Well, that didn’t take long. Just a few months after the Celtics dumped Kristpas Porzingis to the Atlanta Hawks for salary relief, Atlanta has already given up on the experiment. The move was touted at the time, and adding KP to Trae Young and Jalen Johnson had many thinking the Hawks could be surprise contenders in the East this season.
But instead, things have gone off the rails in Atlanta. They’ve started the season just 25-27, stuck in ninth place in the conference, and Porzingis has played in just 17 games while battling illness and injury.
And just like that, Atlanta called it quits on Porzingis. Late on Wednesday night, they agreed to trade the Latvian sharpshooter to the Warriors in exchange for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield. The two teams are desperate for some change and hoping to shake things up by swapping their own problems for somebody else’s.
Celtics were clowned for their frontcourt to start season
When the season began, a big part of the reason that the Celtics weren’t being taken seriously was their center room, made up of unproven Neemias Queta and Luka Garza. Along with Porzignis, they lost AL Horford and Luke Kornet and didn’t replace them with any established NBA talent at the position.
Fans were upset that Boston wasn’t doing more to address the position and bemoaning what was lost, but a few months later, the script has completely flipped.
Queta and Garza have outplayed Porzingis and Horford
Queta and Garza have simply been more available, more reliable, and flat-out better than Porzignis and Horford this season. Not only did the Celtics save money, but they appear to have gotten out at just the right time and moved on to an extremely cost-efficient replacement pairing that has helped Boston surge to a 33-18 start to the season.
The Celtics’ young big man combo has been two of the most improved players in the league, while KP and Al have largely been shells of themselves. I can’t imagine Brad Stevens and company envisioned things working out quite this well, but I’m also pretty confident that they know what they’re doing.
It’s sad to see what has happened with Porzignis, and who knows, maybe he’ll be able to get back on track with the Warriors. On paper, he’s a dream fit with Steph Curry as the two could pick and pop teams to death.
But at this point, betting on that would be a fool’s errand, and there’s no reason to think things will somehow turn around. It has been trending this way for a while, certainly since his final season in Boston, and like usual, Stevens was one step ahead of the game.