Malcolm Brogdon didn’t think Boston was interested in him before trade

Heading into the 2022 NBA offseason, UVA alum Malcolm Brogdon thought he was going to become a Washington Wizard.

“I heard the Pacers loved the idea of having that 10th pick and two picks in the lottery, and I knew Washington needed a good veteran point guard to pair with Bradley Beal. I knew I fit his timeline and knew that everything fit,” said Brogdon (18.9 ppg, 6.3 assists/g, 5.1 rebounds/g, 44.7% FG, 35.2% 3FG, 32.9 minutes/g in three seasons in Indiana), who became expandable as the Pacers set out to rebuild under Rick Carlisle, a UVA alum who just finished his first season as the head coach in Indiana.

Brogdon was very much looking forward to settling down in Washington as Beal’s running mate, but basketball is a business, and things don’t always go as expected.

“As we got closer to the draft that day, my agent called and said, ‘It’s probably not going to happen, Washington looks like they are going in a different direction and use that 10th pick and not trade it,’” Brogdon told NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski on the edition of the Woj Pod that dropped today.

“By the time we got to the draft that night, I realized I was not going to go to Washington, which wasn’t crushing. It was a change of mindset.”

Brogdon found out the day before the trade was finalized between Indiana and Boston that the Celtics were a player.

He said Brad Stevens, Boston’s president of basketball operations, made it clear that the Celtics wanted to slot Brogdon in a sixth-man role, which Brogdon made clear he is ready to accept.

“I’ve made a lot of money, I’ve won a lot in Milwaukee, I’ve won some in Indiana. But I really want to get back to winning at a high level. I want to win a championship. So whatever I can sacrifice, to get back to that championship level, I’m willing to do it and compete,” Brogdon said.

Brogdon is coming off an injury-shortened 2021-2022 season in Indiana, in which he played in only 36 games.

Injury concerns were a factor in why Brogdon fell all into the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft, according to an unnamed NBA general manager who spoke with Heavy.com.

“The knock against him coming out of college is that he had terrible knees,” the GM said. “I mean, some of the examinations were really suspect in terms of how long his lower body would be able to take NBA pounding. So that’s why he ended up going in the second round, because he was damn near red-flagged.

“So, the fact of the matter is he’s probably better off coming off the bench with limited minutes, trying to be impactful in 18 rather than trying to play 30 and always being injured.”

Brogdon will be paired with Derrick White (11.0 ppg, 3.5 assists/g, 40.9% FG, 30.6% 3FG, 27.4 minutes/g in 2021-2022 in Boston) off the bench in the Celtics backcourt, spelling starters Jaylen Brown (23.6 ppg, 6.1 rebounds/g, 3.5 assists/g, 47.3% FG, 35.8% 3FG, 33.6 minutes/g last season) and Marcus Smart (12.1 ppg, 5.9 assists/g, 3.8 rebounds/g, 41.8% FG, 33.1% 3FG, 32.3 minutes/g).