’t played that many games since his rookie season. The Celtics need him on the court, too, and the Clippers were not willing to bet that would happen.
More than the durability question, Smart out and Porzingis in changes the character of how this team plays. The last few years in Boston were defined by a switchable defense, and while they played more drop coverage last season than ever before, they will break that record this season. It’s a chance to get back to playing the two-big lineups that Ice Udoka leaned into for defense — and doing so without sacrificing floor spacing on offense — but this team isn’t switchable the same way.
Also, who steps up to be the emotional leader in the absence of Smart? Jaylen Brown (who is about to get PAID) could do it. Can Jayson Tatum? Is it a collective thing?
Boston is going to be different. The Celtics needed to be different because what they had may have gotten them to the Eastern Conference Finals (or further) four of the last six years, but they always fell just short. Whether or not this version of the Celtics can take that final step remains to be seen, but a change was needed.
How these changes play out is TBD.
WINNER: Washington Wizards
It’s not a pretty win, but it’s a win. This is what a rebuild feels like, trading your best players away and trying to get the best package of picks/young players/tradable veterans back you can. This may not have been the return Wizards fans wanted, it may not feel like a win in the short term, but at least the team continues down the right path.
Washington was not a winner when they traded Bradley Beal — because they had no leverage thanks to the no-trade clause the previous administration handed out — but they did better here. Not great, because again they sent out the star without getting a first-round pick in return, but they got more players they can turn into picks in Gallinari (once he proves he’s healthy) and Tyus Jones.
The Wizards are finally heading down the path they should have a few years ago. Maybe they should have started rebuilding the year that guys like Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson were at the top of the draft, but better late than never. The Wizards are winners, just not overwhelmingly so.
WINNER: The Celtics in the NBA Draft
Boston just keeps moving up in the NBA Draft. From outside it to the No. 35 pick (which they got from Portland via Atlanta, LA Clippers, Detroit, and Cleveland) now to No. 25 in the first round. And multiple reports say Boston is looking to move up in the draft again.
We love Draft chaos. We also think this is a smart way to round out the roster of an expensive team, by nailing draft picks and finding a guy who can help in the rotation at a lower cost (think Christian Braun with Denver in the playoffs and Finals). We’ll see what they do with their pick, but you have to love that Boston is being aggressive.
