3 Boston Celtics players that benefited the most from NBA trade deadline

The 2022 NBA trade season is officially over, and though the Boston Celtics didn’t ultimately make that always highly-coveted blockbuster transaction, they certainly did some much-needed fine-tuning to their rotation.

Easily the biggest move made by Brad Stevens and co. was the trade with the San Antonio Spurs that brought the savvy fifth-year combo guard, Derrick White, to Eastern Massachusetts to help serve as a quality two-way counterpart within the backcourt, be it alongside or backing up the likes of starting one, Marcus Smart.

All in all, taking into account each move made during this year’s campaign leading up to this past Thursday’s trade deadline, we at the Houdini are quite happy with how things played out, as these deals not only help benefit the team as a whole by bringing in some added firepower to their rotation, but it also could wind up benefiting a number of the team’s remaining players from an individual perspective as well.

With this in mind, today we present to you 3 Boston Celtics players who we believe could wind up being the most positively impacted by what transpired prior to the passing of this year’s trade deadline:

Boston Celtics player No. 1) Aaron Nesmith

Of the seven players traded during Thursday’s deadline, the departures of two, in specific, that seemingly hit Boston Celtics fans the hardest were Romeo Langford and Josh Richardson.

With this duo having played such lucrative roles within the team’s scheme thus far into the season (particularly Richardson), them departing now leaves a significant amount of playing time out on the wing in need of filling and, while some may argue that the C’s should strongly prioritize pursuing someone on the buyout market to bolster the depth at this position, perhaps now is the perfect time to see what exactly this team has in last year’s lottery pick, Aaron Nesmith.

Season two has been anything but ideal for the former 14th overall selection, as we find him boasting mere averages of 3.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in just 10 minutes a night.

Considering just how much hype the wing came into this campaign with after having a strong finish to his rookie year, absolutely showing out in the Summer League, and then producing admirably all throughout the preseason, his production to date has been quite upsetting to see.

However, when taking into account how crowded the wing position has been all season, it’s somewhat easy to convince one’s self into giving Nesmith a pass, for his time found on the court has been equally as inconsistent as his play itself.

Coming into the 2020 NBA Draft, Nesmith was viewed by many as arguably the best shooter, and one of the best scoring prospects in his respective class.

At just 22-years-old while being just under two years into his very young career, the concept of seeing his potential come together at the next level is still very much a real possibility.

Perhaps all he’s needed was a larger role and a bit longer of a leash to tap into it and, with both Richardson and Langford now out of the picture, we may just yet see him receive both of these luxuries.