What happened to the Kristaps Porzingis trade? Taking a closer look

On Wednesday, it was reported by multiple sources that the Boston Celtics, LA Clippers and Washington Wizards had agreed on a three-team deal. In the agreed-upon deal, the Celtics would have acquired Wizards big man Kristaps Porzingis and the Clippers would have landed Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon. Meanwhile, the Wizards were going to take back salary filler (Marcus Morris, Amir Coffey and Danilo Gallinari) and the No. 30 pick in Thursday’s NBA draft. However, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, that deal has since fallen through:

“The three-team talks on a Porzingis-Brogdon deal with Celtics, Wizards and Clippers have fallen apart, sources tell ESPN. Sides are moving on,” Wojnarowski reported.

Wojnarowski added that Boston didn’t want to wait any longer for the Clippers to finalize the deal. So, the Celtics backed out and are instead re-negotiating a two-team deal with Washington that would still land Porzingis in Boston:

“The Celtics didn’t want to wait any deeper into Wednesday night on completion of the proposed three-way trade and pivoted away from including the Clippers in the deal, sources tell ESPN. Wizards and Celtics are working on revised scenarios now,” Wojnarowski reported.

Porzingis averaged 23.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.9 steals, 1.5 blocks and 2.1 3-pointers per game on 49.8% shooting over 65 games for the Wizards this past season.

NBA Insider says Clippers were concerned about Malcolm Brogdon’s health

Boston Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon

In a follow-up report, NBA Insider Marc Stein provided some more info on why the Clippers were so hesitant to finalize the Kristaps Porzingis trade. Stein said it had to do with concerns surrounding Malcolm Brogdon’s health.

“Concerns raised by the Clippers about Malcolm Brogdon's injury status, league sources say, led to the collapse of the three-team trade expected to send Kristaps Porzingis to Boston before midnight tonight. A direct Wizards/Celtics deal has not been ruled out,” Stein reported.

Malcolm Brogdon averaged 14.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 0.7 steals and 2.0 3-pointers per game on 48.4% shooting over 67 games for Boston. However, The Athletic’s Jared Weiss reported at the end of May that Brogdon “may require offseason surgery to address a partial tendon tear in his right elbow/forearm.”