What do we do with Horford next season?

[Roy H.]

I doubt anyone would take him in a trade without draft capital attached

I disagree, but timing is important.

Let’s say it’s January 1.  Horford is with the Celtics.  We can trade Horford for outgoing salary of $14.5 million, bringing back $18.225 million.

The cool thing is, the acquiring team could immediately cut him, and they’d owe him minimal (if any) salary, because the Celts already paid it.  Under that circumstance, he’s an asset, not a negative value contract.

[Neurotic Guy]

Al was 2-2 from 3 tonight and played 23 minutes.  With Theis' arrival I hope Al's minutes will stay low.  Will help him and C's gauge what he might be able to bring nightly if he has good rest/ not overused.  It's great that Horford's contract contributes to flexibility in the off-season.  C's will be in good position to add a key piece or 2.

[trickybilly]

Horford still looks very good to me. Very good Defense, good offensive reads...

This is the kind of decision that one can only make after the playoffs, but TP to Roy for breaking the options down.

[ManUp]

I don't care about saving Wyc money and I don't see Al here long term, so trading him is the best route.

His partial guarantee could be really valuable to a team and with the right picks could net us a player who slots in nicely with the core for 3+ years. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I don't think this team needs much more than a reliable 3rd scorer and a knock down shooter. Collins would be great, we could also maybe get something like Christian Woods and Eric Gordon this offseason for Al an unprotected pick and filler. This is all assuming the Celtics dodged the tax this season to be able to spend big money further into the future.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Someone is gone. We are significantly over the tax next off-season with only 8 guys under contract.

I think it may be just as likely that we take Horford's contract with some other pieces to get a third guy next to the Js.

Horford would have to go to a team trying to tear down (completely or partially) and rebuild to save them money.

Nets, Wizards, Clippers, Suns, Mavs, Nuggets are the teams to keep an eye on.

Nuggets have three max guys and some larger contracts on the roster.

I'm keeping an eye on the Suns with Bridges/Ayton extensions due and Paul's large contract.

Mavs have a ton of middle-tier contracts. Hardaway, Bertans, etc are all guys to look at

Clippers would be probably something around Kennard. Morris fits a lot of what Brad Stevens likes too, but I have a hard time wanting him back.

Wizards obviously have Beal.

Nets could look to trade Harris if we included another guy that could give them minutes (Pritchard?)

[Moranis]

I doubt anyone would take him in a trade without draft capital attached

I disagree, but timing is important.

Let’s say it’s January 1.  Horford is with the Celtics.  We can trade Horford for outgoing salary of $14.5 million, bringing back $18.225 million.

The cool thing is, the acquiring team could immediately cut him, and they’d owe him minimal (if any) salary, because the Celts already paid it.  Under that circumstance, he’s an asset, not a negative value contract.

Or the acquiring team might have a large contract they want to dump and just agree to guarantee his whole contract amount allowing Boston to acquire a max or near max player.  Like Horford + a minimum contract guy could get you someone like AD and his 35 million (not saying that would happen, but the type of salary). 

[DefenseWinsChamps]

For example, I estimate that the Nets would save something like 56 million dollars in their luxury tax bill if they traded Harris and Carter for Horford, waived him, and filled out their roster with minimum contract players and have Claxton accept his qualifying offer. (edit: double-checking my math I'm wrong on this, but the rest of the point stands if you could structure it to absorb more salary for the Nets)

Seeing as they already have similar shooters like Curry and Mills on really good contracts, a 19 million dollar contract for a shooter like Harris seems redundant.

If the Cs were then able to dump Carter, we would be 5 million under the tax with 10 players on their roster. The only other contract that makes sense to dump would be Theis', but then we would need to find another big man or two to have on our roster.

Then again, depending on how we do this off-season, we may be able to go into the tax with the biannual exception and then the tax-payer MLE to fill out the roster with another rotation 4/5.

That's just one example of what I was talking about earlier. I really think the other team that has some crazy money already committed for next season is the Denver Nuggets. They are something like 12 million over the tax already with 10 guys on their roster. Filling their roster with minimum contracts puts their luxury tax bill at 41 million, which is a lot for a small market team.

[BringToughnessBack]

If we make it to conference finals and perhaps finals, it wont be a coincidence that we brought Horford back. Sometimes a players impact can be felt on and off the court and our cohesiveness together is getting better as well. Usually big veteran presences help on that front.

I will answer this in June after season is over!

Ha! 😎

[Phantom255x]

If we make it to conference finals and perhaps finals, it wont be a coincidence that we brought Horford back. Sometimes a players impact can be felt on and off the court and our cohesiveness together is getting better as well. Usually big veteran presences help on that front.

I will answer this in June after season is over!

Ha! 😎

[mef730]

If we make it to conference finals and perhaps finals, it wont be a coincidence that we brought Horford back. Sometimes a players impact can be felt on and off the court and our cohesiveness together is getting better as well. Usually big veteran presences help on that front.

I will answer this in June after season is over!

Ha! 😎

Technically, you still have two days, but I'm in a generous mood, so I'll throw you an early TP.

Mike

[pokeKingCurtis]

What do we do with Horford next season?

We will cherish the hell out of him

[Bobshot]

Horford is a key starter. He must be extended. He's playing right now like he was 30.

[Surferdad]

I doubt anyone would take him in a trade without draft capital attached

I disagree, but timing is important.

Let’s say it’s January 1.  Horford is with the Celtics.  We can trade Horford for outgoing salary of $14.5 million, bringing back $18.225 million.

The cool thing is, the acquiring team could immediately cut him, and they’d owe him minimal (if any) salary, because the Celts already paid it.  Under that circumstance, he’s an asset, not a negative value contract.

I know very little about contracts etc, but this statement doesn't seem right, Roy.  I'm guessing that players get paid as they go (e.g. every two weeks), not in advance.  Contract gets traded and the new team owes the balance.  What am I missing?

[Vermont Green]

I doubt anyone would take him in a trade without draft capital attached

I disagree, but timing is important.

Let’s say it’s January 1.  Horford is with the Celtics.  We can trade Horford for outgoing salary of $14.5 million, bringing back $18.225 million.

The cool thing is, the acquiring team could immediately cut him, and they’d owe him minimal (if any) salary, because the Celts already paid it.  Under that circumstance, he’s an asset, not a negative value contract.

I know very little about contracts etc, but this statement doesn't seem right, Roy.  I'm guessing that players get paid as they go (e.g. every two weeks), not in advance.  Contract gets traded and the new team owes the balance.  What am I missing?

At the time of the post (mid Feb) Horford's next season's contract was only partially guaranteed to $14.5M of the total $26.5M.  By the trade deadline, the Celtics would have paid almost all of the guaranteed part so the new team could cut him and because the contract was not guaranteed, not been on the hook to pay him any more.

Now, because we made the finals, the guarantee increases to $19.5M of the $26.5M.  What Roy says still could have applied, but the magnitude of potential savings would have been less.  The full contract would have been guaranteed if we win the finals.

The Celtics made all of this moot by guaranteeing the entire amount for next season in any case.  That is a good move in terms of the gesture to Horford and also good Karma for the team going into the finals.  It is kind of like trading your draft pick to another team in the lottery so there is no potential secondary agenda.  Al gets paid whether we win or not.  No reason now to even talk about Horford's contract guarantee.

I don't think the Celtics have any expectation or plan to trade Horford.  He will be a year older so may need to have his minutes managed a little bit more but he should be fine next season.  He should still help the team plenty, even if it is a transition year to whoever is going to be the future PF.  I also don't think the Celtics are going to extend him any further than next season either.  They will deal with that after next season if Al wants to keep playing.

[wiley]

If we win the finals, run it back in the luxury tak.