This off season the Celtics have made many moves in acquiring new players to make a championship push this season.
One of those players they traded for is forward Kristaps Porzingis who has been a star in the league for a long time now and it shows with him earning a whooping 36.1 million dollars from the Celtics this season.
The Celtics acquired the all-star in a three way deal with the Celtics getting the 25th pick from the grizzlies and a 2024 first round (top four protected) from the Warriors on top of Porzingis. The Celtics in return shipped Marcus Smart to the Grizzlies and Danilo Gallinari along with Mike Muscala and the No.35 pick in the 2023 to the Warriors.
Many feel the new forward will help the Celtics this season with many including Zach Harper, NBA analyst for the Atlantic, saying “The Celtics have options, as long as Porziņģis is healthy, and that’s the part that could worry you. Since the ACL injury that cost him well over 100 games from 2017 to 2019, Porziņģis has missed 95 games in four seasons. That’s a lot of missed time. On a one-year rental, even at $36 million, it’s a risk you can take with the depth the Celtics have,” posits Harper, who grades the deal an “A.”
Even with this some feel that the departure of Smart will have a negative effect on the team with Souichi Terada, an analyst for Mass Live, saying “From a basketball standpoint, the Celtics come away winners. But how Smart’s departure will affect team chemistry going forward remains to be seen.”
The Celtics were also able to acquire another all star in Jrue Holiday from the Blazers with them sending Malcom Brogdan , Robert Williams and two first round picks in exchange for the all star guard.
Holiday had a career year in Milwaukee with him averaging 19.3 points per game and connecting on 39% of his 3 point attempts in the 2022-2023 season. Holiday was able to maintain these stats while playing alongside two other stars in Milwaukee in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kris Middleton. Holiday was also a premier defender in his time in Milwaukee with him averaging an astounding 1.5 steals per game and making 3 all defensive teams with the Bucks
Because of his success in Milwaukee many feel Holiday will be a great compliment to an already star studded team like the Celtics with former NBA player now turned analyst J.J Redick saying on the most recent episode of The Old Man and the Three Things, “To me, you have arguably the two best point-of-attack defenders on the perimeter in the NBA,” Reddick said. “They’re different, but they’re both excellent at what they do. There’s more physicality. A little more ability to just blow up pick-and-rolls. Blow up dribble handoffs. To me on paper, they’re even better in optionality than they were before,” Reddick noted. “Of course, they lose some depth.”
Although the Celtics were able to acquire so much talent to an already star filled team, some feel like this off season was a bit of a gamble with them giving up their two best defenders in Smart and Williams and a lot of depth coming off of the bench in guys like Brogdon, Muscala, and Gallinari.
Overall most feel it was a very good off season with some even feeling that the Celtics can’t lose this season, with even 23% of NBA GM’s choosing the Celtics to win it all while the next closest was the Bucks at 17% in the annual survey buy John Schuhman of the league’s top basketball decision makers.
(At the time of this publication, the Celtics were 5-1).
