Celtics
He was the first non-first-round pick to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award in the common draft era.
Malcolm Brogdon was named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 2016-17 season.
The Celtics acquired guard Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers in a trade on Friday.
Brogdon, who will turn 30 in December, averaged 19.1 points, 5.9 assists, and 5.1 rebounds for the Pacers last season and is signed through the 2024-25 season. He spent his first three seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks before joining the Pacers after the 2018-19 season.
Here is what you need to know about the newest Celtic.
He played four years at Virginia
In what is increasingly becoming a rarity for top NBA prospects, Brogdon played four years of college basketball at Virginia. As a senior, he was named the ACC Player of the Year and was the conference’s defensive player of the year two years in a row. He led the Cavaliers to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament before a loss to Syracuse denied them a trip to the Final Four.
Brogdon has two degrees from Virginia — a Master’s in public policy and an undergraduate degree in history.
He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2016-17
Despite his impressive college career, Brogdon slipped to the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft. He was finally selected by Milwaukee with the 36th pick overall, well after the Celtics picked Guerschon Yabusele (16th) and Ante Zizic (23rd), both of whom are out of the league.
He went on to average 10.2 points, 4.2 assists, and 2.8 rebounds for a Bucks team that won 42 games and was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Toronto Raptors. The other two finalists for the award were forward Dario Saric and center Joel Embiid.
He was the first non-first-round pick to win the award in the common draft era.
He joined an exclusive club
In his third year in the league, he became the eighth player since 1987 to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from the 3-point line, and hit 90 percent of his free throws for a full season.
It’s an impressive group, with Larry Bird turning the trick twice from 1986-88. Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry also did it twice, while Steve Nash accomplished the feat four times.
Brogdon joined the club in 2018-19 when he shot 50.5 percent from the floor, 42.6 percent from beyond the arc, and 92.8 percent from the line in his final season with the Bucks.
Kyrie Irving became the latest member of the group in 2020-21 with the Nets.
Injuries have been a concern
After playing 75 games in his rookie season, he missed 30 games with a partially torn left quadriceps tendon. In his third year in 2018-19, he missed the end of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs with a plantar fascia tear in his right foot.
This past season, he missed 41 games with pain in his Achilles.
He is active off the court
Brogdon launched the Brogdon Family Foundation with a focus on two main initiatives: Hoops4Humanity and the JHA Education Project. Its vision, as posted on the foundation’s website, “seeks to create a more equitable world by empowering children, families, and communities to reach their potential and thrive.”
Hoops4Humanity, which is modeled after former Patriots linebacker Chris Long’s “Waterboys” initiative, is made up of NBA and WNBA players and “partners with community leaders to bring clean water and education infrastructure to improve health and educational outcomes.”
In December of 2020, Brogdon was named the winner of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Named after the NBA’s second commissioner, the honor is presented by the Professional Basketball Writers Association to a player, coach, or athletic trainer who shows outstanding service and dedication to the community.