The NBA trade deadline has passed

There are many Celtics fans who love Marcus Smart, myself included.

It made many people upset when they traded him to the Grizzlies as a part of the Kristaps Porzingis deal in June of 2023.

On Thursday, the Grizzlies traded him to the Washington Wizards along with a 2025 first round pick for Johnny Davis, Marvin Bagley and 2 second round picks. The deal also sent Jake LaRavia to the Kings, a player I wanted the Celtics to trade for.

This is a two-sided coin because of course, Brad Stevens looks really smart for getting off of Smart at the exact right moment.

Of course, that is the right way to think as Smart has only played in 39 games since the trade due to various injuries and is shooting just 32% from three in those contests. On the eve of the trade deadline, he went 0/6 from the field and 0/3 from three scoring 0 points in the Grizzlies 138-107 win over the Raptors — getting two first round picks and Tyus Jones, who Boston flipped for Porzingis, for him was great business.

It turns out, this became a really bad trade for the Grizzlies.

That does not mean I have to like it.

He was the heart and soul, who so many of us loved and trusted so dearly and now he is being shipped off to Washington like he is Malcolm Brogdon. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

No, he is not going to get bought out and even if he was, the Celtics cannot sign a player that makes over $12.8 million anyways.

I do think his and Khris Middleton’s leadership will help in Washington. Both guys are tough players who have been through so many wars in the playoffs, so for Washington’s young guys to be around those two dudes every day will help the Wizards in the long run. This is a good trade for the Wizards and I hope Smart plays games for Washington down the stretch of the season.

Again, that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

In fact, I very much do not like it. Sending my guy off to the Wizards, to play for a team that has yet to win ten games this season is not something I like in the slightest.

I will be rooting very hard for the Grizzlies to fail because of what they did to Marcus.

In other news, the Celtics did make a trade, sending Jaden Springer, a 2030 second round pick and a protected 2027 second round pick to the Rockets for a protected 2031 2nd round pick. Springer was subsequently waived by Houston.

No, the Celtics cannot sign him thanks to Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

That’s because Golden State traded him last July, and the NBA has a rule that prohibits teams from trading a player and then re-signing him during the same league year. It’s known as the Zydrunas Ilgauskas rule, after the Cleveland Cavaliers traded their longtime center in 2010, then re-signed him when Washington bought him out. Other teams didn’t like it, so the NBA upped the restricted period from 30 days to a year.

We all loved the Jaden Springer game but at the end of the day, he just wasn’t going to be on the court on the in the playoffs because the three pointer just was not there. Every time he was on the court, he would just stand in the corner and the opposing team would not have to guard him.

He is just a career 25% from beyond the arc so it was smart for the opposing team to not guard him.

His toughness on the defensive end was admirable and he played with awesome effort, but this moved saved the Celtics $15 million in tax savings. Of course they were going to do it.

While I don’t love trading a future 2nd, this move is not a big deal. There is probably a deal coming at some point that takes the Celtics out of the 2nd apron that will make everyone upset, but this certainly was not that.