The Boston Celtics acquired Nikola Vucevic and a second-round pick from the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Anfernee Simons and a second-round pick. This is the first trade the Celtics made at the deadline in the 2025-26 season, but what if I told you that this trade has roots all the way back to the year 2000? The trade tree is long and complicated as one decision in the 2000 NBA Draft, led to a Butterfly Effect that has put Boston in the position they are in today.
With the 11th pick, in the 2000 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics selected sophomore Jérôme Moïso, out of UCLA. The 6’-10”, 235 pound power forward/center from Paris, France was known to be an incredible athlete going into the the draft. According to NBADraft.net Moïso’s draft comparison was Kevin Garnett and to say he fell well short of that comparison would be an understatement.
He played 24 games for the Celtics in 2000-01 season and averaged 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds in 5.6 minutes per game. He was seen as a massive bust by the fanbase but luckily, Boston was able to move on from him the next season. On August 3rd, 2001, the Celtics traded Moïso to the Philadelphia 76ers for forward Roshown McLeod and a conditional first-round pick. McLeod did not play a game for the Celtics but the first-round pick that Boston received is the next step on our journey.
The condition for the first-round pick from the Moïso trade was that it was lottery protected from the years 2003 to 2007. Luckily for the Celtics, the 76ers qualified for the postseason in the 2002-03 season and the pick was conveyed to Boston for the 2003 NBA Draft on June 26th, 2003. The pick was 20th overall and with that selection, the Celtics drafted senior small forward out of Duke University, Dahntay Jones.
Jones would go on to have a solid 13-year career and even won a NBA Championship with the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers. However, he never played a game for the Boston Celtics after getting drafted, being packaged along with the Celtics 16th overall pick in the 2003 Draft, Troy Bell, to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies had the 13th and 27th overall picks in 2003, selecting UNLV point guard Marcus Banks with their first pick but it was the second pick that is relevant to this story, Texas High Schooler Kendrick Perkins.
Kendrick Perkins was drafted out of high school in the 2003 Draft and was selected 27th overall by the Memphis Grizzlies but traded to the Boston Celtics. Although a controversial figure on TV today, Perkins was an incredible get for Boston, anchoring their center position for 8 seasons and averaging 6.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks on 56% shooting from the field. Perkins was a big role in the Celtics reaching 2 NBA Finals in that time, one in 2008 that they won it all and the other 2010 where disaster struck.
In Game 6 of the 2010 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers in LA, Perkins tore his ACL fighting for an offensive rebound. He was not able to play in Game 7 and the Celtics missed him a lot, losing to the Lakers 83-79. Perkins would make a fast recovery, returning in the 2011 season on January 25th, 2011. He was playing solid basketball but the Celtics couldn’t come to terms with a contract extension agreement for Perkins. He was on an expiring contract and wanted to test free agency.
Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge then responded by trading Perkins and Nate Robinson to the Oklahoma City Thunder on February 24th, 2011 for Jeff Green, Nenad Krstić, and a future first-round pick. Kristić played 24 games with the Celtics averaging 9.1 points but leave the NBA at the end of the season. The first round pick was in 2012 where the Celtics selected Fab Melo 22nd overall. However, Jeff Green is the next player that is involved in our story, becoming the next piece of the trade tree.
The 2015 trade that brought Jeff Green to Boston was not the first time he was moved in a trade involving the Celtics. On June 28th, 2007, the Celtics traded the 5th overall pick in the 2007 Draft, which happened to be Green, and a ton of other pieces to acquire Ray Allen from the Seattle Supersonics. Green then played 1 season with the Supersonics and 3 with the newly named Oklahoma City Thunder before getting traded to Boston. Green was supposed to be the young wing that the Celtics paired with the Big 3 of Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce.
Green was okay in 2011 but missed the entire 2012 season due to having to get open heart surgery to repair a life treating aortic aneurysm. He would come back in the 2013 season and put together a couple solid years as the “face” of a rebuilding Celtics team post the Big 3 Era. In 222 games with the Celtics, Green averaged 14.6 points and 4.2 rebounds on 44% shooting from the field and 34% from three.
There was uncertainty of the future surrounding Jeff Green’s future with the Celtics so Danny Ainge once again made a trade. So on January 12th, 2015, in a three team trade with the New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies, Jeff Green was sent to Memphis in exchange for Tayshaun Prince and a protected first-round pick going to Boston. Prince played 9 games for the Celtics before being flipped to the Detroit Pistons but protected first-round is the next part of our trade tree and we are going to have to wait a while before we see it again.
There are a lot more protections on the Grizzlies first-round pick than the one from the 76ers in 2003. First, the draft pick was not eligible to go to Boston until two years later. The Grizzlies had to convey a first round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers after making a trade in 2013 so that meant the draft pick was eligible starting in the 2017 Draft. This pick was not close to being the Celtics yet because the pick was protected top 10 in 2017, top 12 in 2018, top 8 in 2019, top 6 in 2020, and unprotected in 2021.
The Grizzlies pick was kicked down the road until the 2020 NBA Draft when they finished with the 14th overall pick in the draft, meaning that Boston finally received their pick from that 2015 Jeff Green trade. With this pick, the Celtics decided to draft sharpshooting forward out of Vanderbilt, Aaron Nesmith.
