While the 2024 NBA Finals features the Celtics and Mavericks, the matchup wouldn't be possible without a team that failed to qualify for the playoffs this year.
Thanks to a 2013 trade with the Nets, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum landed with the Celtics on their respective draft nights, while a 2023 deal between Brooklyn and Dallas made Kyrie Irving a member of the Mavericks.
Nearly 11 years after the original trade, Boston is still reaping the benefits of a franchise-altering deal it struck with Brooklyn. The success for Dallas was almost immediate, as it made a run to the NBA Finals in its first full season with Irving in tow.
Here is how two trades nearly a decade apart made the 2024 NBA Finals possible.
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Celtics-Nets trade details
During the 2013 offseason, the Nets looked to make a big splash ahead of their second season in Brooklyn. The solution? A blockbuster trade to acquire two-thirds of Boston's Big Three, which was breaking up after head coach Doc Rivers was traded to the Clippers.
Brooklyn agreed to trade five players and four first-round picks between 2014 and 2018 in a deal centered around Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
MORE: Why Doc Rivers left the Celtics for the Clippers
Garnett and Pierce were in the twilight of their respective careers and Brooklyn did not see much team success after the trade. In 2016, Brooklyn owed Boston the third overall pick, which was used to select Brown. One year later, the Celtics acquired the No. 1 overall pick from the Nets. Boston then traded the first pick to Philadelphia in exchange for the third overall pick, which it used to select Tatum.
Ironically, the final shoe to drop from that trade was the 2018 first-round pick the Celtics traded to the Cavaliers to acquire Kyrie Irving.
From July 12, 2013
Celtics received
- Keith Bogans
- MarShon Brooks
- Kris Humphries
- Kris Joseph
- Gerald Wallace
- 2014 first-round pick (James Young)
- 2016 first-round pick (Jaylen Brown)
- 2017 first-round pick (traded down with Philadelphia to select Jayson Tatum)
- 2018 first-round draft pick (traded to Cavaliers in Kyrie Irving trade)
Nets received
- Kevin Garnett
- Paul Pierce
- Jason Terry
- D.J. White
- 2017 first-round pick (Kyle Kuzma)
- 2017 second-round pick (Sasha Vezenkov)
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Mavericks-Nets trade details
Irving's time in Boston came to a bitter end as he reneged on a promise to re-sign with the franchise, instead signing with the Nets as a free agent in 2019. The highs were high and the lows were low, and Irving ultimately requested a trade from the Nets in 2023.
While rumors linking Irving to Los Angeles ran rampant, the Mavericks ultimately swooped in to strike a deal with the Nets. And while it was largely criticized, the deal has paid off for Dallas in a major way.
From Feb. 6, 2023:
Mavericks received
- Kyrie Irving
- Markieff Morris
Nets received
- Spencer Dinwiddie
- Dorian Finney-Smith
- 2027 second-round draft pick
- 2029 first-round draft pick
- 2029 second-round draft pick
