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The Boston Celtics are working on acquiring Kristaps Porzingis from the Washington Wizards in a three-team trade that would also include the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Celtics would send Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers, and the Wizards would get Danilo Gallinari from Boston and Marcus Morris, Amir Coffey, and the 30th pick of the 2023 NBA Draft from Los Angeles.
Porzingis had a $36 million player option in his deal with the Wizards, and he would probably opt in to make the potential trade happen. The Latvian center would be on the move again after he was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to Washington for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans in February 2022.
Last season, Porzingis played in 65 games for the Wizards averaging 23.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game on 49.8% shooting from the field. That is Porzingis’ highest scoring season as he never averaged more than 22.7, which he did in his last season playing for the New York Knicks in 2017-18.
Porzingis was selected with the fourth pick in the 2015 NBA Draft by the Knicks, who had Phil Jackson as the President of basketball operations at the time. The Knicks fans were not happy with the choice, but soon after, they accepted Porzingis as their main man on the roster. The Latvian made his first, and to this day only, All-Star appearance in 2018 before suffering a torn ACL and missing the entire 2018-19 season. During that year, Porzingis demanded a trade from the Knicks and ended up in Dallas as Mark Cuban took a gamble on him. Porzingis was expected to make a great tandem with Luka Doncic, but the two did not find a way to play well together.
After the short stint in Dallas, where he played only 34 games and the successful individual season in DC, Porzingis would finally go to a team where he can win. The Celtics, who lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat in seven games, desperately need a big man who can help them make the final step toward the NBA championship.
The Celtics are packed in the backcourt positions while they have only Al Horford and Robert Williams III in the paint. They are definitely not happy to have to move Brogdon, who won the Sixth Man of the Year award last season, but he had to go since the Celtics do not want to part ways with Jaylen Brown or Marcus Smart. Brogdon, the 2017 NBA Rookie of the Year, averaged 14.9 points and 4.2 rebounds for the Celtics last season and shot an excellent 44.4% from the three-point line. The Clippers would be a perfect fit for Brogdon as they moved plenty of guards late last season to make room for signing Russell Westbrook.
Gallinari joined the Celtics in the last off-season, but he didn’t play a single game for them as he tore his ACL days after he moved to Boston. The Wizards would be the seventh team in his career. Marcus Morris spent the last four seasons with the Clippers and would move to Washington. Coffey went undrafted in 2019 and also spent the last four seasons with the Clippers.
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