Oklahoma City Thunder: An Al Horford trade benefits both the Thunder and Celtics
The trade
For Boston, 25-year-old Steven Adams fits with the timeline of Tatum and Brown much better than Horford does in a post-Irving world, while 20-year-old Hamidou Diallo possesses the potential to develop into a hyper-athletic defensive wing with tremendous upside.
For Oklahoma City, Horford provides a lot of attributes that Adams contributes to the team (defensive anchor, good screen-setter, overall team player) while adding a much-needed 3-point threat.
Aside from Horford’s outside shooting ability, both players have fairly similar statistics:
| Player | From | To | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% | 2P | 2PA | 2P% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steven Adams | 2014 | 2019 | 26.8 | 4.0 | 6.8 | .588 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .000 | 4.0 | 6.8 | .589 | 1.6 | 2.9 | .553 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 7.4 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 9.7 |
| Al Horford | 2008 | 2019 | 32.8 | 6.0 | 11.3 | .525 | 0.5 | 1.3 | .368 | 5.5 | 10.1 | .545 | 1.7 | 2.3 | .754 | 2.2 | 6.2 | 8.4 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 14.1 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/13/2019.
In the 2018-19 season, both players were also similar in screen assists per game (Adams edged out Horford 3.5 to 3.4) and screen assist points (Horford beat Adams 7.9 to 7.7).
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Numerous factors have to play out in order for this trade to be feasible: Kyrie Irving relocating, Horford opting into the final year of his contract, both teams finding a common ground to operate on, etc. However, if all conditions are met, both teams could benefit from a blockbuster offseason swap like this.