The Houston Rockets used some of their room under the luxury tax to pick up a couple of second round picks. The Boston Celtics saved $15 million in luxury tax payments by moving off a non-rotation player.

Here are the particulars:

Houston Rockets acquire: Jaden Springer, 2026 Pelicans or Trail Blazers second-round pick, 2030 Celtics second-round pick

Boston Celtics acquire: 2031 top-55 protected Rockets second-round pick

Let’s dive in!

Houston Rockets

Incoming salary: $4 million in 2024-25

  • Jaden Springer (SG, one year, $4 million)

Outgoing salary: None

The Rockets had about $10.5 million in space under the luxury tax. As such, they used a portion of the Non-Taxpayer MLE to bring in Jaden Springer. Houston subsequently waived Springer.

Essentially, the Rockets spent $4 million to buy two second-round picks from Boston.

Springer is a solid defensive player, but his lack of offense has kept him from progressing forward. That said, he’s young enough that a rebuilding team should take a look at him for the rest of the season.

Boston Celtics

Incoming salary: None

Outgoing salary: $4 million in 2024-25

  • Jaden Springer (SG, one year, $4 million)

This was all about saving some money for the Celtics. Boston got off $4 million in salary by trading Springer, who wasn’t a regular rotation player. But the real savings came with the luxury tax. Because the Celtics are so deep into the tax, they saved about $15 million in tax penalties with this move.

Boston has a deep roster, and they should be in position to acquire second-round pick down the line, should they need them. The Celtics already re-invested some of the saving by agreeing to a contract with veteran wing Torrey Craig.