Last Tuesday, Anfernee Simons was in Dallas, preparing to play in what would have been his 50th game for the Celtics.

Forty-eight hours later, he was playing — and starting — for a different team.

Six days after that, he was back at TD Garden, suiting up for the Chicago Bulls against his former Boston teammates.

“The NBA moves fast,” the veteran guard told reporters Wednesday morning, via CLNS Media.

Indeed it does. Especially for a player like Simons, who was rumored as a likely trade candidate throughout his brief Celtics tenure. Though the 26-year-old impressed coaches and teammates with his unselfishness, production and effort at both ends, those rumors proved accurate, with Boston shipping him to Chicago ahead of last week’s NBA trade deadline for center Nikola Vucevic.

It was Simons’ second trade in seven months, following the one that sent him to Boston and guard Jrue Holiday to Portland.

Though he wished his stay on Causeway Street had lasted longer, Simons said he was “very grateful” for his time with the Celtics and appreciated president of basketball operations Brad Stevens’ transparency.

“Brad is a good guy, and he’s always been open and honest about everything,” Simons told reporters. “Obviously, it was a tough conversation for him, and for me to accept, but we understood. They have a common goal, (which) is to win a championship. So it was just — I’m always appreciative of my time here, and I’m always grateful for it.”

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Simons, who went from a starter and No. 1 option with the Trail Blazers to an impact sixth man for the Celtics, also understood the move from Boston’s perspective. He’s on a $27.7 million expiring contract, and Vucevic gives the C’s a proven frontcourt presence to pair with Neemias Queta and Luka Garza, both of whom are enjoying career years.

“You wanted to see, obviously, the light at the end of the tunnel and be able to compete with your team the whole season,” Simons told reporters. “But obviously, it’s the NBA; obviously, business. And they traded for a great player in Vuc. It’s somebody that will change the dynamic of the team, somebody that can stretch the floor — he and Luka can stretch the floor now — and have a big body, as well.

“You understand that part. So you can get a little bit emotional behind it, but at the same time, you understand it, and you kind of just move on and understand that it was for a great player, as well — somebody that’s been an All-Star. So you come here and just accept that with this new team, dive straight and try to compete.”

Simons now is starting for a free-falling Bulls team that entered Wednesday with the 11th-best roster in the Eastern Conference. His arrival was part of a full-scale roster overhaul, with Chicago adding seven players and nine second-round draft picks in deadline deals. Simons topped 20 points in two of his first three games with his new squad.

“I really always admired him as a player,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan said before Wednesday’s game. “Obviously, he’s from Florida. I saw him play in high school when he was at IMG (Academy). I thought he played really well in Portland, and then I think even coming in from Portland, where he was starting, to come off the bench (in Boston), he was a guy that really provided a lot of offense for them. High-IQ player. Obviously, he can score a lot of different levels. He’s another guy, I think, because of his feel and his basketball IQ, he can kind of fit in and figure things out pretty quickly.

“I think it’s been a lot for him, because not only is he necessarily coming to a new team, he’s coming to a really an entirely new team with guys that really are coming at the same time he is. So they’re all getting to know each other. But he’s done a good job up to this point in time. I’ve enjoyed being around him.”

The Celtics did, too, with Joe Mazzulla, Jaylen Brown and others raving about Simons even after the trade. And there’s a chance he has not played his final game in a Boston uniform.

A pending free agent, Simons told reporters that he “for sure” would be open to rejoining the Celtics.

Happy for Vucevic

Wednesday also was a reunion for Vucevic, who spent parts of six seasons with Chicago before his trade to Boston.

Donovan caught up with the 35-year-old big man on his way into TD Garden.

“He’s great,” the Bulls coach said. “I love him. (We spent) five-plus years together, right around five years together. He was told pro. I think he’ll fit in very, very well to Boston’s team. He could play a lot of different styles, really, really high IQ, and then certainly, I think he gives them a post presence on rolls and switches at the rim, and then also a guy that can stretch it and can also play in the pocket. So it was good to catch up with him, but I think he’ll be a very good fit here for them.”

After slogging through years of mediocrity in Chicago and, before that, Orlando, Vucevic said he was “very excited” to join the contending Celtics, who entered Wednesday with the fourth-best record in the NBA. The 15th-year pro won just three total postseason games with the Bulls and Magic and has not won a playoff series since 2011-12, when he was a rookie backup with the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I’m happy for Vuc,” Donovan said. “He’s in a situation where he’s on this team that’s certainly a solidified playoff team. Obviously, if (Jayson) Tatum comes back, that gives him even that much more of a boost. I think for Vuc, the one year in Chicago and then two years in Orlando, he’d been the playoffs, but I don’t think he’s ever been (on) a playoff run, so to speak, where it’s been deep. So for someone like him at his age to be able to experience that, I’m happy for that. I talked to him after the trade had happened, and that’s kind of what his sentiment was that.

“I think he enjoyed his time in Chicago a lot. I think he enjoyed the relationships in Chicago. But I think as he looks at the next step, next phase his career, coming here to Boston, I think it’s something that he’ll get maybe a chance to experience that he really hadn’t been really experienced throughout his career.”

Off the rim

The Celtics tweaked their starting lineup Wednesday night, shifting away from the double-big look they used in the previous three games. Baylor Scheierman replaced Garza, starting alongside Derrick White, Sam Hauser, Brown and Queta. Vucevic and Payton Pritchard continued to come off the bench. … The only team ahead of Boston in the East standings as of Wednesday, the Detroit Pistons, will be shorthanded for the next few weeks as a result of Monday night’s brawl in Charlotte. The NBA suspended All-Star center Jalen Duren for two games and veteran enforcer Isaiah Stewart for seven for their roles in the fight, with Stewart receiving an especially hefty ban because he left the bench to trade punches with Hornets wing Miles Bridges. Bridges and teammate Moussa Diabate were given four-game suspensions.