Celtics’ Malcolm Brogdon Has ‘Health Issue’ That Led to Clippers Backing Out of Trade

The Celtics were all set to trade point guard Malcolm Brogdon to the Clippers as part of a three-team trade with the Wizards, but LA backed out at the 11th hour, as reported by Marc Stein of The Stein Line.

The reason? Brogdon’s injury status, Stein added. And per Brian Windhorst of ESPN, it sounds like sort of a big deal.

“Brogdon has a health issue,” Windhorst said on GetUp, via RealGM. “A health issue, from what I understand, that is so significant that not only can the Celtics not do this trade, but there is no Malcolm Brogdon trade they can do in the short term.”

Brogdon appeared in 67 regular-season games, winning the Sixth Man of the Year award. But he missed Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals with what was called a partial tendon tear in his right elbow. He did return to play seven minutes in Game 7.

Over the final four games of the East finals, Brogdon went just 1-of-15 shooting.

The Celtics did eventually get their man in Wizards forward Kristaps Porzingis, pulling the Grizzlies to help pull off the trade. (Full details.)