Celtics gave up Marcus Smart in Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster for roster ‘balance’

The Celtics fell just one game short of reaching the NBA Finals in 2022-23, and this coming season, they hope to climb that final mountain.

To get there, according to team president Brad Stevens, the team needed a more well-rounded approach.

This focus prompted the team to pull off a blockbuster three-team trade with the Wizards and Grizzlies on Wednesday where they acquired Kristaps Porzingis and sent Marcus Smart to Memphis.

“I said this at the start of the summer: I thought that we needed to balance our roster and make sure that we looked at the best ways to do that,” Stevens said Friday, according to ESPN.

“And that meant that we were going to likely lose a really, really, really good player.”

Porzingis, 27, had a player option for the 2023-24 season and could have opted out of it to become a free agent.

But the Latvian big man agreed to opt into his contract, and the trade went through.

The 7-foot-3 forward was at his best with the Wizards this past season, as he tallied a career-high 23.2 points with 8.4 rebounds per night.

With those numbers in mind, the Celtics feel like they’re getting an all-world talent that can help put their squad over the top.

“I thought he had just really taken another step,” Stevens said, according to Boston.com “He was already good, but he just took another step.

“He’s been a really good player thus far and only has gotten better,” Stevens said. “I think to me, that’s the part that really stands out. Sometimes when you’re the fourth pick in the draft and you get all these accolades and all this attention and all these eyes, and you’re going through your growth process, there’s some ups and downs.”

As for Smart, Boston is losing one of the premier defensive talents in the league who was the 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year.

After nine years in Boston, Smart averaged 11.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists while playing 30 minutes a night.

Stevens was effusive in his praise for Smart and said that Boston was better because of his presence on the team.

“The greatest legacy that you can leave is to be someplace and it’s better off because you were there,” Stevens said Friday. “And I think that everybody here feels that way.”

Though Smart, according to the Boston Globe, felt the trade was a “complete shock,” he did thank the team and city for “all the love” he felt in Beantown with a lengthy note on Twitter.

With Porzingis in tow, the Celtics will now look to hang their first NBA championship banner since 2007-08.