C's Trade Marcus Smart To Grizzlies & Get Kristaps Porzingis From Wizards In Three Team Deal

 

        It has been a rather bizarre few days for the Boston Celtics but with the 2023 NBA Draft just completed a few hours ago, we can officially say that guard Marcus Smart is now on the Memphis Grizzlies while power forward/center Kristaps Porzingis is a Celtic. I won't bore you with all the details of the three-way (hey now!) deal between Boston, Memphis and Washington but the most important part is that the longest tenured Celtic is out of here, the former Knicks All-Star/savior Porzingis comes to his fourth NBA team (NY, Dallas, Washington & Boston) and then point guard Tyus Jones goes from Memphis to Washington along with forwards Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala who will join him in DC from Boston. On Wednesday, it looked like another Celtics guard-Malcolm Brogdon-would be included instead of Smart in a three-way deal involving the Clippers and not the Grizzlies to acquire Porzingis but it fell apart at the last moment (the teams faced a midnight deadline for Kristaps to opt-in to his player option for next season) since Brogdon's forearm apparently is in rough shape. Brad Stevens stuck with it though and ended up making a huge move that his club so desperately needed. 

    After going to five of the last seven Eastern Conference Finals (but only winning one of them!), it was clear that the C's needed a real shake up in terms of its roster. Star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are both very good but something always seemed to trip up Boston before they could get that elusive first NBA title since 2008. For his Celtics career, Smart averaged 10.6 points per game, 4.6 assists per game and 1.6 steals per game. Part of why he became so overrated was that certain local announcers and media members would focus on what they called "winning plays," ignoring the fact that he also did a bunch of dumb stuff that constantly hurt his team both on and off the court. Along with being the longest tenured Celtic-he was the sixth overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft-Smart was the unofficial captain of the team and easily the most polarizing Boston athlete this side of former Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask. 

    Much like the sad state of politics in the United States these days, Celtics fans either loved Smart or hated him, there was no in between. Always a solid defensive player (he was on the All-Defensive first team three times), Smart was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 2022. For whatever reason (no Ime Udoka?), the Celts lost their way defensively this past season with Joe Mazzulla in his first year as head coach. Additionally, Smart's overinflated sense of self became comical over the last few years as he talked down to both Tatum & Brown publicly along with Mazzulla which while warranted is still a no-no. He also flops incessantly and whines constantly to the refs which really starts to wear on you when you have to watch it over and over again for nine years. Oh and he was never a great 3-point shooter to begin with but somehow the ball would always seem to find him late in games and he has the confidence of Stephen Curry so he did not hesitate to let it fly.  

    Straight out of Latvia, Porzingis took the league by storm shortly after being drafted fourth overall in 2015 by New York. He was an All-Star in 2018-ironically his last season as a Knick-but not surprisingly for a guy that is 7-foot-3 and only 240 pounds, he has battled numerous injuries since then that have caused him to bounce around to a few other middling clubs. There is no question that coming to Boston should motivate him immensely since he has only appeared in 10 career NBA playoff games (all with Dallas). For his NBA career, Kristaps has averaged 19.6 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game and 1.8 blocks per game. Especially under Mazzulla, Boston became way too reliant on the 3-pointer and while Porzingis shoots plenty of 3s, at least he makes them at a better clip (36%) than Smart (32%). His health is by far the biggest question mark although he did appear in 65 games last season with the Wizards-his most since his second year as a Knick. He also averaged 23.2 points per game in 2022-23 which was a new career-high. 

    The bottom line is that Porzingis gives Tatum and Brown another guy that can carry the load offensively when either of them has a bad game or series (see Tatum in the 2022 NBA Finals or Brown in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals). The term Big 3 is so played out these days in basketball but at least on paper, this is by far the best running mate that they have had since they were too young when Kyrie Irving (yuck!) was here and Kemba Walker was about to go off a cliff when he was a Celtic. Kristaps will turn 28 in August so theoretically, he should be in his prime. After Smart gets over the shock of going to a new team, he will quickly realize that he is lucky to be in Memphis rather than on some rebuilding crap team like Washington. With Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant suspended for the first 25 games of the season, Smart will be their starting point guard to begin the year on what was one of the best teams in the Western Conference last season. 

    This could be the rare trade that truly helps both teams. Porzingis gives the Celtics a uniquely skilled player that is much different from their other big guys-the ancient Al Horford and an injury-prone Robert Williams. Smart brings toughness and playoff experience to a Grizzlies team that showed this past postseason that they were not quite ready for prime time yet. Since they lost Game 7 to Miami, Boston had made its coaching staff way stronger by hiring Sam Cassell, Charles Lee, Amile Jefferson (Tatum's buddy from Duke) and former Celtics great Phil Pressey to be assistant coaches. However, those moves mean very little when they are compared to getting Kristaps and saying goodbye to their loudest/most divisive voice in Smart. We wish Marcus well in Memphis but it was time to make a real change and credit to Stevens for having the guts to get it done.

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before In 2021: C's Got Down Big, Rallied To Cut It Close But Still Lost

 

    Apologies for not writing this earlier but you can understand that the Celtics (23-25 overall, 13-9 home) are not exactly an inspiring team at the moment. Last night at the TD Garden, they fell 113-108 to the Mavericks (25-21 overall, 14-11 away) as they trailed by as many as 23 points, trimmed that down to two points in the fourth quarter but of course they couldn't close the deal. It's the first time since the 2015-2016 campaign that Dallas has swept a two-game season series with Boston. These are two teams in similar places that are going in different directions as the C's tumbled to eighth-place in the Eastern Conference after going 3-7 in their last 10 games while the Mavs are up to seventh-place in the rugged Western Conference after winning their last two games and going 6-4 in their last 10. 

    It feels like Celtics head coach Brad Stevens never has a full lineup at his disposal lately which doesn't help their cause as they try to get this doomed season back on the rails. Shooting guard Jaylen Brown (24 points, 4 steals) was back after missing Monday's loss vs. New Orleans (21-25) with a left hip contusion. Center Robert Williams was unexpectedly out for the Mavericks game with an illness (supposedly not Covid-19, again) that was revealed by the team a few hours before tip-off. Hmm, interesting. Dallas superstar Luka Doncic (game-high 36 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) was the best player in February when his club beat Boston (110-107 on Feb. 23) and he outdid himself last night and showed once again why he's one of the best players in the world. 

    Point guard Jalen Brunson (21 points, 5 rebounds) is becoming a Celtics killer as well since he had another big performance off the bench against them. Mavs center Kristaps Porzingis added 19 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals while power forward Dorian Finney-Smith notched 11 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Celts swingman Jayson Tatum (25 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals), point guard Kemba Walker (22 points, 6 assists) and guard Marcus Smart (17 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) were all good but they really missed Robert Williams since in his place, they were forced to start Mo Wagner (2 points, 4 rebounds in 16 minutes). Also, Brunson outscored Boston's bench by himself as the Mavs had 34 bench points compared to 18 for the C's. Not ideal! 

    Can we already put to bed the notion that the Celtics would be extra motivated by finally having their fans back at the Garden? They are 0-2 with people paying to see this pathetic underachieving club live and in person. I get that we want life to get back to normal as soon as we safely can but who is dumb enough to buy tickets right now to watch this mess? Dallas led 30-25 after the first quarter and 64-45 at halftime. Boston outscored them by a basket (28-26) in the third quarter and by 12 (35-23) in the fourth quarter but that didn't matter one bit. PS it's nice that they don't give up and keep having these comebacks but when they never result in wins, who cares? Maybe try not getting behind by a huge deficit so early and you'll have a better chance to come out on top.

    Dallas shot nearly 50% from the field (49.4%) which was almost eight percent better than Boston (41.5%). The Mavs hit eight more 3-pointers (19-11), grabbed seven more rebounds (43-36) including 11 more defensive rebounds (39-28) and blocked twice as many shots (4-2) as the Celts. So far this seven-game homestand is off to a terrible start (0-2) for the C's who get one of the worst teams in the NBA-the Rockets (13-34 overall, 7-17 road)-to pay them a visit tomorrow night (7:30, NBC Sports Boston). Houston is one of the few teams that could get swept by Boston this season after the Celtics crushed them 134-107 on March 14 in Houston. With how things are going for the C's right now though, one of their best players will probably test positive for Covid-19 in the next few days and they'll find a crazy way to lose to the Rockets. Sigh.