Al Horford, who was languishing with the rebuilding Thunder a year ago, is now headed to the NBA Finals in his second stint with the Celtics and couldn’t be more grateful, Jared Weiss of The Athletic writes.
“On the phone, I would look at photos from a year ago, exactly what I was doing at the moment, and today my son actually graduated from kindergarten,” Horford said. “So I remember that we had pictures for him, and I picked him up from school, and we had the cupcakes and we had all this stuff. So it’s like perspective for me, like I always look back and see where I was just day to day. I’m just very grateful to be in this position with these guys.”
Horford, 35, has been a major factor in the Celtics’ run. He is averaging 11.9 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 3.5 APG and 1.6 BPG in the postseason. As we noted earlier, Horford now has a $19.5MM guarantee on his $26.5MM contract for next season.
“When he came back, that gave us a sense of security,” Marcus Smart said. “We got Al back there, he’s always going to make the right play on both ends.”
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Ime Udoka was the runner-up for numerous head coaching jobs but is glad that he wound up with the Celtics instead of a rebuilding team, he told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “You really want me to tell you? Detroit, Indiana, Cleveland,” Udoka said of the jobs he nearly got. “I can go down the list. That was tough because I believe I was ready. But I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of an organization that’s pushing for winning and championships. You can be in a lot of different situations. There are only 30 teams and I get that, but to not be in a rebuild and being in an expectation pressure-filled situation, I wouldn’t trade that in any day.”
- In an interview with Heavy.com’s Steve Bulpett, Jazz CEO Danny Ainge offered high praise to the man who replaced him in Boston, former Celtics coach Brad Stevens. Getting Kemba Walker‘s contract off the books was a particularly shrewd move, according to Ainge. “I think that, by moving Kemba, it allowed Marcus, Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson (Tatum) and Robert Williams to really thrive in positional size, with Horford taking up a big responsibility in the front line for Robert and moving Jaylen, Jayson and Marcus to their positions where they can have size advantages.”
- Fred VanVleet can re-enter the free agent market with a player option next summer and The Athletic’s John Hollinger believes the Raptors should pursue an extension with him in the range of $25MM annually. Hollinger and Eric Koreen takes a closer look at all the Raptors’ free agent, draft and extension decisions.
To the extent I did not advocate Udoka in Boston (not much of an extent), it was because he might push tender egos over the edge there. But Tatum et al got sorted out. I am sure getting Horford helped that cause. And of course they did not have to suffer the Kemba decline any further.
Trade was good for both teams, esp if one credits Horford for getting Udoka established in time. Per Bas.Ref.:
Kemba Walker, a 2021 mid-first (Alperen Şengün) and a 2025 2nd…=…Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 2nd, and Celtics also got a trade exception.
Thunder then waived Walker, and Celtics, Brown.
Knicks then signed Walker 2/$18m.
Sengun traded to HOU for 2 conditional firsts, DET’22 & WAS’23. IDK details, but Detroit kept theirs.
Good for the right here, right now… but, I think Sengun might very well end up an All-Star, so looking forward… not so much!
Boston would have had to have pick him. Not impossible; I recall Sengun was a bit past due to be picked.
Then Houston would come calling. Not sure what they were offering. “Conditional” picks… Sounds good tho.
Don’t think this “Horford is now headed back to the Finals” works considering he’s never been to the finals it makes it sound like he has (I’m probably wrong)
All season we’ve heard that at the end of the season Boston going to dump Horford to clear cap space looking at it now I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep him I thinks it’s more likely they trade anyone that not a starter and yes that includes White and Pritchard or at least one of them
I’m not sure they trade anyone. They can bring this team back next year with a veteran bench addition or two.
Anyone that tried to talk $#!+ about Al Horford the last couple of years knows nothing about basketball
Well he was pretty trash the last couple of years
He actually wasnt though. He was misused in philly though
He got way too much heat for what was a bad match in Philly from the start. Blame the front office, not the man.
Derrick white is going no where. The Celtics have a trade exemption to use to bring in a player. Theis can play a lot in the regular season against weaker teams. Nesmith will be ready he probably is now. Hause and Nik can play minutes too. The Celtics have the MLE to add a player.
Nesmith, Pritchard, langford, grant williams, rob williams, etc were all ready before. They just werent used correctly when healthy
I just thought that trade for Horford was amazing, and said it at the time. Horford not only helped with their spacing issues, but also with the ball movement problems they were having, perimeter defense at the 5, and also gave them multiple guys that could play small ball 5, and also at the 4 in multibig lineups.
Philly never used him correctly, and then OKC had a lot of injuries, and d ed chided to sit him out for whatever reason, but I guess it worked out for them too, getting the assets where their salary structure didnt hurt them taking on kemba and buying him out
Udoka did a poor job most of the season (pretty much exactly the type of stuff Stevens did the last year+), but as I said earlier in the ECF, you have to give him credit for recognizing that Grant Williams/Al Horford combination was their biggest advantage in the series, and he made adjustments with that to help them win…I also like how honest he is when he talks to the media
Ainge would have never made the Horford trade because he was too stingy with his precious draft picks. Good thing he left when he did.
What happened to Horford in OKC last year is just another tale from the tanking chronicles. It had nothing to do with OKC wanted to play young players (LOL), and everything to do with improving (or putting a floor under) their draft position. It worked for OKC (although no ping pong all this time), though not for the league. If winning weren’t toxic to draft position, then OKC doesn’t send Horford to the corn field. Horford plays. OKC wins some, and isn’t a joke. Young guys develop better, since they’re actually playing NBA basketball, not just getting to play on an NBA court. Even OKC might have benefited (his trade value may have been higher).
If Fred is not able to work out an extension with the Raptors, rumors are that he has some non NBA opportunities lined up. Unofficially it has circulated that discussions have taken place with: Enterprise, Penske, and U-Haul with Fred being positioned to manage their VANVLEET !!
Always enjoyed AL
Going back to the gators days
Along with Lee humphrey
Back-to-back very rare!