The Boston Celtics, with the best record in the Eastern Conference, are reportedly trading away guard Dalano Banton to the Portland Trail Blazers. Banton, who began his NBA career spending two seasons with the Toronto Raptors, is now moving on to his third team in three seasons. The Celtics are giving him up for what is projected to be a second-round pick in this year’s NBA Draft, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.
Banton, a former second-round pick out of Nebraska, has played in 24 games this season for Boston. He’s averaged 7.1 minutes per game with 2.3 points, which is the lowest in his career so far. While with the Raptors last season, he posted 4.6 points per game.
In the G League six days ago while on assignment with the Maine Celtics, Banton had a season-high game with 31 points, beating Grand Rapids Gold 90-83.
The Boston Celtics have a 39-12 record so far this season, leading the Eastern Conference by five games. The Cavaliers, Bucks and Knicks are all trying to make moves before the deadline in what is a tight race behind the leaders.
Portland, meanwhile, is in second-to-last place in the Western Conference, topping only the San Antonio Spurs. They have a 15-35 record, which includes just six in-conference victories.
Trade deadline hits with several major swaps
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons shook things up in a major way before the trade deadline. According to NBA insider Adrian Adrian Wojnarowski, the Knicks are Quentin Grimes, Malachi Flynn, Evan Fournier, Ryan Arcidiacono, and two second-round picks to Detroit in exchange for veteran guard Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanović.
The Knicks are currently the No. 4 seed Eastern Conference in a tight race and are clearly staying aggressive after acquiring OG Anunoby in a December trade that sent RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a 2024 second-round pick to the Toronto Raptors. Meanwhile, the 7-43 Pistons with the worst record in the NBA are stockpiling assets as they look ahead to the future.
Bogdanović headlines the trade after joining the NBA in 2014 following a successful basketball career overseas in Europe. The Croatian forward has been an effective scorer throughout his career, averaging 20.2 points per game this season representing the third season of his NBA career that he’s averaged 20+ points per game.
He brings 9 years of NBA experience with him to the Big Apple, but not as much as Burks brings, as he’s in the midst of his 13th NBA season after being selected with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft out of Colorado. This will be Burks’ second stint with the Knicks, spending the 2020 and 2021 season with New York where he made 130 game appearances and 49 starts averaging 12.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
On3’s Kaiden Smith contributed to this report.
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