Brad Stevens couldn’t let a single round of the playoffs go by before getting Kemba Walker out of town. The new Celtics president undid his predecessor’s last big move, trading Walker and two picks (including No. 16 in this year’s draft) to the Thunder for Al Horford, Moses Brown, and a second-round pick, according to ESPN.
Walker had two years remaining on his contract and was significantly hobbled in Boston’s first-round loss to the Nets. He played just three of the five games and scored six points in his final appearance. He was an All-Star his first year in Boston but struggled badly with knee injuries this year, missing 29 of 72 games.
On the other end of the deal, Stevens is reunited with Horford, who anchored the best Celtics teams of Stevens’ coaching tenure. The 34-year-old Horford played only 28 games with the Thunder this year, but had some life after a lost year with the Sixers in 2019-20. Horford was healthy but the Thunder shut him down with a third of the season remaining, perhaps to preserve his trade value and build up players like Brown, and it appears to have worked.
Walker, a Bronx native, now has a chance to build himself back up before the Thunder likely trade him.
