Welp. Looks like the training wheels are coming off early for Brad Stevens as the Celtics’ team president.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that the Celtics promoted Stevens from head coach to president of basketball operations. You’d think that it’d take some time to get adjusted and that moves wouldn’t come quickly.
And if you thought that, apparently, you’d be wrong. He just made his first move for the team and, man, was it ever a big one.
The Celtics just traded Kemba Walker and a first-round pick to get Al Horford back in Boston, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Celtics are trading Kemba Walker, the No. 16 overall pick in the 2021 draft and a 2025 second-round draft pick to Oklahoma City for Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 second-round pick, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 18, 2021
This is such a wild deal. Brad Stevens has officially cut his teeth as the Celtics’ GM.
And this is a move he’s going to be judged on for years to come down the road. It’s a big gamble. Sure, the Celtics cleared their cap sheet a bit. But they also just traded their first-round pick for a 34-year-old center who hasn’t played meaningful basketball in two years.
Horford has a good history in Boston, but we’ll see if he can rekindle that a bit next season. If he can’t? Stevens will certainly hear about it.
