Celtics Pursue Christaps Porzier in Three-Team Trade with Wizards, Clippers: Sources

by Shams Charania, Jared Weiss, Josh Robbins, Lou Murray, and Jay King

The Wizards, Celtics and Clippers are in aggressive talks about a three-team deal that would send Christaps Borzies to Boston, Marcus Morris and a compensation transfer to Washington and Malcolm Brogdon to Los Angeles, league sources say. the athlete. The two sides are still working through the details and Porzingis’ $36 million player option for next season.

The deal is considered a “high possibility,” according to a source in the league familiar with the negotiations. Boston will also need to field additional salary, with $6.8 million expiring Danilo Gallinari to fill the gap to reach the salary matching threshold.

The Wizards showed interest in bringing back Porziņģis but several teams were notified of an interest in the 7-foot-3 big man. Washington acquired Porziņģis in February 2022. He averaged 23.2 points last season, along with 8.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists Decisive in 32.6 minutes per game.

Morris, 33, averaged 11.2 points and four rebounds a game with Los Angeles. Brogdon, 30, didn’t start last season for the first time in his career. He scored 14.9 points along with 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per night.

Athletic Instant Analysis:

Why do witches move Porziņģis

Ever since the Wizards agreed to trade Bradley Beal, it’s been clear that the franchise’s new decision makers want to rebuild. The follow-up question was: How far do Michael Winger and Dawkins want to go? Do they want to go to the buttons?

A trade involving Porziņģis certainly indicates that ripping the roster down to studs is the direction the Wizards brass wants to go.

When the Wizards agreed to trade Beal, the return to the Wizards was limited in terms of project capital that could lead to the start of the rebuild. The three-team trade Porziņģis is involved in should be able to provide some additional draft capital.

In order for the Wizards to trade Porziņģis right now, Porziis must first exercise his player option for the 2023-24 season. The option is worth $36 million.

Today is the deadline for Porziņģis to exercise that player option, which partly explains the urgency to get this trade done.

The other reason for urgency: The 2023 NBA draft will be held Thursday night, and having an additional draft capital in a Poorzy trade — depending on what the draft capital will be — would give the Wizards the ability to use it on draft or repack night. Trying to advance in the draft.

Borzier has been beloved by his teammates, coaches and team officials ever since he was traded for him in February 2022. He has been a positive influence on fellow youths, most notably striker Denny Avdija.

Porziņģis made it clear last season that he enjoyed playing in Washington and would be happy to stay with the franchise in the right long-term deal. But a lot has changed since the end of the season, including the firing of president and general manager Tommy Sheppard, the signings of Wenger, Dawkins and Travis Schlink, and the trade of Bell. Porziis has not commented on these substantive changes, but it is not out of the question that he would not be interested in participating in the rebuilding.

A trade with Boston would allow him to compete for a championship. He would also transfer the rights to his Bird to Boston, who would then have the freedom to override his cap to re-sign him or extend his contract.

It should also be noted that any deal that sends Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers would apparently eliminate the Clippers as a possible destination for the Wizards to redirect Chris Paul, one of the outgoing Suns players in the Bale deal. – Robbins

What Porziis will bring to Boston

The Celtics will take a risk on Borzies, who has been plagued by injuries his entire playing career. With only a year left on his contract, assuming he chooses to facilitate this trade, he will likely leave as a free agent out of next season. Assuming the cost isn’t too great, it would still make a lot of sense in Boston. It will give the Celtics more lineup options in the frontcourt. It will allow them to play larger formations more consistently. It was giving them a steady supply of low register. And he would have done all of that without forcing the Celtics to sacrifice a lot of the outside shooting that made them so hard to stop this past season. – king

Brogdon suit in Los Angeles

There are many layers to a potential Clippers acquisition of Brogdon. As convenient as it gets, the Clippers have always had their eye on Brogdon since the pre-draft process in 2016, interviewing him at the combine and bringing him in for a workout; The Clippers ended up using a first-round pick on Brice Johnson instead, one of the most unfortunate picks for the front office led by Doc Rivers. Brogdon has since blossomed into Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year.

The upside for Brogdon as he enters his eighth season in the NBA is the same as ever: He’s a hulking guard (6-foot-4, 229 pounds) capable of playing all three positions because of his combination of size, skill, and willingness to defend. Brogdon has long arms, big hands, and plays under control. Shoots high: 48.4/44.4/87.0, with a 3.7 to 1.5 assist-to-spin ratio.

It’s Brogdon’s downside that makes him such a good fit for the current Clippers’ syndrome: he’ll turn 31 in December, his durability is an annual question, several seasons shortened by injury, and his athleticism is on the verge of a cliff. , and he’s on the hook for $22.5 million each of the next two seasons. Brogdon also doesn’t force turnovers, so he won’t help the Clippers in one of their areas of weakness defensively.

Getting Brogdon makes for interesting Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook questions. Will the Clippers still try to get pee by trade? Paul is 38 years old and will turn 39 next May in the qualifiers. The only point guards to have played more than 15 minutes per game in NBA postseason history at that age were John Stockton, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Derek Fisher, and Jason Terry. And only Fisher, Terry, and Kidd, in low and totally ineffective innings, were on the teams that won the playoff series at that age and position. Brogdon makes more sense in terms of getting a playmaking guard to play Leonard and George. But it also means that only one Paul or Westbrook can be signed to a minimum deal as well, and the Clippers seem to prefer waiting on Paul before making a decision with Westbrook.

The Clippers traded Morris to end a four-year period in which Morris was paid off and expected to produce as the team’s third-best starting forward alongside Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Morris has certainly had his moments helping the Clippers, such as his postseason in 2021 where he guarded much bigger players while hitting high 3s and the 2022-23 season where Morris was a primary scoring option with Leonard and George absent in action. Morris was a physical presence in the lineup at the power forward.

But the athleticism already suited to Morris has evaporated further over the past three years. By last season, Morris was one of the lowest active rookies in the NBA in terms of stealing, blocking, and offensive rebounding rates. Nor is Maurice’s shooting, while not a liability, sufficient enough to justify his complete absence in other parts of the Earth. While Robert Covington was essentially suspended again and again last season, it took until late March for the Clippers to finally tune in to Morris under the cover of health and safety protocols and back spasms. Trading Morris, who has one year left on their deal, removes the possibility of him being overcharged again next season.

But it also opens up what was already the biggest positional issue in the team, as neither Covington nor Nicholas Batum would be ideal starters at this point in their careers. Even after this trade, the Clippers had more work to do in the starting lineup. – Murray

background story

in March , the athlete reported that Porziņģis and the Wizards were in talks about a contract extension as Porziis revokes his player option for the 2023-24 season and signs a new long-term deal. The Wizards could offer Porziņģis a maximum of four years and $180 million if he chooses the next year and extends his deal.

The Celtics fell down an 0-3 hole in this year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat before bouncing back to force a seventh game. Miami defeated Boston 103-84 to advance to the Finals. Boston last reached the Finals in 2022, losing to the Warriors in six games.

required reading

(Photo: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)