A five-for-one trade! Woohoo, let’s goooo!! Malcolm Brogdon’s deal to Boston is an eye-opener because it means the Celtics will spend into the tax — way, way, WAY into the tax — this year. Boston isn’t even done filling out its roster and already is staring down a $50 million check to the league, with little obvious fat it can cut.
Some crafty cap management set this up. Kudos to the Celtics for adding non-guaranteed years on the deals of Nik Stauskas, Juwan Morgan and Malik Fitts when they filled out the roster at the end of last season; they needed that filler today to amass juuuust enough outgoing salary to legally return Brogdon. Merry Christmas for each of them, as well, as their deals become guaranteed in order to complete this deal.
Indiana had been shopping Brogdon pretty heavily and was able to convert him into a likely late first-round pick this year. They’ll get a chance to rehabilitate the stock of Aaron Nesmith as well. A late lottery pick in 2020 with a rep as a shooter, Nesmith’s stroke abandoned him last season. On a rebuilding team, he’ll receive plenty of chances to build it back.
More importantly, perhaps, the Pacers generate a mammoth $22.6 million trade exception from the deal. (The salaries of Daniel Theis and Nesmith will slot into existing exceptions for Jeremy Lamb and Doug McDermott.) Depending on how it orders its operations, Indiana can still use its more than $20 million in cap space to sign players, and then execute the Brogdon trade afterward and carry the exception all through this season.
This deal isn’t risk free for the Celtics: Brogdon is signed for three more years at a total of $68 million, and has struggled with injuries the last four seasons. When healthy, however, he’s a major ballhandling and shooting upgrade for a Celtics bench that got exposed in the 2022 finals. For a team this close to the promised land, it’s worth the plunge.
(Photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)
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