It feels like every team in the NBA is becoming a title contender this offseason, except for Brooklyn. I’m just glad the Celtics are trying to be one of them as they just picked up Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers for Daniel Theis, Aaron Nesmith, and a 2023 1st-round pick. A bargain, I know.
Coming off a great year, which included sweeping the Nets in the First Round, duking it out with the Bucks and Heat in two consecutive seven-game series, then just coming up short to the Golden State Warriors in the Finals was a better finish to the season than any Celtics fan could have imagined. Yet, this team had some glaring holes that needed to be fixed in the offseason. A new point guard was one of them.
Marcus Smart just won the 2021/22 NBA Defensive Player of The Year, I know. He is a stalwart defensively, shutting down opposing team’s playmaking guards night-in and night-out. I get that too. But it is also fair to say that he only averaged 12.1 PPG. Now, that is not a horrible stat, but a starting point guard for an elite basketball team should be averaging more.
Or at least, have a backup who can average more. Malcolm Brogdon is that backup.
With the Indiana pacers last season, Brogdon averaged 19.1 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 5.9 APG. Groundbreaking? No. But very serviceable for a 6th man/rotation point guard.
Besides, the Celtics don’t need Brogdon to average 28 PPG or 10 APG, they have Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to do that. They also don’t need him to lockdown opposing point guards as they have Marcus Smart for that. They just need Brogdon to give the team a needed offensive jolt to propel them to win close games.
Having Brogdon’s 19.1 PPG could have been the difference in that Game 4 loss to the Warriors, where the Celtics were up by 4 with five minutes to go.
Anyway, the Celtics can still start Smart in the vast majority of games next season. They will need his defensive prowess now more than ever as the NBA title-fabric is rapidly changing. But having a guy who can actually put up around 20 PPG from the bench is huge for a team that struggled with secondary scoring all season.
With Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown still learning and developing, this Malcolm Brogdon acquisition just relieves some of the offensive pressure from their shoulders.
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