Jaden Springer didn’t see much playing time during his year with the Celtics, but he was a popular figure inside Boston’s locker room.
Multiple Celtics players praised the young guard after the Celtics dealt him to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday ahead of the NBA trade deadline.
“Obviously, we’re going to miss him,” Payton Pritchard said after Thursday’s 127-120 loss to the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden. “Jaden is an unbelievable person. We loved him as a teammate. But hopefully he gets his opportunity and can showcase what he’s capable of doing in this league. He’s an unbelievable player, unbelievable defender, so I definitely think there’s a place for him in this league.”
Jaylen Brown called Springer, a 22-year-old defensive specialist acquired by Boston at last year’s trade deadline, “my little bro.”
“I love his energy,” Brown said. “I loved his fight, his will, just how he approached the game, his mentality. I wish him the best.”
An end-of-the-bench player for most of his Celtics tenure, Springer played some of the best basketball of his young career in the weeks before the deadline, showcasing shutdown defensive potential and improved 3-point shooting. His best outing came in an overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Jan. 22, during which he notched four steals and hit two clutch threes after head coach Joe Mazzulla inserted him to stop a third-quarter scoring spurt by Clippers guard Kevin Porter Jr.
But to the Celtics, Springer’s on-court strides didn’t outweigh the benefits of trading him. By shipping him to Houston — and attaching a 2030 second-round draft pick to do so — Boston cleared more than $15 million in tax savings and created a second open roster spot, which they used to add a more experienced depth option in veteran wing Torrey Craig.
President of basketball operations Brad Stevens echoed his players’ praise for Springer while explaining the decision to trade him.
“One of the things when we got him was we didn’t have (Jrue) Holiday signed to an extension,” Stevens said. “We didn’t have (Derrick) White signed to an extension. We didn’t have (Sam) Hauser signed to an extension. So now you’re also playing the ‘Hey, if you don’t have this, you also have a young player that maybe you could go forward with when all those things happen and it becomes less in your rotation, you know he’s a really capable player and he can probably play really well in a rotation in the NBA.’
“But also he’s not going to play in this particular circumstance, and we have very limited opportunity to sign him after that, right? And so those are all factors that you have to consider. And it stinks that we have to do that with regard to him, but he’ll be OK because he’s a bulldog. He’s a good player.”
Springer’s next NBA chance won’t come with the team that traded for him. The Rockets reportedly chose to waive Springer after acquiring center Cody Zeller in a subsequent deal.