On Tuesday night, Jaden Springer sat in Cleveland’s visiting locker room and munched on some postgame snacks with his teammates. The Celtics collectively celebrated their fourth consecutive win by devouring BBQ wings ahead of their much-awaited plane ride home to Boston.

The vibes were high after the road victory against the top-seeded Cavaliers. Jayson Tatum cracked jokes with Derrick White about not wanting to ride with him on the bus and Luke Kornet was his usual comedic self.

But, in the backdrop, the trade deadline loomed. And, there was one player subject to far more trade rumors than anyone else: backup guard Jaden Springer.

Springer was coming on exactly his first anniversary with the Celtics, a year that saw him relocate from Philadelphia to Boston, develop close friendships, and ultimately win his first NBA championship.

His on-court opportunities during his Celtics tenure were sparse — he racked up just 140 minutes this season — but they had noticeably increased of late. He played a critical role in the Celtics road win over the Clippers on Jan. 22, and emerged as someone that Joe Mazzulla turned to for limited stints when the team needed a defensive boost.

Springer told the Boston Herald’s Zack Cox last month that he hoped to remain in Boston through the trade deadline.

“Of course. I love this team, man,” he said. “I got a championship with these guys. Great group of guys. But whatever happens, happens, and I’m grateful for whatever comes.”

After the win over the Clippers, Springer was the hero of the night, fielding questions from dozens of reporters about how he was able to effectively shut down Kevin Porter Jr. and rack up four second-half steals.

He proudly recounted hitting the game-sealing three-point shot in overtime while Tatum heckled him from his nearby locker.

But, despite showing promising flashes of lockdown defense and a somewhat improved three-point shot (31.6% on the season), it turns out the 22-year-old actually knew that his days with the organization could be numbered.

Brad Stevens, addressing the media before Thursday’s Celtics loss to the Mavericks, said that this deadline offered a rare opportunity for transparency, the kind that the general manager position doesn’t often afford.

“You have to have a great level of confidentiality in this role with people in the building and people that you’re working across the aisle with, and all of those things,” Stevens said.

But this time, Stevens was able to give Springer a heads-up that there was a decent likelihood he would be traded ahead of the deadline. Being a second-apron team, the Celtics were pretty hamstrung as far as potential moves, especially considering that Stevens didn’t want to trade one of the roster’s rotation players.

“We knew that there were only a couple of different things to potentially look at, right?,” Stevens said Thursday. “And, Jaden was clearly that. We gave them a heads up, they knew what was coming — or they knew that it was a possibility, at least — and [we] wanted to try to be in front of that and active and helpful. But, you can’t always do that.”

There have been some notable examples of the Celtics front office being unable to give that heads up with the most recent high-profile example being Marcus Smart, who received just a few minutes heads up before his trade to Memphis in 2023. Smart was outspoken about the fact that the lack of warning from the front office bothered him most.

“For me, it’s just the courtesy,” he told CLNS Media after the trade. “They probably already knew they were thinking about trading me, they had this trade in their back pocket just in case something else didn’t happen. And for me, it’s just the simple fact, ‘Hey, we’re thinking about trading you, most likely we’ll trade you, just letting you know, thank you’.”

The difficult reality of the NBA trade deadline

Just a few hours after that Cavaliers victory, Springer was traded to the Houston Rockets in the Celtics only pre-deadline move. The trade marked the second consecutive February that forced Springer to relocate.

Only this time, Springer finds himself without a roster spot.

Initially, it appeared that he could find a home on a defensive-oriented Rockets club, and perhaps play a larger role in Ime Udoka’s system. But the next day, the Rockets waived him to make space for backup big Cody Zeller.

Springer now finds himself on the outside looking in and in the same position as other former Celtics like Lonnie Walker IV, who is playing professionally in Lithuania, Oshae Brissett, who recently joined the Long Island Nets, and Lamar Stevens, who is also in the G-League on the Motor City Cruise.

Marcus Smart, while still in the NBA, is also in a less-than-ideal situation. Just a few years removed from being a key player on a Finals team, he was traded to a rebuilding Wizards team in a salary dump move less than an hour before the deadline.

Most stunning is that the same player who won Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 was viewed as a negative asset less than three years later. Memphis had to attach a first-round pick to incentivize Washington to take on his $20 million contract.

Such is the reality of life in the NBA for most players. One moment, one might be building a legacy in a great situation, and in the blink of an eye, all of that can go away.

Why the Celtics traded Jaden Springer

Like Marcus Smart’s recent trade to the Wizards, the move to trade Springer was largely a salary-shedding one. Due to the luxury tax as a second apron team, Springer’s salary was set to cost the Celtics around $15 million this year.

And, for a team that has two Olympic guards in Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, and a Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner in Payton Pritchard, Springer’s opportunities were limited.

Stevens noted that when the team traded for Springer last year, neither Holiday, White, nor Sam Hauser had been extended.

“Now you’re also playing the ‘hey, if you don’t have [one of those guards long-term], you have a young player that maybe you could go forward with,’” Stevens said of his initial perspective regarding the trade that landed Springer in Boston last February.

Stevens said his confidence in Springer didn’t waver since he arrived in Boston, but given the limited role he was playing, the trade made sense.

“You know he’s a really capable player and he can probably play really well in a rotation in the NBA,” he said. “But also, he’s not going to play in this particular circumstance, and we have a very limited opportunity to sign him after that, right? So those are all factors that you have to consider.”

Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Celtics teammates express their gratitude for Jaden Springer’s tenure

Just a few hours before the trade, Tatum acknowledged that the midseason deadline was a strange day.

“It’s a weird day for sure,” Tatum said. “It’s a lot of uncertainty around the league — it really shows the business of basketball. Expect the unexpected. That’s all you can do.”

Mazzulla said in advance of the deadline that he wasn’t actively having conversations with players about potential trade rumors, but he did note that he had the chance to talk to Springer after the trade was complete.

“I just explained to him the positive things that he did,” Mazzulla said. “Grateful for how he approached our locker room and the daily process of getting better. He had a great mentality.”

Jaylen Brown similarly expressed his appreciation for Springer after the trade: “Jaden was my little bro. I loved his fight, his energy, his will, just how he approached the game.”

Payton Pritchard echoed that sentiment.

“Obviously, we’re going to miss him,” he said. “Jaden is an unbelievable person. We loved him as a teammate. But, hopefully, he gets his opportunity and can showcase what he’s capable of doing in this league. He’s an unbelievable player, unbelievable defender, so I definitely think there’s a place for him in this league.”

And, Stevens said he’ll be helpful to Springer however he can be moving forward.

“It stinks that we have to do that with regard to him,” Stevens said. “But he’ll be okay because he’s a bulldog. He’s a good player.”