NBA Trade Rumors: Grades for Celtics, Thunder swapping Kemba Walker and Al Horford

NBA Trade Grades: Boston Celtics land Al Horford again

The Boston Celtics’ season did not go as planned. They began the year with veteran point guard Kemba Walker on the pine recovering from offseason surgery, and early in the year lost Jayson Tatum to COVID-19. Even when he returned he was still dealing with side effects from the sickness. The Celtics stumbled into the playoffs without Jaylen Brown, sidelined with a wrist injury, and by the end of their five-game playoff loss were without Walker and center Robert Williams.

Something had to happen to shake things up, and trading Walker was both obvious and difficult. The 31-year-old point guard is not aging well, with injuries and his lack of size both leading to an accelerated decline. It became increasingly clear he was going to limit this team’s upside. Yet with two years and roughly $73 million owed on his contract, how were the Celtics going to find a taker?

The answer was twofold: they needed to attach a draft pick, and they needed to trade for someone else being overpaid. They accomplished those things in swapping Walker for Al Horford, who previously played for Brad Stevens and the Celtics from 2016 to 2019.

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Horford is under contract for just $53 million this year and next, and only $41 million of that is guaranteed. That’s a significant chunk of cap relief for the Celtics, who now have the flexibility to make other changes to the roster.

Horford provides the veteran presence at center that Boston tried to find in last year’s free agent signing Tristan Thompson, as they are clearly not yet ready to trust the oft-injured Robert Williams III with the full-time role.

Horford is a career 36.4 percent 3-point shooter who hit 38.2 percent of his triples while with the Celtics. If the Celtics do re-sign Evan Fournier, or presumably pick another guard as their fifth starter, Horford’s spacing means the Celtics would effectively be 5-out, with Marcus Smart the team’s worst outside shooter. That is offensive flexibility this team simply didn’t have last year with Thompson and Williams.

The Celtics also bring in young center Moses Brown, who got some minutes on a tanking Thunder squad and made the most of them this past season. In 21.4 minutes per game he put up 8.6 points and 8.9 rebounds, good for 14.5 points and 15 rebounds per-36 minutes.

His offensive rebound percentage ranked in the 99th percentile leaguewide, per Dunks & Threes, and in the 94th percentile for defensive rebounds. He needs offensive polish, but he is well worth the $3.5 million of non-guaranteed money on his contract for next season. With the Celtics shipping out their first round pick, he is a worthy flyer to bring in some young blood with upside to the roster.

Boston will be giving up the 16th pick in the draft, which might be a relief for the traumatized Celtics fans dreading another mid-first round pick. Whether it be Nesmith, Romeo Langford, Guerschon Yabusele, Terry Rozier; There is no home run pick from the Celtics’ recent history in that area of the draft. With a packed roster, it’s not a terrible move to use the pick to reduce salary and retool the roster and add a young prospect in Brown instead.

In the end, the Celtics are betting they can find a replacement point guard to fit into their rotation alongside Marcus Smart and Payton Pritchard. The money saved from moving Walker will allow them to either re-sign Evan Fournier or add another guard in free agency, and they still have part of their trade exception from the Gordon Hayward deal if they want to swing another trade — a trade made more feasible with more breathing room under the tax line or tax apron, respectively.

This deal also signals that new President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens is not planning a “consolidation year” of being bad before making another push. He believes this team, built around their wing duo of Tatum and Brown, is ready to compete now.

Horford should help them do that. He left the Celtics to get paid and ended up on a Philadelphia 76ers roster that tried to start four bigs. When that didn’t work, he was sent to the tanking Thunder. He was sublime when he did play, breaking open the offense to let young guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cook, before the team shut him down to preserve his body and maximize their pick. He should be able to contribute in important ways on this Celtics roster.

There probably weren’t better options out there for a Walker deal, and Stevens knows what he is getting in Horford. I think it’s totally fine that the Celtics decided not to add another middling draft pick but rather to use that capital to open up roster flexibility.

Final Grade: B+