The Malcolm Brogdon Trade Shows The Boston Celtics Are Willing To Put Their Money On The Line

Something unexpected happened on Friday: the Boston Celtics became title favorites. Even though few suspected that the team would be major players in the NBA offseason, they pulled off a surprise deal with the Indiana Pacers that netted them an impact player without disrupting the core of a roster that was just two wins away from a championship.

No one would have complained had the Boston Celtics played things conservatively this summer. Considering the youth of their homegrown core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III, it’s not impossible to think that they would have another crack at Banner 18 with just some internal improvement from the young starters and a few upgrades to their bench. Had they walked away from this offseason with their biggest move being signing free agent Danilo Gallinari, it still would have marked a successful offseason.

Instead, the Celtics acquired point guard Malcolm Brogdon from the Pacers for a package of Daniel Theis, Aaron Nesmith, Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan, Nik Stauskas and a 2023 first-year pick. Of the players, only Theis and Nesmith made much of an impact. Theis was an admirable backup center, but not exactly irreplaceable. Nesmith still has a chance to develop into an impact player but his reduced playing time last season made it quite clear that the Celtics did not see him as part of their future plans.

Now, the Celtics did give up yet another first-round pick in the deal, albeit a Top-12 protected one, and that might end up being the Pacers’ biggest prize. It’s the third straight first-round pick that Brad Stevens has given up in his short time as Celtics team president after parting ways with picks in the deals that brought them Al Horford and Derrick White. Some will criticize this, but it’s hard to argue with the team for deciding that this was the perfect moment to go into “win now” mode.

Now, the deal isn’t perfect. Brogdon is coming off a down year and has dealt with foot injuries. There is a reason why a player of Brogdon’s caliber was available for such an underwhelming package of players, he’s something of a gamble but it’s a risk that the Celtics felt like they could easily risk given his upside.

Above all else, these moves proved that this Celtics front office realizes that the team’s window to contend is as open as it will ever be and they are willing to spend. NBC Sports’ Chris Forsberg pointed out that, just months after the Celtics went through great lengths to avoid going over the luxury tax last season, they are now $17 million over it and still have players to sign to fill out the rest of their roster.

They might not even be done, after all they still have a $17.1 million trade exception they got after sending off Evan Fournier to the Knicks. It’s clear that these Celtics aren’t content to just cross their fingers and hope. They saw an opportunity to potentially improve themselves and they went out and got it done, regardless of the risks involved. Opportunity knocks but once.