The Boston Celtics sent shockwaves across the NBA on Friday by reportedly trading for Indiana Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon.
To pull off the deal, the Celtics sent the Pacers a 2023 first-round pick along with five players, including Daniel Theis and Aaron Nesmith along with a few very end-of-the-bench players, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. But there was one asset the Celtics reportedly weren’t willing to give up in the trade.
According to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, the Pacers were interested in Celtics forward Grant Williams, but president of basketball operations Brad Stevens somehow kept the key rotational piece out of the deal.
By keeping Williams in Boston, who blossomed in his third year in the NBA this season by averaging 7.8 points and shooting 41.1% from 3-point range, the Celtics didn’t lose a single player from their playoff rotation in the trade.
And now by adding Brogdon into the mix, someone Stevens has been in pursuit of for a long time, the Celtics possess an even better team than the one that just appeared in the NBA Finals a few weeks ago. Brogdon, 29, registered 19.1 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game last year with the Pacers.
Stevens, who has been in his current front office role for just over a year now, really should get a ton of credit for how he orchestrated this trade to bring Brogdon to Boston.
