{"id":122070,"date":"2025-02-05T12:22:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T17:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=122070"},"modified":"2025-02-05T12:22:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T17:22:39","slug":"boston-celtics-officially-trade-champion-jaden-springer-houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/05\/boston-celtics-officially-trade-champion-jaden-springer-houston-rockets\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics Officially Trade Champion to the Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just a day before the deadline, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/03\/celtics-guerschon-yabusele-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Boston Celtics<\/a> have made their first trade of the season. According to ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania, the Celtics have traded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sprinja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaden Springer<\/a> and a 2030 second-round pick to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/05\/rockets-kevin-durant-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Houston Rockets<\/a>. Both teams are also reportedly swapping &#8220;heavily protected&#8221; second-round picks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Boston Celtics are trading Jaden Springer and their 2030 second-round pick to the Houston Rockets, sources tell ESPN. Both teams are also exchanging heavily protected second-rounders. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rhcmgvvJQo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/rhcmgvvJQo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1887180814779085121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This move does not come as a major shock. For much of the season, many expected the Celtics to move on from Springer. The 22-year-old guard is an impending restricted free agent and played spotty minutes in Boston. Additionally, by moving his contract, the Celtics now save roughly $15 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Boston moving Jaden Springer is about opening an additional roster spot and reducing their tax bill. Roughly $15M in actual dollars saved by the Celtics in this move, before signing a replacement player.<\/p>\n<p>Houston takes a flyer (assuming they keep Springer) and picks up an\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=smithke06,smithke03&amp;search=Keith+Smith&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keith Smith<\/a> (@KeithSmithNBA) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KeithSmithNBA\/status\/1887182373269479513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Boston Celtics Officially Trade Jaden Springer to the Houston Rockets<\/h2>\n<h3>Jaden Springer Showcased His Potential in Boston<\/h3>\n<p>Springer played 43 games with the Celtics across the past two seasons. In those games, he averaged 1.9 points and 1 rebound. While his stats are nothing to write home about, Springer proved that he is a talented defender. Recently, head coach Joe Mazzulla praised Springer for his defensive capabilities. Mazzulla also said Springer &#8220;makes everyone better around him defensively.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s gotten a couple of turnovers, some deflections, and just his on-ball defense,\u201d Mazzulla <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/celtics\/2025\/01\/celtics-guards-play-creates-interesting-conundrum-amid-trade-rumors.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>. \u201cI think certain guys bring certain things to the table, and then when he\u2019s out there, he makes everyone better around him defensively just because of his physicality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a lot to like about Springer in Boston, but he was in a tough spot. Despite his talent and potential, he never stood a fair chance to crack Boston&#8217;s rotation. He was playing behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitede01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick White<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holidjr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jrue Holiday<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pritcpa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-02-05_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Payton Pritchard<\/a>. Unfortunately for Springer, especially because of his limited offensive game, there was not much of a role for him with the Celtics. Additionally, with how much money the Celtics saved by moving him, a trade seemed inevitable.<\/p>\n<h3>What Jaden Springer Brings to Houston<\/h3>\n<p>Springer is a good player who should play well with the Rockets. He is a tremendous defender and is still young. The Rockets currently rank as the fourth-best defensive team in the NBA. Adding Springer to the mix should only make them even better in this area. Furthermore, Springer provides depth in Houston. He will not be a starter for the team, but he should be able to earn a bigger opportunity than he did in Boston.<\/p>\n<p>This is a low-risk, high-reward move for the Rockets. It helps the team out now, but because of his contract situation, Springer can also become a long-term contributor in Houston as they inch closer to legitimate title contention.<\/p>\n<p>Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a day before the deadline, the Boston Celtics have made their first trade of the season. According to ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania, the Celtics have traded Jaden Springer and a 2030 second-round pick to the Houston Rockets. Both teams are also reportedly swapping &#8220;heavily protected&#8221; second-round picks. The Boston Celtics are trading Jaden Springer and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4631,"featured_media":100298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,2,31,62],"tags":[4326],"class_list":["post-122070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-featured","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-jaden-springer"],"modified_by":"Elie Deglaoui","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4631"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122081,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122070\/revisions\/122081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}