Malcolm Brogdon trade grades: Who won the Celtics and Pacers reported deal?

It didn’t happen ahead of the most recent trade deadline, and it didn’t happen at the 2022 NBA Draft. But it did happen on Friday, July 1 — it being the Indiana Pacers trading away Malcolm Brogdon, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The long-rumored transaction is finally a reality, per Woj, as Brogdon heads from the Midwest to the East Coast to join the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics.

Meanwhile, the Pacers clear up a bunch of long-term money and recoup a future first-round pick in the process to help aid their rebuild.

Let’s take a look at the deal from both sides to determine the early winner of the trade.

CELTICS GET: Malcolm Brogdon

PACERS GET: Daniel Theis, Aaron Nesmith, Nik Stauskas, Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan, 2023 first-round pick

(Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports)

GRADE: B+

Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon feel very duplicative, but that is a good thing. Neither is a true point guard or shooting guard, but both do well simultaneously wearing the playmaking hat and the off-ball stuff. The duality in that backcourt should be fantastic.

Assuming Brodgon moves into the starting unit to fill the backcourt alongside Smart, the Celtics will be better, and Jayson Tatum’s and Jaylen Brown’s lives will be a bit easier on both ends of the court. We saw in the 2022 NBA Finals how much of the offensive burden Brown and Tatum had to carry in the halfcourt, while also then having to keep up with the guards on the other end. Brogdon should relieve some of that responsibility.

But the keyword there is should. Brogdon remains a huge injury risk (just 146 games over the last three seasons), but considering how very little it took to acquire him, he’s worth the risk.

GRADE: B-

I’ll try to be as short and to the point with this as possible.

Tyrese Haliburton, who the Pacers just traded for at the latest trade deadline, is the point guard of the future. Indiana also isn’t very good and is entering a rebuild, so doing away with Brogdon and his $65 million owed over the next three seasons was something that had to be done.

Yet, it seems like they could have gotten more? At least, that’s what it feels like from my seat — I am not on these trade calls (obviously). When healthy, Brogdon is a very good two-way guard who immediately makes a championship-contending team better.

But age, a larger contract and poor health probably aren’t very enticing to those teams that were looking to be a trade partner — so, I somewhat get it.

(Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports)

Maybe Nesmith ends up being something. Theis could get flipped, but if not, he’s a fine placeholder while the Pacers rebuild. Everyone else involved is unimportant.

Nevertheless, I LIKE the trade for Indy but don’t LOVE it.