Boston Celtics: 2 Marcus Smart trades Cs should consider making

Boston Celtics land a new starting point guard option, Indiana fills out roster

Aside from the report that Brad Stevens has grown frustrated with Smart, SI also stated that “Boston’s brass isn’t too comfortable opening the season with a point guard depth chart topped by Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard.”

While the fanbase has obviously grown to love their veteran leader, even deeming him to be the lifeblood of Boston Celtics basketball, it’s understandable that with the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in tow, their rotation of floor generals may not be seen as the most ideal fits for their core.

Instead, the team’s front office should look into acquiring a talent that has proven to be naturally capable of running an offense while also having a more reliable long-range shooting stroke (Smart holds a career 3-point shooting clip of 32 percent).

Should they look back to the trade route, perhaps a target they should strongly consider pursuing is Indiana Pacers point guard, Malcolm Brogdon.

Like Smart, Brogdon is a multi-faceted talent who can score, rebound, and defend.

This past season, the 28-year-old posted impressive all-around averages of 21.2 points, 5.9 assists, and 5.3 rebounds on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 39 percent shooting from deep.

Since signing his 4-year, $85 million deal with the Pacers two summers ago, the point guard has posted impressive per-game averages of 18.9 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.1 rebounds on 45 percent shooting from the floor and 36 percent shooting from deep.

With this in mind, many may be asking themselves why Indiana would want to part with someone who has been so effective for them, at least when it comes to the stat sheet.

Well, if rumors are true, the franchise has been “listening to offers” for the point guard for months now, and, most recently, it was reported that he was offered up in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Frankly, it makes quite a bit of sense is the Pacers looked into flipping him for other assets that better support their two focal points in Domantas Sabonis and Caris LeVert, especially considering that Brogdon is a ball-dominant player and they apparently would like to run more sets with LeVert serving as their point-forward.

Due to the fact that the Cs could use a little bit of everything heading into next season, perhaps a do-it-all player like Brogdon could be the right person to run the show and to have paired alongside Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown moving forward.

That said, obviously the Indiana Pacers aren’t going to just hand over a player like this for nothing, thus meaning the Boston Celtics will have to offer up some solid assets in return.

Not only does this mean Smart would be heading to Indianapolis, but, also the likes of Aaron Nesmith & Romeo Langford, a future first, and two future seconds would be heading there with him.

Smart, obviously, would be coming in to man the point guard position in place of Brogdon.

Nesmith, who was last year’s No. 14 overall selection, would be coming in as a promising young talent for the team to try and develop into being a foundational performer moving forward.

Towards the end of last season, the 21-year-old showed glimpses of being a solid offensive wing in the NBA, averaging 9.7 points and 4.9 rebounds on 54 percent shooting from the floor and 45 percent shooting from deep during their final 10 games.

As for Langford, though he may have had a rough go at things throughout his first two seasons in the league, he’s an Indiana native/ former Indiana Hoosier standout who’s still on his rookie deal after being selected in the lottery back in 2019 and possesses potential as a solid two-way role player.