Brad Stevens empathizes with Malcolm Brogdon after reportedly nearly trading him, says he’s expected to be ready for start of season
Celtics Brad Stevens empathizes with Malcolm Brogdon after reportedly nearly trading him, says he’s expected to be ready for start of season “Malcolm’s really important and that really, that was tough." Brad Stevens reportedly nearly traded Malcolm Brogdon a year after trading for him.
Malcolm Brogdon was the guard the Celtics were initially supposed to trade for Kristaps Pozingis.
As you likely know by now though, Brogdon didn’t make his way to the Clippers in what would’ve been a three-team trade. Instead, Boston kept Brogdon and traded Marcus Smart to Memphis in order to still acquire Porzingis from Washington in a separate three-team trade.
Now, Brogdon remains on the Celtics and is in a weird spot where he knows he was heavily involved in trade talks and appeared to be on the verge of getting traded.
Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens admitted that Borgdon was put in a hard spot after what happened late Wednesday night.
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“Malcolm’s really important and that really, that was tough,” Stevens said in an interview with NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg. “He certainly doesn’t deserve that, and I feel for him. We’ve talked obviously since then. There are a lot of narratives out there because of that that are certainly inaccurate.”
It appeared that the Clippers might have gone through with the trade had there not been any holdups about Brogdon’s right forearm, which he injured in the Celtics’ Eastern Conference finals loss to the Heat.
But there have been conflicting reports about the severity of Brogdon’s forearm injury in recent days. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported that Brogdon has a “health issue that is so significant that as I understand it, that not only can the Celtics not do this trade, there’s probably no Malcolm Brogdon trade that they can do in the short term.”
However, it’s unclear if Brogdon will need surgery on the injured forearm and the Clippers’ concern was more focused on not having enough time to complete a physical exam, The Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach reported. Because Porzingis had until midnight set to pick up his $36 million player option, the teams involved in the trade were operating under a deadline late Wednesday night to get the deal done.
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In the event that Brogdon has to undergo surgery, he is expected to be ready by the start of the regular season in October, according to Himmelsbach.
Stevens also expects Brogdon to be ready for the start of the season.
“The bottom line is, he’s going through a period of four-to-eight weeks where he’s resting and rehabbing, as suggested by our docs and as suggested the third-party doc he went to see,” Stevens said. “He feels good, and we expect him to be back right at the start of the season and have the great year that he’s had every year he’s been in the league.
“We’re excited about that, but it’s hard for him. That’s the other part, like being in the rumors and stuff, that stinks. We’ve talked about it, that’s hard.”
As Stevens made it sound like Brogdon will remain in Boston for the 2023-24 season, the Celtics could certainly use him. Obviously, their guard rotation became thinner by trading Smart and Brogdon appears to be the backup point guard moving forward.
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Brogdon had a strong season in a similar role in his first year in Boston. He scored 14.9 points and averaged 3.7 assists per game as he shot 48.4 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from deep to win the Sixth Man of the Year Award.
Source: Boston.com
