If you were going to sum up the Boston Celtics‘ 2023 NBA offseason in a single word, which one would you choose to do it with? For Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz, the word that best reflects the Celtics’ offseason this summer is a “gamble” given the injury history of the star they swapped veteran point guard Marcus Smart for as their main move since the end of the league’s 2022-23 season.
To Swartz, “there’s no denying that swapping a staple of the franchise … for Kristaps Porzingis was a major gamble” given the Latvian center “has only played an average of 50.3 games per year for his career.”
That is math that is hard to argue with, even if there have been signs that Porzingis’ health is trending up of late, an unsettling bout with plantar fasciitis that will keep the Celtics center out of 2023 FIBA World Cup play aside (and plenty of Boston fans will be happy to tell you it should not be put aside).
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“A two-year, $60 million extension means Boston has over $96 million committed to Porzingis over the next three years,” notes the B/R analyst.
“That’s quite a gamble,” he argues — and we would be hard-pressed to make a case that it was not.
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