I'm no on Horford
Why?
He isn't a franchise level player. The team was rebuilding and didn't need to invest that kind of money in a guy who wouldnt put them in contention. If he was required to get KD than sure but if that wasn't a guarantee they should have passed imo
I just don’t get this kind of thinking. Would you have rathered we stayed bad/mediocre? Two trips to the ECF are valuable
Boston was a 48 win team, very young, had just picked Brown, and still had 2 more Nets draft picks on the way. It had no one up that summer such that the unused cap space could be carried over to the following summer (and in fact was - at least what wasn't spent on Horford). There was no reason why it had to get used that summer on Horford. The team could have punted one more year, and had a lot more flexibility the following summer or at the deadline the following season. Perhaps without Horford, Ainge pulls the trigger on a Cousins or George trade because he would have still had room for 1 max the following summer. You just don't know the lost opportunity cost that Horford's salary caused. I mean it was absolutely possible that Boston could have acquired George for the rumored cost of Crowder, Smart, and Boston's 1st, then signed Hayward, all while keeping KO, and still later that summer acquired Irving (for something like Bradley, Thomas, and BKN 1st). How much closer to a title is Boston with a starting 5 of Irving, Brown, Hayward, George, KO while still having Rozier, Zizic, Baynes, Theis, Semi, etc. Of course it obviously could have gone the other way, maybe no one ends up in Boston, maybe Irving refuses to report so that trade isn't done, and last summer we watched as IT and company left in free agency, leaving Boston with just Tatum, Brown, Smart, Rozier, Zizic, and whoever was drafted at 8. Who knows what might have been, but time and time again history has shown that you don't gather complimentary pieces (especially at huge prices) when you don't have the foundational piece on the roster as the complimentary pieces almost always prevents a team from acquiring the foundational piece while they are still on the roster.