As Portland trades another guard derived from a previous deal, they now have yet another guard on their hands to put on the market. Following their trade of Damian Lillard for Jrue Holiday and draft picks, the Trail Blazers flipped Holiday to the Boston Celtics for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III, and two first-round draft picks. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, teams are expected to call the Blazers surrounding Brogdon’s availability.
The Celtics acquired Brogdon last summer coming off their NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors. The move wasn’t made to correct any deficiencies from that matchup, but because of the price and opportunity. They didn’t trade a single major rotation player other than Daniel Theis, and the first-round pick they moved turned out to be the 29th overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft. Acquiring Brogdon ended up being a vital move for Boston since it allowed them to parlay his salary into Holiday.
Brogdon was brought into Boston to play a reduced role off the bench. The smaller usage and gravity around scoring threats Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown allowed Brogdon to have one of his most efficient shooting seasons. He had the best three-point shooting season of his career in Boston at 44.4 percent, making him somewhat of a specialist off the ball. One of his biggest issues is his injury history, which has impacted his trade value. His 67 games played last year were the most since the 72 he played in his rookie season.