What the Celtics have in Malcolm Brogdon is utterly unfair.
It truly is.
Think about this: Boston was without soon-to-be two-time All-Star guard Jaylen Brown Saturday night in Charlotte, and then it lost Brown’s replacement in the starting lineup, super role player Derrick White, just four minutes into the game.
And where did the Celtics get to turn from there? Oh, just to a guy who has logged a 50/40/90 season and who has averaged more than 20 points per game over the last two seasons combined.
Unfair.
And what did that guy do Saturday night? Oh, he just scored 30 points on a red-hot 11-for-17 shooting effort that included four makes from beyond the arc and another five at the rim.
Outrageously unfair.
Teams shouldn’t be allowed to have that type of depth. Yet here we are in 2023, and Boston most certainly does.
That’s thanks to what is regarded by many as the shrewdest move of the offseason, when Brad Stevens acquired Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for a crop of players led by Aaron Nesmith, as well as a future first-round draft pick.
Stevens’ move gave the Celtics everything they needed to reach new heights: an additional playmaker, a well-established shooter, another versatile defender, and maybe most importantly, unrivaled depth. Brogdon has filled plugged all of those holes at the highest of levels this season, which has placed him as one of the leaders in the clubhouse for the Sixth Man of the Year award.
Brogdon has been exceptional across the board this season, outside of a brief two-week blip from mid-December through the first of January. He’s now averaging 14.1 points per game off the bench in only 23.7 minutes of action per contest. That’s an average of 21.4 points per 36 minutes, which ranks ninth in the league among reserves. It’s notable that he’s one of five members of that group who plays for a winning team, and he’s not only doing this for a winning team; he’s doing it for the winningest team, all while taking a back seat to two of the top scorers in the league in Brown and Jayson Tatum.
It also must be pointed out that Brogdon has shot the ball at such a high level this season that he has a legitimate chance at logging his second 50/40/90 shooting season. He currently owns percentages of 48.5 percent from the field, 45.2 percent from long distance, and 89 percent from the free-throw line.
If Brogdon finishes above the 50/40/90 threshold, he will become just the third player in the history of the NBA to log multiple such seasons, joining Larry Bird and Steve Nash.
What’s most remarkable about Brogdon’s incredible season is that he’s logging it while playing an entirely new role. Prior to joining the Celtics, he had been a full-time starter for the last four-plus seasons, and for most of those seasons, he was the team’s go-to offensive player.
It’s an embarrassment of riches to have a player of Brogdon’s caliber coming off the bench. Teams shouldn’t be able to lose a top-15 scorer, and then an All-Defensive level player who is shooting 37 percent from the floor, and just continue on as if nothing happened.
The Celtics were able to do that Saturday night, and Brogdon is the reason why.