The Celtics didn’t effectively wave the white flag as the NBA trade deadline came and went a few weeks ago.
Instead, Boston made a move — one that required a fairly significant return — that made it clear Boston is pushing to be very competitive for the rest of NBA’s regular season and into the playoffs.
The C’s sent Romeo Langford, Josh Richardson, a 2022 first-round pick and a 2028 pick swap to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Derrick White, a fifth-year guard who can make a difference on both ends of the floor. In a recent conversation with MassLive’s Brian Robb, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens explained how the deal came together.
“I think, all of the time you are talking with people around the league and guys you may be interested in should there ever been an opportunity,” Stevens told Robb. “We certainly registered that interest a while ago, long before the trade deadline. Rightfully so, that’s not something (the Spurs) were going to do without a significant cost attached to it. (White’s) a guy that everybody wants on their team for a lot of the right reasons. When we got closer to the trade deadline, that heated up as we looked at our options.
“A few days before the (deadline) is when it really started getting a little bit more significant and you thought it may be a chance. There’s a lot of discussions like that that fall through for whatever reason. That was one we had targeted a guy that made our best players better and who also impact us on both ends of the floor at a really good rate. It was a guy who the numbers love but when you watch it, it makes a lot of sense. You see it in the last four games. That was a little bit before the trade deadline but not a ton before. It certainly wasn’t last second.”
White has been solid in a C’s uniform thus far, averaging 12.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game over four contests. The 27-year-old was either second or first in plus/minus for Boston in its three most recent wins.
