kRistaps Porzingis will play for the Boston Celtics, Marcus Smart will go to the Memphis Grizzlies and Tyus Jones, Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala will sign for the Washington Wizards thanks to a three-way trade agreed on Wednesday.
In a hectic day of dispatches in the NBA just one day before the draft takes place, Wednesday began with the very advanced negotiations for Porzingis to arrive in Boston in an operation in which Malcolm Brogdon ended up in the Los Angeles Clippers and Marcus Morris He will go to the Wizards.
However, Adrian Wojnarowski, one of the journalists with the best sources within the league, assured on ESPN at night that that tripartite agreement had derailed and that the Celtics were exploring other partners to be able to get the services of Porzingis.
This agreement had to be negotiated against the clock, since a key point was that Porzingis exercised his option to accept a contract of 36 million dollars next season but the deadline to activate that route expired at midnight on the East coast.
Finally, the Celtics and the Wizards found the third vertex of this triangle in the Grizzlies and the operation came to fruition a few minutes before that deadline.
As part of the deal, the Grizzlies will send two first-round draft picks to Boston (one in 2023 and one in 2024) while the Celtics will trade a second-round pick this year to the Wizards.
Porzingis, former player of the New York Knicks and the Dallas Mavericks and who played for Sevilla Basketball from 2012 to 2015, will thus reinforce a team aiming for the title with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Bron and Marcus Smart.
The 27-year-old Porzingis has posted a brilliant average of 23.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game this year with the Wizards after his tenure with the Mavericks was marred by a long series of injuries.
For his part, Smart, the best defensive player in the NBA in the 2021-2022 academic year, will prop up with his veteran and claw the project of some young and very talented Grizzlies headed by Ja Morant.
