The Malcolm Brogdon trade brings plenty of excitement to Boston. It also brings a couple of question marks.
The obvious question as a result of Friday’s deal is, what does this mean for Marcus Smart? The Celtics’ backcourt suddenly boasts impressive depth with Brogdon, Smart, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard in the fold, but head coach Ime Udoka will have to decide whether to roll with Brogdon or Smart in the starting lineup.
Celtics Talk: What does Malcolm Brogdon’s addition mean for Celtics, Marcus Smart? | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
Of course, that’s a good problem to have heading into the 2022-23 campaign. If Brogdon is healthy – a big “if” so far in his career – he’ll be a great complement to Smart with his scoring ability. Plus, in today’s NBA, we can’t rule out Udoka going small with lineups that include both Brogdon and Smart. Former Celtic Eddie House believes we’ll see plenty of that next season.
“I think they both could be out there,” House said Friday on NBC Sports Boston’s Early Edition. “I think we live in a positionless right now in the NBA to where it doesn’t necessarily have to be one point guard and have a backup point guard. You can have two guys that handle the basketball and make plays.
“I think what Marcus Smart does on the defensive end is invaluable, so you can’t have him on the bench in crunch time because he’s going to have to guard the best perimeter player on the other team. So, I think you have Brogdon out there, you have Jaylen Brown, you have Jayson Tatum. And then you have Rob Williams or Al Horford depending on how you want to work the game. I think that’s the flexibility, that is what they have that other teams want to be able to have that depth.
“I think that’s what lacked in these playoffs. We had depth, but they just didn’t show up. I think adding these pieces, you have an opportunity for these guys to show up. And these are vets. That’s the difference. These are vets that we’re going to be depending on coming off the bench as opposed to some real young players that we had last year.”
Brogdon averaged 19.1 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds in 36 games last season with Indiana. Another question mark will be the 29-year-old’s health as he hasn’t played in more than 60 games since the 2018-19 campaign due to injury.
Regardless of how Udoka chooses to proceed with his starting lineup, Smart is fired up to have Brogdon as his teammate. He welcomed both Brogdon and forward Danilo Gallinari to the squad via Twitter on Friday.
Hear everything House had to say about Brogdon and Smart in the video above, plus what he had to say later on in the show below: