Eddie House: What Malcolm Brogdon’s Business Means For Marcus Smart originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Malcolm Brogdon trade brings a lot of excitement to Boston. It also raises a few question marks.
The obvious question arising from Friday’s deal is: What does this mean for? Marcus Smart† The Celtics’ backcourt has suddenly found impressive depth with Brogdon, Smart, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard in the fold, but head coach Ime Udoka will have to decide whether to roll with Brogdon or Smart in the starting lineup.
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That’s obviously a good deal going into the 2022-23 campaign. If Brogdon is healthy – a big “if” so far in his career – he will be a great addition to Smart with his scoring ability. Plus, in today’s NBA, we can’t rule out the possibility of Udoka going small with lineups that include both Brogdon and Smart. Former Celtic Eddie House believes we will see a lot of that next season.
“I think they could both be there,” House said Friday on Boston’s NBC Sports Early Edition† “I think we’re living in a positionless life in the NBA right now, where it doesn’t necessarily have to be one point guard and be a backup point guard. You can have two guys dealing with and playing basketball.
“I think what Marcus Smart is doing on defense is invaluable, so you can’t have him on the bench in crunch time because he’s going to have to guard the best perimeter player on the other team. So I think you’ve got Brogdon out there. , do you have Jaylen Brownyou have Jayson Tatum† And then you have Rob Williams or Al Horford, depending on how you want to play the game. I think that’s the flexibility, that’s what they have that other teams want, that depth.
“I think that’s what was missing in these playoffs. We had depth, but they just didn’t show up. I think if you add these pieces you have a chance for these guys to show up. And these are vets That’s the difference. These are vets we’re going to depend on to get off the couch, unlike some really young players we had last year.”
Brogdon averaged 19.1 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds in 36 games with Indiana last season. Another question mark is the health of the 29-year-old as he has not played more than 60 games since the 2018-19 season due to injury.
Regardless of how Udoka chooses to continue with his starting lineup, Smart is excited to have Brogdon as his teammate. He welcomed both Brogdon and forward Danilo Gallinari to the squad via Twitter on Friday.
Hear everything House had to say about Brogdon and Smart in the video above, plus what he had to say later in the show below: