Porziņģis Inks 2-Year Extension With Boston

By / July 1, 2023

When the Boston Celtics traded away longtime stalwart Marcus Smart in order to land Latvian big man Kristaps Porziņģis, it seemed pretty reasonable to assume Boston didn’t do this for a one year rental. It would only be a matter of time before an extension of some sort would be agreed upon.

On Friday, that assumption was proven right. As reported by Chris Haynes, the Celtics and Porziņģis have officially agreed on a two year extension.

Although complete details have not yet been released, in theory, the deal should have Porziņģis locked up in Boston through the 2025-26 season. Porziņģis will be 28 years of age once the new season starts. So, this extension will seemingly keep him with the C’s through his prime years.

That’s especially exciting, considering Porziņģis is coming off the best season of his career. The 7’3″ big put up 23.2 points a night in Washington last season, shooting 38.5% from three as well.

Look, let’s get the negatives out of the way quickly here. Yes, Porziņģis has an extensive injury history. It simply can’t be ignored. Porziņģis has missed 247 games in his NBA career across eight seasons.

Paying big money to a player that often injured is a big risk for sure. No one across the NBA landscape hasn’t acknowledged that point already. It’s one of the first things I thought about when I heard the news of the trade broke.

That being said, can we please get to the positives now? I absolutely LOVE this deal for the Celtics. Taking the contract extension part out of it for a second, I loved this trade.

Yes, losing Smart hurts from an emotional standpoint. Will I miss Smart? Absolutely. Would I cancel this trade to get him back? Absolutely not.

Porziņģis is just what this team needed. A major shakeup without having to give up one of Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. If Porziņģis can stay healthy, he could completely recontextualize the way we look at the C’s.

Kristaps could transform the Celtics into an offensive juggernaut, an all-time great team. I believe he’s that good. Especially when put onto this Boston team. He’s just what the doctor ordered.

Now, back to the extension side of things, it gets even sweeter. Obviously, off the top, Porziņģis will be sticking around for a little while. This isn’t some one year experiment. This is the new look of the Boston Celtics for at least the next two to three years.

Porziņģis seems genuinely excited to be in Boston too. Multiple reports have come out that he badly wanted this deal to happen. He was willing to do whatever it took to get to the Celtics.

Those reports certainly weren’t false either. Porziņģis proved that with this extension. Kristaps was eligible to sign a two-year, $77 million max extension with Boston starting July 6th.

Porziņģis ended up taking $17 million less. He could have been making over $38 million per year during his time in Boston. With this new deal, he’ll be making just $30 million per season instead.

What makes this all the more impressive is that the Utah Jazz also wanted Porziņģis badly. They also had a lot more money to work with and were willing to give Kristaps way more than Boston could even think to give him.

This is something that Porziņģis knew, and still chose Boston anyway. If that doesn’t get you pumped as a Celtics fan for this guy, I don’t know what else will.

So, a potential superstar, unicorn type player, who could make the Celtics an all-time great team, AND took a massive pay cut to come here? Yeah, safe to say I’m all in.

Brad Stevens, you beautiful bastard, thank you. October can’t get here sooner.

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