The Boston Celtics — and most teams, if we are being honest — do not often make major moves at the annual NBA trade deadline, that annual moratorium on trading players in a given season that comes at roughly the two-thirds point of the games played in a given campaign.
But there have been a handful of notable deals at the deadline in pretty much every season, and the Celtics have had a handful themselves in recent years. Frank Urbina over at our sister site HoopsHype recently put together a list of the biggest trade deadline deals made in the history of the league and a certain trade made by Boston checks in at the sixth-best player ever traded at the deadline.
Looking back, it was a fleecing of epic proportions for then-team president Danny Ainge that catapulted his team out of a rebuild far sooner than expected. By now, you’ve likely guessed the primary focal point of the deal, Isaiah Thomas.
“In what was the steal of the 2014-15 trade deadline and perhaps one of the bigger trade-deadline heists in league history, the Boston Celtics picked up Isaiah Thomas from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Marcus Thornton and a 2016 first-round pick,” writes Urbina.
“Thomas would make the All-Star Game twice during his time with Boston and enjoying nearly MVP-level play for a stretch there. Thomas would average 28.9 points and 5.9 assists with the Celtics in 2016-17, and only saw his play decline due to injury.”
“Thomas helped Boston get to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016-17,” adds the H/H analyst, understating things a bit in relating the potential impact of the trade on Boston’s internal culture a smidge.
IT not only helped bring the Celtics to the brink of the NBA Finals more than a season earlier than could have been reasonably expected (and at a very high personal cost, while we are at it), he instilled a spirit of competition in the team that transformed its play almost as soon as he arrived in Boston.
While it is improbable to say the least that whatever moves the Celtics make this week will have a similar impact on the franchise’s fortunes, it was certainly quite the ride to enjoy the reign of the King In The Fourth.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!
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