Now that we are finally and truly in the depth of the NBA’s 2023 summer doldrums, a fair amount of content coming out about the league tends to focus on the future, with a decent serving of history dished out to fill in the gaps for those of us still looking to scratch an itch only the Association can reach.
But there is also the tried-and-true approach of hypothetical “what if” moments to ponder, such as a recent and expansive article on such a topic put together by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. The Boston Celtics are among the teams included in Bontemps’ hypothetical, which focuses on if the Celtics had re-signed Al Horford in 2019.
Such an alternative path taking shape instead of his exit to the Philadelphia 76ers could have resulted in very different roster moves and the retention of draft picks that could have strengthened the team.
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“With Horford on the roster in the NBA bubble for Boston in 2020, the Celtics don’t get dominated inside by Miami’s Bam Adebayo in the conference finals, and they make it to the NBA Finals,” writes Bontemps.
“In addition, having Horford on the roster means Boston doesn’t need to sign Enes Kanter (now Enes Freedom). In turn, that means the Celtics keep the 30th pick in the 2020 draft, rather than trading it to the Memphis Grizzlies as part of a Kanter salary dump. The player taken with that pick? Desmond Bane, who is now firmly entrenched as a core player in Boston alongside Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Celtics also never would’ve had to salary dump Walker in this scenario, either, meaning they’d have kept the 16th pick — which the Houston Rockets wound up using on promising young big Alperen Sengun.”
“And Rozier would still be part of the mix too, as a solid guard off the bench,” adds the ESPN analyst.
Conversely, what if Boston feels the Cal alum is not living up to the size of that deal? https://t.co/dBEX8C4tsy
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The end of former Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge was perhaps most marked by a cascading loss of talent that saw not only Horford and Irving before him walk for nothing, but also Gordon Hayward.
And while it’s impossible to know what might have had the Florida alum back in Boston besides the benefit of hindsight, it’s also not out of the question that a move to deal any of the above players before they had gotten to free agency could have also headed off such issues.
Of course that would need its own set of counterfactual analysis to reimagine what the Celtics of today look like, but it’s an interesting examination to do for fun in any case.
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