Report: Moses Brown to be included in the Josh Richardson trade

We have a few more details about the Josh Richardson trade between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks. Instead of a heavily protected second-round pick, the Celtics will be sending recently acquired center Moses Brown to Dallas in exchange for absorbing Josh Richardson’s $10.8M salary into the remainder of the Gordon Hayward TPE, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Oh, Moses. We hardly knew you.

Last night, The Athletic’s Jared Weiss was first to report that the Celtics and the Mavericks were going back and forth on what to include to complete the trade. Richardson into the TPE was confirmed, but Boston had to send back something. Now we know that’s Moses Brown, who was slated to play for the Celtics’ Summer League team next month.

This move depletes Boston’s big-man depth (again) following the Tristan Thompson trade that was also reported on yesterday. Now, the Celtics are left with Al Horford, Robert Williams, Bruno Fernando, and Grant Williams.

Boston is clearly retooling its roster to focus heavily on defense, and Richardson provides that on the perimeter as well as some outside shooting and perhaps some ball-handling duties as well. It’ll be interesting to see what the frontcourt rotation looks like in a couple of weeks after the onset of free agency has come and gone.

Stay tuned for Brad Stevens’ next move as the retooled front office aggressively continues to retool the roster.