While we wait for the three team trade between Boston, Atlanta and Sacramento to hopefully go through sometime soon, the Celtics did make another notable move over the weekend by trading center Moses Brown (we hardly knew ya!) to the Mavericks for guard Josh Richardson. It beats me if Brown is any good since he was here for a little over a month (dealt from Oklahoma City in the Al Horford/Kemba Walker trade) and finished his glorious Celtics career with a grand total of zero games played. Richardson on the other hand is a much more known commodity since he's played in the NBA for six seasons: four with Miami, one with Philadelphia and one with Dallas. In five of those six years including the last five in a row, he's averaged at least 10.2 points per game which doesn't sound like much but it's nothing to sniff at.
In many ways, Richardson has already exceeded any outside expectations for what he would do in the NBA since he was a second-round pick (40th overall) by the Heat in 2015 out of the University of Tennessee. His career averages are pretty solid across the board: 12.3 points per game, 1.1 steals per game, 42.7% field goal percentage, 35.8% 3-pointer percentage and 83.2% free throw percentage. He's definitely used to being a starter in the league since he has started in 299 of 373 possible games and averaged 30.6 minutes per game so it'll be interesting to see what role he carves out for the C's. His best season in a pro was in 2018-19-his last in Miami-when he averaged a career-high 16.6 points per game, 4.1 assists per game, 1.1 steals per game and shot 86.1% on free throws as he started all 73 games that he appeared in.
Brad Stevens and the Celts still have plenty of work to do with free agency officially opening in the NBA on Monday night at 6 pm. Free agent swingman Evan Fournier-who is currently tearing it up at the Olympics with France-is the main internal question facing Boston: do they bring him back after they traded for him last season or do they let him walk? The aforementioned three-way trade would reportedly culminate with them acquiring former legendary Providence College point guard Kris Dunn and center Bruno Fernando from the Hawks while center Tristan Thompson will get sent to basketball Siberia aka the Kings. I'll save my thoughts on that move until it actually occurs (or sadly doesn't). Until then, let's hope that by whatever means necessary, Stevens & Co. can pick up some more quality players because the Celtics still need plenty of them to improve on their lackluster seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference last season.
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