Similar to 2020, Celtics were an Al Horford away from advancing

I know some fans turned on Al Horford because he chose to leave again. I’m sure Al was convinced by Golden State that they had a better chance at a title this year than Boston in its “gap year.

That said I’m pretty confident we win this series with Al instead of Vucevic. And let’s be honest the reason Horford left was mostly about money as is almost always the case with free agents.

Words like “respect” and other secret reasons are almost always still code for if the money was equal they’d still be here. I don’t expect Horford to say he regrets choosing Golden State anytime soon, but I think years from now he will admit that. It’s easy to advise players who have made nine figures in their career to leave a few million on the table but it rarely happens. And in the case of Horford he did take a hometown discount on his last contract re-signing with Boston.

My pitch last offseason was that Horford wait it out to see if Jayson Tatum was returning before making his decision. Would have kept him fresh for whatever contending team he signed with and without the need for a center at the deadline, Anfernee Simons could have been traded for a better piece as well.

What’s interesting is I had the same feeling when the Celtics lost to the Miami Heat in the Bubble Eastern Conference Finals in 2020. If they still had Horford they beat the Heat and very well defeat the Lakers. Two times Horford left for more money and what appeared at the time as better opportunities to win. Both times he bet wrong (at least on the winning part).

Horford was a big part of our 2024 championship and should always get free drinks in Boston, but he repeated a mistake betting against the Celtics’ resiliency. We weren’t dead after Kyrie left in 2019 and we weren’t either this past summer.
A lot of blame is being thrown at Mazzulla and the Celtics stars right now due to their collapse against Philly, but Horford alway played well against Embiid. The Horford departure was the little difference. Could the Celtics have offered more? Of course they could have. The team was being sold for BILLIONS. The tax dollars on any Horford contract above the minimum would have been a drop in the bucket for Chisholm or Wyc.
Now of course the NBAPA agreed to a foolish CBA where teams received penalties for spending beyond the tax. And that’s an amazing out for owners not to spend and have reporters and fans carry the water for them and defend those decisions due to the apron penalties.The guess here is there was still a way for the Celtics to offer enough to accommodate Horford’s “respect” and still end up financially in an ok place with regards to repeater penalties.

Brad Stevens and the Celtics could have gotten creative and offered for example a player option on a second year and waived Horford after this season, so he could retire AND still collect the NBA vet minimum for two seasons while only playing one. There was a path for Horford to have been on the floor for the Celtics this offseason. Both Horford and the Celtics messed up. Neither party will admit it right now, but they both made the wrong decision.


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