Celtics in ‘Strong Talks’ to Trade for Mavs Ex Kristaps Porzingis

After spending a season and a half with the Washington Wizards, it looks like former Dallas Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis is about to be traded to the Boston Celtics.

Dalton Trigg | Jun 21, 2023

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Less than a week after the Phoenix Suns got the trade frenzy started by swinging a deal for Bradley Beal with the Washington Wizards, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers are apparently getting in on the fun just a day before the NBA Draft gets underway.

According to a report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Boston, Washington and Los Angeles are in “strong talks” on a trade that would send Kristaps Porzingis to the Celtics, Marcus Morris and draft compensation to the Wizards and Malcom Brogdon to the Clippers.

“Sources: Wizards, Celtics and Clippers are in strong talks on a trade that would send Kristaps Porzingis to Boston, Marcus Morris and draft compensation to Washington and Malcolm Brogdon to Los Angeles. Sides are still working through details and Porzingis’ $36M player option,” Shams tweeted.

Porzingis spent two and a half seasons with the Dallas Mavericks before he was traded to the Wizards at last year’s deadline in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. Dinwiddie went on to be a main piece in the Mavs’ trade for star point guard Kyrie Irving earlier this year.

On paper, Porzingis should fit in well next to Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. However, he was also supposed to fit in well next to Mavs star Luka Doncic on paper as well, but the two were just never able to click they way the Dallas front office hoped they would.

Some of that was due to injuries, and some of it was simply style-of-play differences, but the idea of Porzingis was always a lot more optimistic than the reality, as he just simply didn’t affect wins and losses even when he did play. Regardless, it’ll be intriguing to see Porzingis playing a role on a true championship contender next season.

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Published Jun 21, 2023

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.