Brad Stevens Signals Al Horford Departure as Celtics Stand Pat

Brad Stevens spoke for the first time officially about the Celtics trades that sent Kristaps Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday to Atlanta and Portland. He thanked them and Luke Kornet for their contributions to Boston, and acknowledged the unlikelihood that Al Horford will return to the team as a Warriors contract seemingly looms.

“We made offers to both Luke and Al,” Stevens said. “We would’ve loved to have had both of them back. I’d say that’s unlikely. The only reason I haven’t talked about Al is because it’s not final. I could probably talk about Al my whole press conference and not say enough. But I don’t want to speak in absolute terms until an ultimate decision is made. But another guy that, if he were to go and play somewhere else, was an all-time Celtic. A winner, and did everything he could for this organization. Not only from the games, but also how he impacted our younger players, who, in a lot of ways, now have to take what they’ve learned from the Jrues and the Als and people like that and apply that from a leadership role.”

With Porziņģis, Horford and Kornet gone, Stevens signaled that the Celtics will begin the season with a roster close to what they have now. The offseason set up expectations far below the recent championship aspirations the last four Celtics teams had, and Stevens previewed a likely center-by-committee approach to moving past their significant losses at the position. Emblematic of the rest of the team — Stevens stated that they’ll simply need to grow beyond their current NBA experience.

That became clear when Boston welcomed Anfernee Simons and Georges Niang to Boston on Monday following the completion of trades that reportedly could’ve re-routed one or both elsewhere. That didn’t happen, so the Celtics remained $19 million above the luxury tax line, a hair over the second apron threshold and will assess further moves through Summer League. As we’ve reported though, there aren’t teams excited to take on significant salary without a strong incentive, even if Simons and Niang play on expiring contracts. So Stevens lauded them as part of the picture for at least the near future, noting Simons’ elite shooting and continued improvement alongside Niang’s pestering play style and history of winning (career 356-188).

“The reality of the schedule of things is there will probably be some conversations that all 30 teams have in Vegas,” Stevens said. “But it’s a lot less than around the draft, and a lot less than even around as the moratorium comes to a close. And so I’d say who knows what will happen, but as far as us, we’re very comfortable with this group heading into next season.” 

The positive from the day: Stevens didn’t picture the Celtics making further moves to exclusively avoid repeater tax penalties. He noted potential benefits to avoiding the tax not outweighing their ability to maintain basketball assets. Bill Chisholm and ownership will make those decisions, he said, while stressing that they’ve expressed a willingness to spend to retool the roster at as high of a level as possible. It’s less clear which players ownership would view as worth maintaining.

There’s a difference between paying a small luxury tax bill and $86.1 million, as Boston currently projects to spend. Avoiding the repeater tax penalties requires the Celtics finishing the season below the tax line for two straight seasons. This season’s early results could dictate whether Boston views maintaining their medium-sized salaries as desirable for their long term goals, or embracing a larger step back and additional long term flexibility puts them on a faster track to returning to contention. They appear far from it now, with Stevens again prioritizing Jayson Tatum’s recovery as the first step in that direction. He neither ruled him out for the season nor set a timeline for his return this season on Monday.

He instead challenged this team to compete each night, and try to prove the the predictions wrong. That starts at Summer League on Thursday, when a cast of late round picks, second-rounders and undrafted free agents will try to break through for a team with more available minutes for younger players than anytime since 2020-21, or even earlier. Stevens also put the Jaylen Brown and Derrick White trade saga in the past for now, mentioning Brown at the heart of their hopes for competing this year.

“You saw him several times and you saw him obviously in the few games in the playoffs where we had to play without JT and I thought he did a good job,” Stevens said. “Especially those two home games and I think that he’s ready for any challenge, he always has been and I’m excited to see all these guys take a step up. I’m excited to see a chip on their shoulder. I think we’ve always had it. We’ve had a competitive group with a competitive mindset, but we’ve maybe had much higher expectations, or some higher expectations, so I’m excited to see us get ready to go and Jaylen will be a big part of that.”

• Stevens confirmed his earlier comments that Mazzulla has multiple years left on his contract and they would love for him to coach the Celtics for a long time.
• Summer League head coach Matt Reynolds, a longtime Celtics staff member since 2013, previewed experimenting with different playing styles beginning this week. Boston added Isaiah Wong, a 23-year-old, 6-3 guard who’s played for the Indiana, Utah and Charlotte organizations before going to Lithuania earlier this year and Kendall Brown, a 22-year-old forward who’s played for the Indiana and Brooklyn organizations among the already reported names.
• Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Amari Williams, Hugo Gonzalez and Max Shulga will headline the team among Boston’s roster players. Reynolds said he’ll balance on and off-ball roles for Gonzalez, who’s shown a savvy and smooth game in practice this week with clear skill work. Gonzalez said he’ll focus on his three-point shot and adapting to the NBA line, which is nearly two feet longer than Spain’s. Boston will also look to diversify Williams’ game around his passing with screening and rebounding skills while establishing the strong foundation Shulga already has.
• Gonzalez did not share how many games he expects to play in Vegas after finishing his Spanish season earlier this month, leaving it up to the coaches while noting the quick turnaround to Boston has been difficult: “Yeah, it’s hard. I’m coming back from the season five, six says ago and having a week from rest. And then, coming here was something that I needed (balance, too). But I just want to get through it. I’m really excited to play Summer League right now. So, just having great feelings.”
• Walsh, who’s beginning a critical season at 21, said he’s looking to force things less this summer compared to last, when he tried to emulate Brown and Tatum.
• Luka Garza appeared on the floor at Auerbach Center after practice and began working on his put backs. Stevens sounded high on what the former two-time college player of the year can contribute at center after coming over from Minnesota alongside Josh Minott: “Luka, obviously, has been a stats darling, but in limited time behind very, very good players. And same thing with Minott. Minott is a guy that brings a lot of versatility to the table, is a person that can guard several positions, can shoot a little bit, but plays with great energy and length.””Both those guys really rebound and so, as we have a team that is being retooled, I think the biggest thing is that bringing in guys that can complement our best players and our core, but also have some upside. And maybe some unrealized upside thus far, and they were in a great situation. They were coached by a great coach in Chris Finch, and a great organization with a ton of talent and so they’re used to winning.”