Maybe the C's already have their long term replacement for Al Horford....

[keevsnick]

I think the way the NBA is going, Grant will be a perfect fit as a PF.

I'm imagining next season, Al is still the starter but their minutes basically flip (Al playing around 20 mpg and Grant playing around 30) and then Grant takes over as the starter.

Last season was tough for Grant because he put on weight to play bigger and it didn't go well. This year he took the weight off to be able to play faster and it worked. Now that we know that that works and he has that mentality, I'm excited to see his growth going forward.

Are we now thinking Horford is definitely on the team next year? If we make finals he definitely because of how salary is structured. But other he is making like 28 million instead of 11 if they don’t bring him back.

Unless they trade Al for an upgrade of some kind then yes, he will 100% be back. Cutting him to pay 14 million for a guy not on your team vs keeping him for 26 million is a no brainer because that extra 12 million doesn't really do anything for you, it doesn't give them cap room. It saves money against the tax, but if ownership is cutting a starter to save tax money that would be a HUGE slap in the face to Tatum/Brown.

[colincb]

I think the way the NBA is going, Grant will be a perfect fit as a PF.

I'm imagining next season, Al is still the starter but their minutes basically flip (Al playing around 20 mpg and Grant playing around 30) and then Grant takes over as the starter.

Last season was tough for Grant because he put on weight to play bigger and it didn't go well. This year he took the weight off to be able to play faster and it worked. Now that we know that that works and he has that mentality, I'm excited to see his growth going forward.

Are we now thinking Horford is definitely on the team next year? If we make finals he definitely because of how salary is structured. But other he is making like 28 million instead of 11 if they don’t bring him back.

Unless they trade Al for an upgrade of some kind then yes, he will 100% be back. Cutting him to pay 14 million for a guy not on your team vs keeping him for 26 million is a no brainer because that extra 12 million doesn't really do anything for you, it doesn't give them cap room. It saves money against the tax, but if ownership is cutting a starter to save tax money that would be a HUGE slap in the face to Tatum/Brown.

TP.  I'll be disappointed if we're not using the TPE this summer too and I strongly believe the Cs will upgrade the roster further after the moves they made at the trade deadline.

[RockinRyA]

Al is a unicorn. Really hard to replace him.

Yea he's a beast. Anchored those late 2000 Hawks. If only Josh Smith weren't such a headcase.

We're lucky to be able to watch Al have this late career resurgence - and by that token he will be difficult to replace.

can you imagine Al with the big 3 celtics?

[SparzWizard]

Al is a unicorn. Really hard to replace him.

Yea he's a beast. Anchored those late 2000 Hawks. If only Josh Smith weren't such a headcase.

We're lucky to be able to watch Al have this late career resurgence - and by that token he will be difficult to replace.

can you imagine Al with the big 3 celtics?

Rondo/Allen/Pierce/Garnett/Horford?

We'd be working on banner #21 or #22 by now

[JSD]

So after the Celtics win the title this season, Al's contract becomes fully guaranteed for next year. I wonder if he agrees to come back after next season or if he just retires. What would a 38/39 Year old Al Horford command?

[gouki88]

So after the Celtics win the title this season, Al's contract becomes fully guaranteed for next year. I wonder if he agrees to come back after next season or if he just retires. What would a 38/39 Year old Al Horford command?

I'd love him to stick around like Andre Iguodala, as that end of bench vet

[pokeKingCurtis]

Al is a unicorn. Really hard to replace him.

Yea he's a beast. Anchored those late 2000 Hawks. If only Josh Smith weren't such a headcase.

We're lucky to be able to watch Al have this late career resurgence - and by that token he will be difficult to replace.

can you imagine Al with the big 3 celtics?

Rondo/Allen/Pierce/Garnett/Horford?

We'd be working on banner #21 or #22 by now

Horford didn't even shoot the 3 back then. Wasn't until the year after the 60 win Hawks (2014-15 was the 60 win Hawks, so 2015-16) based on basketball-reference. Kyle Korver was an all star on those 60 win Hawks.

Now he's a lethal floor spacer.

I don't even have any point in particular I'm trying to make, except perhaps the fact he's just had a really cool career, and has basically been a winner for a lot of his career.

[JSD]

So after the Celtics win the title this season, Al's contract becomes fully guaranteed for next year. I wonder if he agrees to come back after next season or if he just retires. What would a 38/39 Year old Al Horford command?

I'd love him to stick around like Andre Iguodala, as that end of bench vet

Likewise. I bet even in a few years he could still give us some high level minutes in short stints. I just wonder if it would be worth it to him, with his young growing family at all. I bet he walks away after next season, especially if he gets a ring this year. I just don’t see him holding on until the bitter end unless he gets substantially overpaid.

[Walker Wiggle]

Teams get into trouble when they conclude they must have a particular role player to keep winning. This leads to overpaying those players and making it hard to keep improving the roster.

I think Grant, if he keeps playing like he has this past season into 2022-23, has the chance to make well over $10m per year. It’s hard to say because RFAs’ markets sometimes just aren’t there, but you only need one team to fall in love with the guy.

In any case, the Celtics can absolutely win without Horford, they’ll just need to do it differently. There’s no choice because of Horford’s age; he can’t keep defying time forever.

