Report: Mike Muscala Traded to Celtics from Thunder; OKC Gets Justin Jackson, 2 Picks

The Boston Celtics reportedly bolstered their frontcourt Thursday.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported they traded for big man Mike Muscala in a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Boston gave OKC a return package of Justin Jackson and two second-round picks.

One look at Wednesday's contest against the Philadelphia 76ers is an indication of Boston's need for frontcourt depth.

While it managed to escape with a 106-99 victory, it was missing Al Horford and Robert Williams and had trouble dealing with Joel Embiid (28 points) for extended stretches. Horford is 36 years old, and durability is a significant concern for Williams.

Depth piece Blake Griffin is a six-time All-Star, but is nowhere near the explosive player he was in his prime for the Los Angeles Clippers, and sees inconsistent playing time at best even though he took advantage of it Wednesday with five three-pointers in the win over the 76ers.

Since the Celtics will likely have to face some combination of Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Eastern Conference playoffs, adding another big man to a rotation with some question marks makes sense.

Muscala isn't a franchise-altering acquisition, but he can stretch the floor as a matchup problem much like Griffin did Wednesday when Embiid was hesitant to venture too far from the paint.

He is hitting 39.4 percent of his three-pointers this season after connecting on 42.9 percent of his attempts from deep in 2021-22. Given the amount of defensive attention Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown draw on a nightly basis, there figures to be plenty of open space for him to continue hitting from the outside at such a rate.

Jackson also isn't much of a loss seeing how he is averaging 4.7 minutes per game in 23 appearances this season.