Boston cleans up nice

Joe Cronin keeps Dame on ice

Thank you for trading this trade, NBA. The Boston Celtics have a leader.

There is a chance the Bucks and Boston play for the Eastern title this spring, Celtic point guard Jrue Holiday will lean on Buck point guard Damian Lillard, shiny-new-Celtic Kristaps Porziņģis will re-arrange Giannis Antetokounmpo’s view of the front rim.

The Celtics traded Marcus Smart earlier in the summer, green hair and all, leaving a locker room without its manager. A championship contender presuming health and good fortune for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, to be sure, yet imaginably rudderless even before consideration of Malcolm Brogdon’s mood, tilted by Boston’s recent attempts to trade him.

Boston replaced Smart and Brogdon with an All-Star who rarely spares motivation, as if anyone’s would lack after a week like Jrue Holiday’s. Jrue is out for a contract and to render his postseason accuracy with the Bucks (40 percent from the field in 40 games) a fluke. Come May, he’s out to shut down his replacement, for whom Milwaukee already threw a parade for.