The Boston Celtics could have used another second-round pick to add a rostered player at a discount and further help their luxury tax situation. Instead, they sent their own second to the Orlando Magic as the finishing touch to the awful Evan Fournier trade.
In an interesting twist, that pick actually came back to the Boston Celtics as they picked up four second-round picks for trading down from No. 32. They used pick No. 57 on VCU guard Max Shulga, a large playmaker who defends at a high level and can knock down shots. He is an ideal flier for a two-way contract with Boston, but they had to work to get their pick back.
To trace the lineage of this second-round draft pick, we have to go all the way back to November of 2020. Gordon Hayward's time in Boston was unfortunately tragic and disappointing, so all parties involved were ready for a fresh start when Hayward agreed to sign a lucrative new contract with the Charlotte Hornets.
The Celtics didn't want to lose the former All-Star for nothing, however, and paid the Hornets a pair of second-round picks to create a large "traded player exception" which it could use down the road to acquire a player in a trade without sending out matching salary.
Leap ahead to the Trade Deadline, and the Celtics were hunting for a talent upgrade and wished to use the trade exception before it expired. That led them to target French wing Evan Fournier, currently playing for the Orlando Magic. The Magic were beginning a roster reset and the veteran Fournier was available -- for the low cost of just two second-round picks, one of which was a 2025 pick that just now conveyed.
The Fournier trade was a disaster
Fournier's time in Boston, meanwhile, was an unmitigated disaster. He shot only 44.8 percent from the field in just 16 games, was perhaps the worst defender on the team and found his way to two turnovers per game despite what was theoretically supposed to be a lower-usage role.
Boston was therefore all-too-happy for Fournier to leave in free agency the next summer; yet once again their front office decided he would be more valuable to them if they could maintain his salary slot. When he agreed to a new contract with the New York Knicks, therefore, they paid the Knicks another future second to create a new traded player exception.
And that exception....expired unused a year later.
For those keeping score, therefore, the Celtics spent a total of five second-round picks, starting with Gordon Hayward's departure for 16 games of uninspiring play from Evan Fournier. It was an unmitigated disaster of a series of moves. That doesn't necessarily mean the Celtics were wrong for the initial move, but they identified the absolute wrong target in Fournier and continued to throw good money after bad.
Thursday night's draft was the final twisting of the knife, the final reminder of Boston's ineptitude. Moving forward, they no longer need to remember the failed Fournier era. This pick boomeranging back to them was the final piece of shrapnel.