Now that the Boston Celtics have officially acquired Malcolm Brogdon from the Indiana Pacers, they officially have the most versatile backcourt rotation in the entire NBA.
That’s right – with the addition of Brogdon, the Celtics now have three starter-level guards who can play both backcourt positions, at both ends of the floor, at a very high level.
Simply put, no other NBA team possesses this type of two-way, lead-guard versatility with players who are in their prime.
Brogdon is set to team up with Marcus Smart and Derrick White to create a three-headed, two-way monster for Boston. All three players can defend multiple positions, all three players have received All-Defensive team votes within the last three-plus calendar years, and all three players boast career averages of at least 10.5 points and 3.8 assists per game.
This trio will give head coach Ime Udoka unlimited options in the backcourt, and that doesn’t even account for the presence of Payton Pritchard, who has proven himself to be one of the top 3-point marksmen in the league who can also dig in at the other end.
Brogdon joins the Celtics after splitting his first six seasons between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers. He carries career averages of 15.5 points, 4.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game with him to Boston.
The guard is one of only nine players in NBA history who has logged a 50/40/90 shooting season (he did so in 2019), and he’s known as a strong playmaker with the ball in his hands. Brogdon, who is 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-11 wingspan, has also been regarded throughout his career as a high-level defender; he was the collegiate Defensive Player of the Year in 2016, and he received All-Defensive Team votes as recently as 2019.
Those who know anything about the NBA already know that the Celtics already possess two other versatile, two-way guards in Smart and White. Those two guards helped to propel Boston to within two wins of a championship this past season.
Smart stands in at 6-foot-3 and is the NBA’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year. He has averaged at least 10.2 points and 4.6 assists during five of his last six seasons, and he logged a career-best 5.9 assists per game last season. Smart has led Boston in assist average during each of the past three seasons.
White, meanwhile, joined Boston midseason and lived up to his reputation as an elite defensive weapon who can also make plays at the offensive end of the floor. At 6-foor-4, he is considered by many to be one of the top perimeter defenders in the league, and he has averaged at least 11.3 points per game during each of the past three seasons.
All three players received All-Defensive votes in 2019. Smart, the DPOY, and White received votes this past season as well.
The versatility that Smart and White brought to the table this past season, combined with Pritchard’s elite shooting, gave opposing teams anxiety. Now that Boston has added Brogdon into the mix, that level of anxiety is sure to bump up another couple of levels.