Celtics land Kristaps Porzingis, Grizzlies add Marcus Smart in 3-team trade

TheWashington Wizards have agreed to trade center Kristaps Porzingisto the Boston Celtics, a person with knowledge of the deal saidWednesday night.

The personspoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because theagreement hadn’t been announced. The trade comes with Porzingisaccepting his player option for next season.

ESPNreported the deal also includes the Memphis Grizzlies, who areacquiring guard Marcus Smart from Boston in exchange forfirst-round draft picks in 2023 and 2024. ESPN also reported theWizards are receiving guard Tyus Jones from Memphis, and forwardsMike Muscala and Danilo Gallinari and a second-round pick this yearfrom Boston.

The Celticsadd the 7-foot-3 Porzingis after they lost in seven games to Miamiin the Eastern Conference finals. Porzingis is coming off a solidseason in Washington in which he averaged a career-high 23.2 pointsper game along with 8.4 rebounds. Most importantly, he stayedhealthy enough to play in 66 games, his most since 2016-17 when hewas with the New York Knicks.

Porzingis’departure completes a swift breakup of Washington’s core after theWizardsagreedto trade Bradley Bealto Phoenix, and KyleKuzmadeclinedhis option. Washington has missed the playoffs the past twoseasons and is now clearly in a rebuilding mode under new teampresident Michael Winger.

Smart hasplayed in Boston all nine of his NBA seasons. The Celtics reachedthe NBA Finals in 2022, but were unable to make it back this seasondespite their talented tandem of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.Boston becomes Porzingis’ fourth NBA team. Drafted in 2015 by NewYork with the fourth overall pick, he played three seasons with theKnicks before being traded to Dallas before the deadline in 2019 —when he was recovering from knee surgery.

The Wizardsacquired him from Dallas 16 months ago.