By Kenny Burgess
The night before the 2023 NBA Draft commenced, a league source confirmed on Jun. 21 there was a three-team trade completed between the Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, and the Washington Wizards. The Celtics will send out Marcus Smart to Memphis plus Danilo Gallinari, Mike Muscala, and the 35th pick in the draft to Washington. The Celtics will acquire Kristaps Porziņģis from the Wizards plus the 25th pick in the draft and the Golden State Warriors’ first-round pick in the following year’s draft. Additionally, the Grizzlies will send Tyus Jones to Washington in the deal. The Celtics and Grizzlies both made this move with the motivation of increasing their title chances next year, while the Wizards were looking to clear cap space by moving Porziņģis.
This trade came to be after the Celtics’ first attempt to acquire Porziņģis fell through because the Clippers had injury concerns about Malcolm Brogdon. Once the Clippers backed out, the Celtics found a new partner in the Grizzlies, but they swapped out Brogdon for Smart.
While the trade saw the Celtics part ways with the former Defensive Player of the Year, oddsmakers like the Celtics even more now and FanDuel now has them listed as the favorites to win the 2024 title. The Celtics shifted from +500 to +460, which puts them slightly in front of the 2023 champs, the Denver Nuggets +470. Porziņģis is coming off one of his best seasons ever — he set career highs in points per game (23.2), field goal percentage (49.8), free throw attempts per game (6.4), and a host of other categories. This move makes Boston a bigger team, quite literally. This trade helped the Celtics alleviate a backcourt logjam and reallocated some of those resources to another position. Porziņģis will provide more size and rim protection without forcing the team to sacrifice much outside shooting.
The Grizzlies also acquired a great player and the oddsmakers like their chances at winning it all a bit more after this move. Prior to the trade, the Grizzlies’ title odds were +2500 and they have moved now to +2300. The Grizzlies are starting the season behind the eight ball as their superstar point guard Ja Morant will be suspended for the first 25 games of next season. This move should help them weather the storm until he returns and give the Grizzlies a solid player in their backcourt. Smart is a gritty three-and-D player who also can play the point guard position, which he will be asked to do in Morant’s absence. Smart also gives the Grizzlies a player with a lot of playoff experience/success as he has averaged 15.5 PPG, 5.5 APG, 4.3 RPG, 1.2 SPG, and 2.33 PG (on 35.8 3P%) in 35.3 MPG over his past three postseasons (46 games).
For the Wizards, this was another step in the beginning of their rebuild. The NBA Draft hasn’t even happened yet, and the Wizards have already gotten rid of their two top players, Bradley Beal and Porziņģis, and now that they’ve cleared all of this cap space, we’ll see what direction General Manger Will Dawkins wants to head.
Both the Celtics and Grizzlies were able to acquire very high-level players. The big question is: will either of these players mesh in their new systems or put either team over the top? That is yet to be seen and we truly won’t have the answer to those questions until we see them on the court.
Photo credit: Washington Wizards’ Instagram