Aaron Nesmith only played 14 games in his sophomore season at Vanderbilt but what really impressed the Celtics was that he averaged 23 points on 52% shooting from three. The hope was that Nesmith would be a wing that could provide spacing around stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum but it didn’t come that easy for him in Boston.
Nesmith played 46 games in his rookie season, all but 1 coming off the bench. In 14.5 minutes a night, he averaged 4.7 points on 37% shooting from three. This was a solid first year for Nesmith as he showed off not only his three point shooting, but his incredible hustle and defense as well. Going into in the 2022 season, there was hope that he could build off his rookie year but sadly that did not happen. His minutes decreased to 11 per game and his averaged went down to 3.8 points on 27% shooting from three. He was basically a non-factor in the Celtics run to the Finals that year and Boston wanted to go all in for another chance at a title.
So on July 22nd, 2022, new President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics Brad Stevens sent Nesmith, Daniel Theis, Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan Nik Stauskas, and a 2023 first-round pick to the Indiana Pacers for guard Malcolm Brogdon.
Malcolm Brogdon was a very good player, when he was healthy. Before he got traded to the Celtics, Brogon struggled with injuries on the Pacers, only playing 36 for Indiana in 2022. However, Boston was going to have him coming off the bench, giving them a lethal guard unit of Brogdon, Marcus Smart and Derrick White. Brogdon played all 67 of the games off the bench and thrived in this new role in the 2023 season. He finished with 14.9 points on 48% shooting from the field and 44% from three, making him the winner of the 2023 6th Man of the Year.
When the playoffs rolled around, Brogdon was a huge part of the Celtics run to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, once he got there the injury bug came for him at the worst time, suffering a torn tendon in his right elbow in Boston’s Game 1 matchup against the Miami Heat. He tried to play through the pain but he was not his regular self and the Celtics fell to the 8th seeded Heat in a Game 7 in TD Garden.
Going into the offseason, Brad Stevens was not going play around, he wanted to bring a championship to the Celtics the next season. After adding Brogdon to a potential Kristaps Porzingis trade that fell through, Boston needed to find a new place to send him to. That place just happened to be the Portland Trail Blazers who just traded their player Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks. So on October 1st, 2023, Malcolm Brogdon was traded to the Trail Blazers alongside Robert Williams, a 2024 first-round pick, and a 2029 first-round pick in exchange for Jrue Holiday.
When Jrue Holday was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Portland Trail Blazers, there was a very good chance that Portland would flip him. Much to the dismay of the 29 other NBA teams, the Celtics were able to acquire him and have a super team lineup of Holiday, White, Brown, Tatum, and Porzingis. Boston steamrolled their way through the 2024 regular season with Holiday being incredible, averaging 12.5 points on 43% shooting from three and finishing on the All-Defensive Second Team.
In the playoffs, it was more of the same as Holiday continued to be the glue that held the Celtics together on defense, coming up in big moments like at the end of games. In Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers, Holiday stole the ball from Andrew Nembhard to ice the game and put the Celtics up 3-0 in the series. His clutch play continued in the NBA Finals where he dropped 26 points in Game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks to go up 2-0 in the series and for the first time since 2008, the Boston Celtics were NBA Champions.
In the 2025 season, the Celtics decided to run it back with the same core and before the year, Boston gave Jrue Holiday a 4-Year, $135 million extension through the 2028 season. If Boston was going to be a dynasty, Holiday was going to be there for all of it, even if the contract didn’t look great. The Celtics had another great regular season but Holiday took a step back, averaging 11.1 points on 35% shooting from three, a steep decline from last season.
In the playoffs, Boston was bounced out in the second round against the New York Knicks and with Jayson Tatum tearing his Achilles, the Celtics knew it was time for a rebuild year. Kristaps Porzingis got traded to the Hawks, Al Horford and Luke Kornet left in free agency, and on June 23rd, 2025, the Celtics traded Holiday back to the Trail Blazers for guard Anfernee Simons.
Our story finally brings us to present day with the acquisition of Anfernee Simons. The expectations were low for Simons coming to Boston as fans had concerns about him being a small guard who is limited on defense. After a slow start adjusting to a new role coming off of the bench, Simons really started to heat up and became the microwave scorer that the Celtics needed.
In 49 games off the bench for the Celtics, Simons averaged 14.2 points on 44% shooting from the field and 39% from three. He had some scoring explosions throughout the season, highlighted by his 39 point performance against the Miami Heat on January 25th, 2026. The sentiment on Simons began to shift as the season went along, becoming a player that fans didn’t want to see go. However, after a 27 point performance against the Bucks on February 1st, 2026, that was the last time he would wear a Celtics uniform
On February 3rd, 2026, the Celtics traded him and a second-round pick to the Chicago Bulls for center Nikola Vucevic and a second-round pick. This is where the trade tree currently stands at this moment but there is a still a chance it could continue to grow.
There is a chance that this tree from the 2000 NBA Draft could continue to grow. One option is if the Celtics resign Nikola Vucevic in the offseason and trade him. The other option is that Boston takes a player with the 2027 second-round pick they acquired from the Bulls.
To recap, because the Celtics took Jérôme Moïso with the 11th pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, Boston has ended up with two NBA Championships in 2008 and 2024, and Nikola Vucevic in 2026. This graphic I made shows a map of the trade tree and just a brief overview of this crazy story. So thank you Jéröme Moïso for playing so badly in the 2001 season that the Celtics ended up with Nikola Vucevic 26 years later.
