Jaden Springer was just starting to latch on in Philadelphia. After getting inconsistent playing time for most of the season, the third-year wing earned 22.1 minutes per night, which included a start, over a five-game stretch in late January and early February. A valuable opportunity had arrived for him.
Then, minutes before the Feb. 8 trade deadline, Springer got a call that he had been traded from the 76ers to the Celtics.
“I was kind of surprised a little bit,” Springer admitted at his Celtics locker on Tuesday before he faced his former team for the first time. “It caught me off guard.”
It’s uncommon for rival teams to trade with one another, especially teams with as much history as the Celtics and Sixers. In the aftermath of the trade, 76ers GM Daryl Morey explained that the 21-year-old Springer didn’t fit their timetable to help a playoff time and that a second-round pick was more valuable to them.
“I’m OK with the decision they made,” Springer said. “It’s fine with me. I’m happy to be here.”
Entering Tuesday, Springer had made just two appearances for the Celtics, in garbage time of their wins over the Bulls and Knicks last week. He missed his first four games with the C’s recovering from an ankle injury. But almost three weeks since the trade, his acclimation to Boston seems to be going well. He said the presence of assistant Sam Cassell, who coached him in Philadelphia, has been beneficial, and he enjoys his new environment.
“My first impression has been great,” Springer said. “They’re all serious about their jobs, about winning, about the team success. So you’ve got to respect that.”
Sixers coach Nick Nurse, who’s in his first season with the team, didn’t directly answer if he was surprised to see Springer traded. But he wished him well.
“Listen, he does a couple of things really well,” Nurse said. “He really defends the ball and he really gets the ball to the rim with some physicality and he’s very young. He’s still working on the kind of shooting piece, but he was improving on that as well. I mean, I hope he continues to improve and finds his way in the league.”
It’s unclear yet what Springer’s role will look like with the Celtics. At this stage, he’s more of a developmental piece for a loaded team on the cusp of a championship. But with the Celtics looking like they will very likely wrap up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference – they were up eight games with 25 games left to play – there could be plenty of opportunity available for Springer down the stretch to show his new team what he can do.
“(I’m) continuing to learn from these guys,” Springer said. “We’ve got some great guards, guys that have been around the league for a while and have winning experience. So being able to learn from them and just help my game develop and take it to the next level. That would be big. …
“Any opportunity you get in this league, on this team, is big. You’ve just got to take advantage of any opportunity given to you and make the best of it.”
Stressing details
The Celtics, despite entering Tuesday on a season-long eight-game winning streak, still feel like they have plenty of growth to do before the playoffs. One of Joe Mazzulla’s focuses is on situational basketball. He singled out two recent situations he was unhappy about.
“Situational basketball, game management, game awareness,” Mazzulla said. “Last two games, in end of quarters, we gave up a 2-for-1 and gave their team the last play of the game and cost us five points. We missed 2-for-1s because of an offensive rebound. And so, situational basketball is the difference between winning and losing on possessions. And so just constantly growing on those things. Just making sure we get better at the fundamentals and the details.
“There are a lot of games left. Everybody likes to look for the next thing, narrative, and so everybody’s worried about the next step. But we got 20-something games left, they’re really hard games, and we have to continue to play hard and play at a high level with discipline on both ends of the floor.”