[gouki88]

I reckon we could go after someone like Thaddeus Young in free agency to allow us to rest Horford more next season if we wanted. He's not the shooter Horford is (around 35% on 1.7 attempts per game over the last few years), but he plays very similarly in terms of defence, playmaking and solid enough rebounding. I would absolutely love a rotation of:

Smart / Pritchard
Brown / White
Tatum / Nesmith
Horford / Grant / Young
Rob / Young / Theis

[Moranis]

I reckon we could go after someone like Thaddeus Young in free agency to allow us to rest Horford more next season if we wanted. He's not the shooter Horford is (around 35% on 1.7 attempts per game over the last few years), but he plays very similarly in terms of defence, playmaking and solid enough rebounding. I would absolutely love a rotation of:

Smart / Pritchard
Brown / White
Tatum / Nesmith
Horford / Grant / Young
Rob / Young / Theis

If you are going only for a year or two, I'd rather get a guy that can play SF than a big guy.  If you are going more for the long term, then a PF/C type makes more sense.  Young would be fine, but I'd rather have a more pure wing type player for the next year.  Wood makes more sense to me long term, though he would cost more assets to acquire than Young.

[td450]

So after the Celtics win the title this season, Al's contract becomes fully guaranteed for next year. I wonder if he agrees to come back after next season or if he just retires. What would a 38/39 Year old Al Horford command?

He's 35 now and turns 36 in June.

This is a big test for the franchise. Al looks awfully impressive right now, and we have Theis and GWill so his minutes can be highly managed. He may still be able to give the team the same type of contribution in slightly less minutes next year, and possibly one more year after that. From there, he's likely to be a spot minutes guy at age 38 and 39 at best.

I don't think we're likely to find someone quite like him. Unless Marcus starts to get chronically injured, no one else is likely to decline for about 4 years or so.

My hope is that if we win a title, that we get that shine that makes certain vets want to give up money for a ring or to rehab their rep. That could keep the party going too. Winning begets winning, and Tatum and Brown aren't even quite in their prime yet.

[otherdave]

OP here.  Yes Al is a unicorn - lucky us! 

When I suggested that Grant may one day start in lieu of Big Al, I wasn't saying Grant had all of Al skills - frankly who does? 

Given that the C's are going to be paying tax for the foreseeable future and therefore will only have MLEs available to them, Grant may be one of the better options available.  C's can extend Grant this summer and still be able to use the Evan F TPE or MLE on another area of need, perhaps wing?

Whoever does start in place of Al is in all likelihood not going to  have an exact match of Al's skill set.  The C's will though learn to win with this different player.

[Surferdad]

I think Grant has more developing to do. We've seen the makings of a good pump-and-drive game to go with dead-eye shooting and his defense seems to be for real. We should stop thinking about him as a PF/C and start thinking about him as a combo forward a la Jae Crowder.

Crowder has been a starter on 2 Finals teams and an EC Finalist and I think Grant is already more skilled than Crowder. If he embraces the role he played this season I think he'd be a perfect #5 guy with the other 4 starters (in a year or two).

Grant hasn't played center much lately.  We (but mostly Ime) already think of him as a PF or a SF/PF depending on how you define the positions.

The guy that needs to be replaced is Daniel Theis.  I like the guy, but his poor hands and lack of strength are just killer deficiencies.  He simply doesn't shooting at high enough % to justify his weaknesses.

Theis is essentially a 10mpg player when healthy and we just swept a very good Nets team with him starting. I get that some people don't love Theis, but his versatility on both sides of the ball sometimes goes unnoticed because he isn't particularly great at any one thing. With us having literally zero viable back-up wings, I would say replacing Theis is definitely not the priority on this team..

To the OP - please correct the thread title. Are we really still spelling his name Hortford?

Theis had the third-best defensive rating and the second-best offensive rating among our regular rotation players during the regular season and improved each month he was here. He was 4th best in the same two categories during the play Nets series and probably would have been higher on the offensive rating except for AH, PP, and GW having ungodly high TS% ranging from 72-77% because they were hot from beyond the arc. He also had the highest TRB%.

Theis fits the team well for a backup 4/5.

As I said, I like Theis, he is a good player and a decent backup center.  I just think an upgrade there would be helpful especially considering Horford's age.

I admit backup wing is another area of need, but I think that could be solved with Grant's improvement and possibly Nesmith taking a step forward next year.

[colincb]

So after the Celtics win the title this season, Al's contract becomes fully guaranteed for next year. I wonder if he agrees to come back after next season or if he just retires. What would a 38/39 Year old Al Horford command?

He's 35 now and turns 36 in June.

This is a big test for the franchise. Al looks awfully impressive right now, and we have Theis and GWill so his minutes can be highly managed. He may still be able to give the team the same type of contribution in slightly less minutes next year, and possibly one more year after that. From there, he's likely to be a spot minutes guy at age 38 and 39 at best.

I don't think we're likely to find someone quite like him. Unless Marcus starts to get chronically injured, no one else is likely to decline for about 4 years or so.

My hope is that if we win a title, that we get that shine that makes certain vets want to give up money for a ring or to rehab their rep. That could keep the party going too. Winning begets winning, and Tatum and Brown aren't even quite in their prime yet.

TP. This is the biggest intermediate problem the Cs have to resolve.