Stevens delves into Celtics’ trade, draft

The Celtics finalized the three-team deal that sends Marcus Smart to the Grizzlies and brings Wizards center Kristaps Porzingis to Boston late Wednesday night. They also received the 25th overall pick in Thursday night’s NBA Draft in that deal, and president of basketball operations Brad Stevens used it to make a flurry of trades, eventually selecting Arkansas forward Jordan Walsh with the 38th pick and adding four future second-round choices.

Stevens met with media at the Auerbach Center in Brighton at about 2 a.m. Friday to discuss these moves and other offseason matters. Here are the highlights.

▪ Smart’s departure

Stevens choked up when he spoke about trading Smart, who had come to the Auerbach Center on Thursday morning to say some goodbyes and gather his belongings. Stevens called the decision to trade the team’s longest-tenured player “really hard,” but added that he simply needed to address the backcourt logjam.

Smart was drafted in 2014, prior to Stevens’s second year as head coach, and was a key part of the franchise’s revival.

“The greatest legacy you can leave is to be someplace and it’s better off because you were there,” Stevens said. “And I think that everybody here feels that way. I think that he will always be appreciated and thought of so fondly here for any number of reasons.

“Obviously everybody loved the way he plays and how hard he plays, but also his work in the community.

“We’re all really grateful to have had Marcus in our life for as long as we’ve had and are sad to see him go, but know that he’s going to have a huge impact on a really good Memphis team.”

▪ Porzingis’s arrival

It was difficult for Stevens to trade Smart, but he made the deal because he thinks Porzingis could be a potent weapon. Stevens gushed about the 7-foot-3-inch center, pointing out that he will be able to play with just about any combination of players.

“He can play defensively the way we want to,” Stevens said. “He’s a deterrent at the rim, and he’s a super-skilled basketball player.

“We didn’t post up a ton this year, but to be able to throw the ball in the post and just shoot over a switch and do

it so efficiently and effectively is a big deal, let alone being able to play behind the line, shoot the ball or drive it, or those types of things. He brings a lot to our team. You can envision, as I can envision, some of the lineups we can put out there size-wise right now, pretty intriguing and without dropping any skill at all. So, that’s a good thing.”

Porzingis opted in to his $36 million player option for next season to make this deal possible, and Stevens said he was hopeful that the sides will be able to negotiate an extension. Porzingis will be eligible for a two-year, $72 million deal starting July 6.

“He’s at a point where he’s starting to, I think, really play at his best I’ve seen,” Stevens said.

Brogdon’s status

The Celtics were on the verge of sending guard Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers in the three-team deal before it crumbled because of Los Angeles’s concerns about the forearm strain that limited Brogdon during the playoffs.

Stevens declined to discuss the collapse of that trade and said it’s unclear whether Brogdon will undergo surgery, but he was confident in a positive outcome.

“He’s felt better and better and better, and he’s going to continue to do so and it’s going to be monitored,” Stevens said. “If they need to go in and do that, then he can choose to. But he can also choose not to in the way he’s feeling. We’re very confident that he’ll be on the court and be good.”

A wild draft night

After trading down multiple times, the Celtics eventually drafted Walsh and added the Mavericks’ 2024 second-round pick, the best of the 2025 second-round picks of the Wizards, Warriors, or Pistons (top-55 protected), the best of the 2026 second-round picks of the Timberwolves, Knicks, or Trail Blazers, and the Hawks’ 2027 second-round pick.

“We had a list of guys that we were really comfortable with,” Stevens said. “The guy we ended up getting was on that list. So for us, when offers came in to continue to build up our assets and restock some of those that we’ve lost over the years, it made sense.

“We were excited that we were able to get out of tonight with more picks to be used in any variety of ways, obviously, and then a good player in Jordan.”

The Walsh pick

Walsh, a 6-7 forward, averaged 7.1 points and 3.9 rebounds as a freshman for the Razorbacks last season. He is a defensive menace with great athleticism, but his offensive game is unpolished.

“He’s a good prospect,” Stevens said. “He’s young. We don’t expect him to come in and take the world on fire. He has a special ability laterally with his wingspan to, like, swallow people up defensively. He really creates havoc with his arms and with his energy and with his ability to move his feet. He’s a better shooter.”

Stevens said the Celtics brought Walsh to Boston for a pair of workouts, and that his offensive skill set has potential.

“I’ve always thought his touch looked good, but he looked hesitant at times,” said Stevens. “And so I think over time he’ll become a really good shooter who has the athleticism to finish and drive closeouts, but he’ll be ahead on the defensive end from the start.”