Malcolm Brogdon in the middle of the Celtics offseason plans

Brogdon was great for the Celtics this year. So why does everyone want to trade him?

• By
  
  Jeff Clark
  
• on June 9, 2023 10:00 am

Malcolm Brogdon was just about everything the Celtics could have hoped when Brad Stevens traded for him last offseason. He accepted a role off the bench and excelled in that role to the point of winning 6th Man of the Year. He was 2nd on the team in 3 point shooting at 44.4% (just behind Elite Shooter Al) in the regular season and flirted with another 50%-40%-90% year. He even gave the team another ball handler that could get his shot off when the offense broke down in the playoffs.

So why does it make sense to trade him? (as several experts have suggested) Well, there are a few reasons.

Positional duplication

Adding Brogdon to a backcourt that already included Marcus Smart, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, and Payton Pritchard was always an “embarrassment of riches” situation. This became even more apparent once Derrick White started to thrive (essentially having the 3rd best all-around season on the team). The excess of guards and Rob Williams’ injury led Joe Mazzulla to go away from the double big lineups. It also had the collateral damage of burying poor Payton Pritchard on the bench.

Meanwhile, the team needed to lean heavily on Jayson Tatum to handle the bulk of the small forward minutes and we saw a lot of Luke Kornet and Blake Griffin sopping up minutes at center.

Going forward it would make a lot of sense to have one less guard and a little more depth at the wing and big man spots.

Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images

The new CBA and his salary

In case you haven’t heard, the NBA owners and players association agreed upon a new collective bargaining agreement that has some pretty restrictive penalties for teams with really high payrolls. I won’t go into all the specifics (because math is hard) but the upshot is that NBA teams would be wise to get their books in line this summer so they don’t get backed into uncomfortable salary cap corners next offseason.

Brogdon happens to have a pretty high $22M per year salary (which he earned and deserves) which is third highest on the team. That’s a lot of cash to tie up in a guy that essentially is a luxury on the roster. He also just turned in perhaps his best season and certainly his most healthy one (excepting the end of the playoffs). Trading him this summer would likely be selling high and could provide Brad Stevens an opportunity to balance out the roster better.

So what can the Celtics get in a Malcolm Brogdon trade?

I know how this goes. If I post actual trade ideas, the site will melt down with over-the-top criticisms and nit picking. Well not today! I’m going to…