Celtics Acquire Lee From Rockets, Report Says
The Boston Celtics have acquired Courtney Lee in a sign-and-trade deal with the Houston Rockets in exchange for second-year forward JaJuan Johnson, as first reported by Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com reported that the deal will also include a future second-round pick going from Boston to Houston. (Update: Sporting News’ Sean Deveney is reporting that the deal is not done, adding that Johnson would welcome a trade from the Rockets because of the crowded depth chart at power forward)
As Blakely noted, it could end up being the 2013 second-round pick that the Celtics acquired when the league ruled that the Oklahoma City Thunder failed to fully disclose Jeff Green’s medical records prior to a 2011 trade. The pick originally belonged to the Charlotte Bobcats. (Update: Spears also reported that the Rockets will, in fact, receive Charlotte’s second-round in 2013 along with Johnson, E’Twuan Moore and Sean Williams.)
Lee was originally a restricted free agent, but the Rockets rescinded their qualifying offer and still managed to get a former first-round pick in the transaction.
Along with recently signed combo guard Jason Terry, Lee will help replace the departed Ray Allen. Celtics combo guard Avery Bradley is also coming off of shoulder surgery, so depth was an issue in Boston’s backcourt.
Lee started in the NBA Finals as a rookie with the Orlando Magic but was traded to the New Jersey Nets and the Rockets over the next two seasons. He averaged 11.4 ppg and hit 40.1 percent of his 3-point attempts last season, and he’s also regarded as a solid defender.
Meanwhile, the Rockets get an underused “stretch four” in Johnson, who averaged just 8.3 mpg as a rookie. Despite standing 6-10, Johnson had a mediocre rebounding rate (11.5) and failed to show the shooting form he displayed at Purdue, where he hit over 50 percent of his field goals in two of his four seasons.
Johnson joins a young, crowded Rockets frontcourt that already includes Gary Forbes, Josh Harrellson, Terrence Jones, Marcus Morris, Donatas Motiejunas, Chandler Parsons, Patrick Patterson and Royce White.
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