The Pacers agreed to a veteran protection transaction Malcolm Brogdon arrive Celticsaccording to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Agreement will send the center Daniel Theiswing Aaron Nesmithand the first pick in 2023 for Indiana, Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter). Nick Stauskas, Malik Fittsand John Morgan Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter).
Wojnarowski explained that the Celtics wanted a “real defender of the game”.via Twitter), and can do so without including any of their core players in the bundle. Brogdon has faced frequent injuries throughout his six-year career, but has been effective on both ends of the court when healthy.
In 2021/22, the 29-year-old averaged 19.1 PPG, 5.9 APG and 5.1 RPG in 36 games (33.5 MPG) for the Pacers. Brogdon’s three-point percentage dropped to 31.2% last season, but he’s still a 37.6% career shooter from outside the arc.
While Brogdon’s name frequently pops up in commercial rumors this season, he’s mostly been linked to the Wizards and Knicks in the weeks leading up to the draft. Washington solved its point protection loophole by agreeing to buy back Monte Morris and sign Delon Wrightwhile New York landed Jalen Brunson in free agent. That opened the door for another Eastern Conference club to make a deal with the Pacers.
Brogdon will earn $67.6 million over the next three seasons, including $22.6 million in 2022/23. To match his salary and make the trade legit, the Celtics would have to include five players in their pack – the most expensive of those players, Theis, is making $8.69 million la next season, while Nesmith will make $3.8 million. Stauskas, Fitts and Morgan had unsecured minimum wage contracts, which would be guaranteed for matching purposes, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
Celtics, who also reported agreed sign Danilo Gallinaricurrently has about $167.5 million committed for 11 players, according to Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston (Twitter link), so group ownership doesn’t seem to worry about paying the tax bill in 2022/23. Depending on how much tax Boston is willing to impose, the club could also use its $17 million commercial exception, which will not be used in the deal.
Meanwhile, the Pacers are concerned about Grant Williamsaccording to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (Twitter link), but ultimately still willing to accept the Celtics’ first-round pick in 2023 could land quite late into the 20s.
Indiana could also see value in Theis and Nesmith, but the deal is biased towards the first round and the flexibility that limited moves away from Brogdon would create. In addition to offsetting some long-term payoffs, the Pacers now have about $31 million in cap room scheduled for this summer, tweets The point.
The two teams will have to wait until July 9 to officially finalize the transaction, Marks noted (via Twitter), as Morgan cannot be dealt with until then.