Malcolm Brogdon chose the Celtics when the Pacers let him pick his destination
New Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon had a few options during the offseason when the Pacers looked to move him along, helping facilitate their rebuild.
Brogdon appreciated that from the Pacers, who signed him to a two-year extension in Oct. 2021. As for his destination, Brogdon had a couple of ties to the Celtics — Brad Stevens recruited him to Butler in college before he ended at Virginia, and Brogdon is a VP of the Players Association along with Jaylen Brown.
But more importantly, Brogdon wanted to win even though he knew he might not have an enormous role with the Celtics.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m the sixth man, whatever role I’m playing,” Brogdon said on Monday. “I’m going to accept it and I’m going to go out there and embrace it. I want to add on to what this team has. This team has a great unit, great chemistry.
“They were on the verge of winning a championship as we saw and they needed a little bit more. So I’m going to come and add-on to what’s already going on.”
Brogdon expects the Celtics’ backcourt to be a menace defensively with himself, Marcus Smart and Derrick White. The Celtics have a lot of competent defenders, including their stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Robert Williams made the All-Defense second team last year and projects as a potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate on his current trajectory.
But Smart was last year’s Defensive Player of the Year, and adding Brogdon to the mix should help.
“Jaylen and Jayson that make the game easier for us and take the pressure off of us on both sides of the ball, but those guys’ roles are to lead this team on offense and to score the ball and to be the monsters they are,” Brogdon said. “Our job as a backcourt is to make it easier for them to defend when they need to focus on offense and be great defensively and support them offensively.”
Brogdon added that he does not anticipate any issues between himself and Smart, who is entrenched as the team’s starting point guard. He said he and Smart have been friendly for years, and the two have connected to get to know each other better since Brogdon arrived in Boston.
“Since I’ve gotten here, he’s been great,” Brogdon said. “He’s been terrific. I think people build up a feud between us about ‘They’re bringing in a point guard,’ yada yada.
“At the end of the day, me and Marcus are going to be on the floor a lot together, playing together. Me and Marcus have different strengths, work really well together. And we’re both really competitive and are going to push each other and help each other.”
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