{"id":130625,"date":"2025-06-28T04:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T04:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/130625\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T04:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T04:18:13","slug":"kristaps-porzingis-trade-grades-celtics-continue-to-shed-salary-hawks-get-bigger-and-nets-showcase-flexibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/130625\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is trade grades: Celtics continue to shed salary, Hawks get bigger and Nets showcase flexibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Celtics are not kidding around when it comes to saving money right on the heels of Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear during the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The team traded Jrue Holiday to the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>, shedding both immediate and long-term money by taking back Anfernee Simons.<\/p>\n

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Now, the Celtics are sending center Kristaps Porzi\u0146\u0123is and a second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> in a three-team deal with the Brooklyn Nets that sees Boston taking back the contract of Georges Niang ($8.2 million) and a second-rounder, meaning they clear over $22 million off Porzi\u0146\u0123is’ $30.7 million salaty.<\/p>\n

So, how did the Celtics manage to do that?<\/p>\n

That’s where the Nets come into play because they had oodles of cap space coming into the summer.<\/p>\n

The Nets are taking on the contract of Terance Mann ($15.5 million), fully absorbing him into their available cap space and taking the 22nd overall selection in Wednesday’s NBA Draft from Atlanta as compensation for it.<\/p>\n

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So, let’s get into the motivations for each of the three teams.<\/p>\n

We already outlined Boston wants to save money<\/a>, which is certainly achieved here. The organization has seemingly managed to get under the second apron, meaning their tax bill will lessen dramatically.<\/p>\n

The Nets are basically renting out their cap space for the 22nd pick and acting as the oil between the Celtics and Hawks. This gives the Nets a grand total of five first-round selections in Wednesday’s draft: Nos. 8, 19, 22, 26 and 27.<\/p>\n

And, ah yes, the Hawks. They did this to get some legitimate size. While Onyeka Okongwu has fared admirably in the froncourt, they needed someone taller who can protect the rim better.<\/p>\n

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Enter Porzi\u0146\u0123is, a 7-foot-3 unicorn who spaces the floor and shoots 3-pointers with ease \u2014 when healthy. The Latvian center will make a highly intriguing passing target for point guard Trae Young and should help improve their defense. But Porzi\u0146\u0123is has averaged 52.5 regular-season games the past six seasons because of various injuries, and that’s buoyed by a 65-game season in 2022-23.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have suddenly become a huge team. Outside of the 6-1 Young, they’ll be starting 6-8 Dyson Daniels at off guard, 6-10 Zaccharie Risacher at the three, 6-9 Jalen Johnson at the four and Porzi\u0146\u0123is at the five.<\/p>\n

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That’s the allure for the Hawks. And to their credit, they identified a player who isn’t going to cost them a lot of future money. Porzi\u0146\u0123is has an expiring contract, meaning the Hawks could try to extend him at a more reasonable number down the line.<\/p>\n

No one came out of this looking desperate or relinquishing too much. Not a lot of long-term salary was involved, and the surrendered 22nd selection to Brooklyn is a late one.<\/p>\n

This appears to be a solid round of business for all parties.<\/p>\n

Nets: ACeltics: B+Hawks: B+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Celtics are not kidding around when it comes to saving money right on the heels of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[4329,208,7,75,670,247,3803,206,499,2990,77,2038,871,6,671,493,471,7290,494,1246],"class_list":{"0":"post-130625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-anfernee-simons","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-brooklyn","13":"tag-brooklyn-nets","14":"tag-brooklynnets","15":"tag-dyson-daniels","16":"tag-georges-niang","17":"tag-jalen-johnson","18":"tag-jayson-tatum","19":"tag-jrue-holiday","20":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nets","23":"tag-onyeka-okongwu","24":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","25":"tag-terance-mann","26":"tag-trae-young","27":"tag-zaccharie-risacher"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114759067663661913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}