The Boston Celtics are set to welcome former All-Star big man Kristaps Porzingis to the Hub following a blockbuster offseason trade between the Celtics, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Washington Wizards. This comes following a disappointing 2023-24 campaign that failed to produce a repeat trip to the Finals. By trading for Porzingis, Celtics president Brad Stevens shuffled the deck and changed the tenor and geography of Boston’s roster in a major way.
The move wasn’t without controversy. Landing Porzingis meant saying goodbye to Marcus Smart, the longest-tenured member of the team, its defensive anchor, and a key leader on and off the court. It’s a trade that marks a major inflection point for the Celtics, and it will take time to fully appreciate the totality of the trade.
“I said this at the start of the summer,” Stevens said in a recent press conference. “I thought that we needed to balance our roster and make sure that we looked at the best ways to do that. And that meant that we were going to likely lose a really, really, really good player.”
The sting of losing Smart may linger for a while, but adding a player of Porzingis’ caliber is a special opportunity. So who exactly is Kristaps Porzingis? What has he done in his time in the NBA prior to coming to Boston, and why is he sometimes called a “unicorn”? And perhaps most importantly, what does he add to the Boston Celtics?
Celtics president Brad Stevens explained why he believes Kristaps Porzingis will fit in perfectly with the Boston Celtics. https://t.co/zEYi9jzJXa
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) June 23, 2023