C’s ship Kemba to OKC in trade for Horford
Brad Stevens, faced with salary cap inflexibility that threatened to handcuff his team over the next two years, broke the logjam with a major trade Friday morning.
The Celtics’ new president of basketball operations reached an agreement with Oklahoma City on a trade that will send Kemba Walker, the team’s 2021 firstround pick (No. 16) and a 2025 second-rounder to the Thunder.
The Celtics get back an old friend — Al Horford — in addition to a promising 7-footer named Moses Brown, who had the biggest game of his rookie season against the Celtics with 21 points and 23 rebounds on March 27.
The trade brings a disappointing close to Walker’s time as a Celtic — a two-season stretch marred by the first persistent injury trouble of the 30-year-old guard’s career. His play deteriorated during the 2020 playoffs in the Orlando bubble due to left knee soreness. When the Celtics instituted a kneeresting program for Walker last season — he didn’t play on the second night of backto-back swings — the measure had only a limited benefit. He also missed the first 11 games of the season.
But beyond a four-game stretch from May 5-11, when the guard averaged 29.8 points, including three games scoring 32 or more points, Walker was unable to put together a consistent run for the Celtics.
Above all, though, Stevens was able to unload a stifling contract. Walker is owed approximately $73.5 million over the next two years, including a player option in 2022-23.
In exchange, the Celtics bring back Horford on the last year of a four-year, $109 million deal he originally signed with Philadelphia in June 2019.
Horford is owed two more seasons at a total of $53.5 million, though with the second only partially guaranteed, reducing the Celtics’ cap burden heading into what is expected to be a premier free-agent class in the summer of 2022.
And where Walker ran into an issue of duplication trying to find his offense while on the floor with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Horford’s skills fit an immediate Celtics’ need as a floor-spacing power forward who will complement the game of Rob Williams.