Things are reportedly moving quickly on a potential sign-and-trade, sending Kristaps Porzingis to the Boston Celtics, with the Clippers looped in as well.
According to Shams Charania, the Wizards, Celtics and Clippers are in serious discussions about a three-team trade. The Celtics would be acquiring Kristaps Porzingis with Marcus Morris and draft picks heading to the Wizards. The Clippers would be landing Malcolm Brogdon from Boston.
This would help the Wizards clear cap space for a rebuild, adding some additional picks, and probably setting the stage for them to not re-sign Kyle Kuzma. For the Clippers, they’re getting a key two-way backcourt contributor and big upgrade from Russell Westbrook.
Why would the Boston Celtics trade for Kristaps Porzingis?
Although the Celtics are a team that could use Porzingis they’d be giving up some serious backcourt depth in Brogdon. Payton Pritchard has also sought a trade leaving them just Marcus Smart in the backcourt.
Boston is a team that may not have Jaylen Brown on the roster next season. They’ll need to sign him to a big extension which could be difficult with a Porzingis extension already on the books. Also, if Brown decides he doesn’t want to re-sign, they’re stuck with Porzingis and Tatum, which would be the Celtics’ first step toward losing Tatum down the line.
However, if the Celtics were able to land Porzingis, fit his new contract with Brown’s extension and then potentially sign and bought-out Chris Paul for additional backcourt depth, they could find themselves in a good position. But there are a lot of moving parts and they’d need to have several other things work out for them to be better off.
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