Celtics are trading Kristaps Porzingis to Hawks in 3-team deal | Reaction + Trade Grades

Celtics are trading Kristaps Porzingis to Hawks in 3-team deal | Reaction + Trade Grades

the NBA. The Boston Celtics are trading Kristaps Porzingis to the Hawks as part of a three team deal with the nets. That’s according to ESPN. Boston receives Georges Niang in a second round pick, while the nets get Terance Mann in Atlanta’s number 22 pick. It’s the second major trade in the past 24 hours. The Celtics have pulled off to shed salary after sending Jrue Holiday to the trailblazers and taking a look at the trade details, as it’s reported, Hawks getting Porzingis in a 2025 second round pick. The nets getting Terance Mann that number 22 pick in the draft. Nets with an ample selection of picks through the first round. Meanwhile, three team trade Celtics receiving Georges Niang 2025 second round pick. We’re now joined by CBS sports NBA analyst John Gonzale, on the heels of yet another blockbuster trade at the hands of the Celtics. And the first domino fell on Monday after they traded away Jrue Holiday to the Blazers to shed a chunk of their luxury tax. But even after the move, they still needed to trim nearly 20 million to get under the luxury tax apron. But John, how would you just describe these last 24 hours for the C’s? Yeah, this is an A for the Celtics right? I mean, I know that if you’re a Boston Celtics fan or a casual NBA fan, hearing the words second apron and luxury tax probably leave you a little bit of cold. But what we’re talking about here is really significant. I mean, this reduces their luxury tax penalty. These last two moves where they dumped Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis by over $200 million. Now why is that significant. Well it gets you out of the second apron by $4.5 million. That was always the goal. Why do you want to be out of the second apron. Well if you’re in the second apron for a year or two, that really restricts how you can build your team. The heavy restrictions on, you know, aggregating salaries, how much money you can take back your picks get frozen. It really binds you up. So Brad Stevens being able to dump these two guys that everybody in the league knew he was trying to get off of, and then on top of that he gets three second round picks back George Niang and Anfernee Simons is expiring contract I know that this is like kind of wonky stuff here. But Brad Stevens is a really good job by him. And now the Celtics going forward they can maybe listen to offers on Derrick White. Maybe listen to offers on Jaylen Brown. You know, if you get bowled over, who knows? It gives you some optionality. And there’s even a world where they could even duck the luxury tax altogether. If they get off of Sam Hauser and move him into a mid-level exception. So on the whole, for the Celtics, this is a really tidy bit of business for them. Aprons, luxury taxes. I just appreciate you making sense out of all of this for the casual fan. But John, with these recent moves, the Hawks now out of the salary cap second apron that you were discussing. But do you think Brad Stevens is maybe done dealing or do you expect more moves to be made? Yeah. Who knows what the Celtics now? Now they don’t have to really bargain from a position of oh man, we absolutely have to duck that second apron. Right. Because previously as I said I mean you were looking at like 500 million for a team that was going nowhere without Jayson Tatum. And Jaylen Brown just had surgery. So now all of a sudden okay if you’re the Celtics you can sort of reset this thing on the fly. Who knows what happens if like Giannis becomes available right. All of a sudden maybe their Wheeler dealers. Nobody expected them to get Jrue Holiday from the Blazers the first time around and turn it into a championship contender and then win a championship. So the Celtics for whatever reason, teams keep dealing with them and helping them out. I can’t believe that Portland gave them two picks for Jrue Holiday, who I like quite a bit, but everybody knew that they were trying to move off Jrue Holiday. That just bowls me over. I thought that the picks would have had to go the other way to Portland to get Portland to take Jrue Holiday contract off their hands, but I don’t know. They got some sort of magic pixie dust in Boston. Kiana I’m just going to give a lot of credit to Brad Stevens being able to move some things around. It’s been really impressive what he’s been able to do. But now I want to ask just what does that addition of Porzingis mean for the Hawks. Because think about a healthy Porzingis. Does that move the needle for Trae Young. It’s fine. It’s a B I’ll call it a B I mean if you’re the Atlanta Hawks you were playing team last year I don’t know that you’re going to be much better than a Play-In team this year. Even in a topsy turvy upside down Boston Celtics rebooting on the fly without Jayson Tatum. Eastern Conference. Right I