1946 NBA Trades

Boston acquired guard Jack Garfinkel from the Rochester Royals for cash on December 23, 1946. Garfinkel immediately joined the Celtics and played 40 BAA games that season, averaging 4.5 points and 1.5 assists, then remained with Boston for two more seasons. He finished his Celtics tenure with 92 games and 476 points. The surviving transaction record does not disclose the cash amount Rochester received, so the Royals' financial return cannot be measured precisely. Boston gets the historical edge because the Celtics converted an unspecified payment into a multi-season rotation player.

Boston acquired Moe Becker from the Pittsburgh Ironmen for Tony Kappen on December 12, 1946. The swap looked modest at the time, but Kappen produced the stronger post-trade season: he played 41 games for Pittsburgh and averaged 7.6 points, compared with Becker's six games and 2.2 points per game for Boston before Becker later moved on to Detroit. Neither team became successful because of the exchange, yet Pittsburgh received substantially more usable playing time and scoring from the player it acquired. The Ironmen therefore get the narrow historical edge despite finishing only 15-45.

New York sold Jake Weber's player rights to the Providence Steamrollers on December 2, 1946, after Weber had appeared in 11 games for the Knicks. Weber then played 39 games for Providence, averaging 3.9 points per game and scoring 153 points for a 28-32 Steamrollers club. The surviving transaction records do not identify the cash amount, which limits any precise valuation of New York's return. Providence receives the narrow edge because it converted an unspecified cash payment into most of a season of usable frontcourt depth, while New York moved on from a player who had been producing only 1.8 points per game in its rotation.