Brogdon Reveals That He Chose Celtics Over East Rival In Trade Destination

It's not often that a player in the NBA has the choice to pick his trade destination. But the Indiana Pacers gave 6-year veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon that option, as talks were about to pick up after the NBA Draft at the end of June.

Brogdon told SiriusXM NBA Radio he was given the choice of the Boston Celtics or Toronto Raptors, and he chose Boston.

We had a choice to pursue — there wasn’t an offer on the table yet from either of them but the Pacers came to me and said we could pursue either of them and which one would I rather pursue? I chose Boston.

His reasoning? The Celtics were closer to a title. “I thought this team was farther along,” Brogdon said of Boston. “They have a superstar in Jayson Tatum and probably another superstar in Jaylen Brown as well. I thought it would be a great fit for me because I wanted to win right now.”

The 29-year-old Brogdon is set to be the Sixth Man for the Celtics, and he has said that he's ready to bring the defense that this team is built on. “I think we can be the best defensive backcourt in the league for sure."

The Raptors have been in need of a solid backup point guard for the past year, and he would have been a great fit. But what the Raps were willing to offer will likely never be known. Second-year players Dalano Banton and Jeff Dowtin are two lead guards that have had very good camps for Toronto, and either could be the choice to backup Fred VanVleet to start the season.

Fair play to Brogdon tbh. Between him and the reported Schroder interest, seems the Raptors looked for backcourt help and came up short this summer. Something to monitor as the season goes on. https://t.co/phBGk1qo6C
— Vivek Jacob (@vivekmjacob) October 14, 2022