mean, at the top of the Eastern Conference, you’ve got the Cavs for sure. And then the Knicks and then a bunch of question marks. We don’t know where the Celtics are really going to slot. The Indiana Pacers obviously don’t have Tyrese Haliburton. This team is fine. I like Kristaps Porzingis a lot. But as we all know he’s been really injury prone. So if he’s out there and he’s healthy and he’s playing, sure it would be a boon for the Atlanta Hawks. But I still don’t see them as Eastern Conference contenders. But this is a fine move for them okay. Maybe a step in the right direction is a nice way to put that there with the addition of Porzingis. But the nets now have five first round picks. No team in NBA history has ever made five selections in the first round. Just how aggressive maybe do you expect Sean Marks to be over the next 24 hours. Yeah. Aggressive right I mean this is the team to watch. I think that this is an A for the nets. The nets have a ton of cap space. They could free up about $45 million or so. And then also as you mentioned, they have five first round picks. I did the math. That’s one sixth of the picks in the first round are controlled by the nets. Now the nets I think are big game hunting. They they were kind of hoping that maybe Giannis would have come free and put his hand up and looked around and said, I want out by now. Now it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen, certainly not by tomorrow. But who knows. As the offseason progresses and then into the into the regular season. But yes, the nets are definitely going to be movers and shakers here. Maybe they move up, they package some of these picks. Maybe they they only have five players under contract. Kiana. So I mean maybe they end up taking all these picks. I, I certainly doubt it. It feels like Sean Marks is going to be a very busy man tomorrow and this offseason as he tries to build out a roster because you have to spend up to 90% of the cap. And as I mentioned, they have five players under contract. Two of them are Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton, who should have been gone a year ago, still on that team for reasons surpassing understanding. So I would expect a whole lot of activity from the Brooklyn Nets. Yeah, this is a team. So we talk about how they have so many picks. You did the math for us. Thank you for doing that for us. But you think about this. This is a team that now has the opportunity to be very flexible when it comes to Wednesday night, what they’re able to do with all of those picks, especially considering their first round picks. But John, I was originally going to ask you, you know, let’s let’s make a report card shall we. A three team trade. Everybody’s doing certain things getting certain assets. But you kind of went down the list for us. So I just want to recap for us. Let’s start off with the C’s. What they were able to do shedding off that that that salary. At what grade would you overall get them. And then we’ll move along. Yeah yeah the Celtics are an A for sure. I mean as I said Brad Stevens everybody in the NBA knew that he was looking to dump one of or both of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. Well first he moves Jrue Holiday to the Blazers. And he gets two picks back in an expiring Anfernee Simons. And then today he does it again with Kristaps Porzingis gets a second round pick in that three team deal. This reduces their luxury tax penalty by $210 million. Why is that significant. Again it gets them under the second apron. The second apron is super onerous when it comes to team building heavy restrictions on aggregating salaries. Your picks get frozen that whole bit. There’s a world now where they even duck the luxury tax entirely if they can move off of Sam Hauser. So look, I again, I realize that if you’re a casual NBA fan or even a Celtics fan two years removed from winning an NBA championship, now we’re talking about reducing luxury tax bills. And it’s not your money and all that, all that stuff. If you’re just talking about the Boston Celtics repositioning themselves as they move forward to be contenders in the future, this is Brad Stevens setting them up to do that and doing it in a world where everybody knew he was trying to do, and he’s still getting assets back. Very impressive. Impressive stuff. Celtics getting an A. The nets A with the way that they’re able to dominate the first round. Meanwhile John Gonzalez saying the Hawks may be. John Gonzalez is always thank you so much for breaking down that information and doing math for us. That was really, really helpful. And don’t forget, even though the nets are owning the first round with picks eight, 19, 22, 26 and 27, we’ve got you set for all 30 picks. With NBA draft on the clock coverage, we will have you set from pick

John Gonzalez joins CBS Sports HQ to talk about the Celtics trading Kristaps Porzingis to the Hawks.

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