Everything Is Coming Up Celtics These Days As Al Horford Signs A Two-Year Extension With Them

 

    While the Patriots (6-6) stumble and try to stay somewhat relevant this winter, the Celtics (an NBA best 18-4) and Bruins (19-3-0, one point behind NJ-who has played two more games-for the top mark in the NHL) are both off to incredible starts to their respective seasons. That is actually one of the main reasons why I haven't written about either so far in these ridiculous campaigns: they have been mostly blowing everyone out so that gets pretty redundant and boring to discuss. Today at least brought some interesting off the court news for the C's as they signed veteran center Al Horford to a two-year contract extension worth $20 million. His numbers so far in 2022-23 are probably better than you realized: in 31 minutes per game, he's averaging 10.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 0.9 blocks. He is also shooting almost 50% on three-pointers (48.8%) which is way above his career average from downtown (36.6%). 

    With news of the Ime Udoka scandal breaking right before training camp started, you wondered how it would affect the team but so far first-year head coach Joe Mazzulla's transition has been seamless thanks to his absolutely loaded roster. By NBA standards, Al is already very old (he turned 36 during the NBA Finals last summer) and this deal will tie him to the C's through his 39th birthday in 2025. While that might seem a little crazy, if you have watched the Celts lately, you noticed that Horford is still a starting caliber player on an NBA title favorite. With fellow big man Robert Williams perpetually hurt and/or coming back from an injury, you need to have a legitimate backup plan for him since I doubt that he will ever play anything close to a full season. Enter Horford who was a Hawk for nine seasons (after being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 Draft) then he initially came here in free agency in 2016. After three good years, he briefly went to the Sixers followed by a short but miserable stay with the constantly rebuilding Thunder.

    When Brad Stevens reacquired him for next to nothing two summers ago, we all laughed thinking that Horford was completely washed up but he has proven everybody wrong by putting together a really nice return season with the Celtics culminating in his first ever NBA Finals apperance. He is too old to play in back-to-back games (like earlier this week) but who cares? Al provides stability and leadership to a team that still needs it despite the fact that Jayson Tatum has become one of the best players in the league and Jaylen Brown is an All-Star caliber player as well. With so many big personalities (and egos), every locker room needs a Horford-a calming presence on the floor and no doubt behind the scenes as well. Other than winning that elusive NBA title, he has done and seen almost everything when it comes to the game of basketball.

    Of course, this being the Celtics and Boston in general, this what looks to be absurd regular season for the C's won't really mean anything if they don't go back to the Finals and complete the job that they weren't quite ready to do last summer against Golden State. Few players ever get that storybook ending in pro sports but it seems well within Horford's grasp meaning that the Celtics could finally earn another banner and therefore he would retire on top. Until then, we should appreciate the maturity, classiness and sheer dependability of Horford who seems to be unique in many positive ways when it comes to the normally drama filled NBA. Al appears to genuinely like being a Celtic too and from what we can tell, he enjoys playing here which you also cannot put a price tag on.

Last Season Dennis Schroder Bet Big On Himself & That Didn't Turn Out So Well, Now He's A Celtic

    We have reached that sad dead zone in NBA free agency where almost all of the top players have long been scooped up and teams are left to fight over the crumbs or in this case, flawed guys that have shown flashes here or there but not enough to be more coveted. Enter guard Dennis Schroder: you might remember him as the bozo that for some unknown reason (was it a terrible agent or his irrational self-worth?) turned down a four-year, $84 million extension last spring with the Lakers. He didn't have a bad 2020-21 by any measure: in 61 starts for LA, he averaged 15.4 points per game, 5.8 assists per game and 1.1 steals per game. Apparently, that didn't impress anyone though (or maybe he's just a complete prick?) since he was still available until this evening when the Celtics reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with him for the mid-level exception ($5.9 million). 

    Boston will be the mercurial German's fourth NBA team (Atlanta and Oklahoma City being the others) in only nine seasons and with any luck, this will be the NBA equivalent of a one-night stand: quite enjoyable for both parties but ultimately nothing more lasting than that. Schroder will want to have a monster season individually with the C's so that when he goes back to free agency next summer, he will get paid much closer to that boatload of money that he laughably left on the table for the Lakers. Likewise, the Celtics desperately needed a starting point guard and this way, they aren't forced to shoehorn Marcus Smart into that spot every game or better yet, they can finally trade him. Haha yeah right, I'll believe that when I see it even with Danny Ainge out of the picture

    It has been an interesting ride in the NBA for Dennis The Menace (I can only assume that fantastic nickname hasn't caught on more because it's too dated?). He was a first-round pick-17th overall-for the Hawks in 2013 and after basically a redshirt year in his rookie season, he averaged 10 points per game his second season and that continued to go up his next three years in A-Town before they flipped him to the Thunder in a massive three-team trade that also involved the Sixers. After two pretty solid seasons in rebuilding OKC, he got to play with LeBron James for one fleeting campaign in LA. There are a couple notable Celtics connections to Schroder: as a Hawk, he had some epic playoff battles with the Celts early in his NBA career. Furthermore, he and former Boston point guard Rajon Rondo are mortal enemies that seem to legitimately hate each other and they always get into a hilarious shoving and shouting match every time that their numerous teams meet.

    The bottom line is that this should be an enjoyable hookup for both Schroder and Boston since nobody can deny his talent: his career-highs are 19.4 points per game (2017-18 w/ATL), 6.3 assists per game (the previous season with the Hawks) and those 1.1 steals per game (twice). You wish that he was a better shooter (just 33.7% career on 3-pointers) which no doubt makes Smart smile but at least he's a good free throw shooter (83.1% for his career). Dennis is listed at 6-foot-3 but only 172 pounds so new Celtics head coach Ime Udoka will surely need to be creative at times to protect him defensively and let the much bigger and stronger Smart take on the league's larger guards. I never thought in my life that I'd cheer for this joker but as long as he doesn't act like too much of a jackass, this is a solid move by Brad Stevens so late in free agency. Realistically, you couldn't have expected a much better player than him and we all like Payton Pritchard but he should never be more than a backup guard at this level.  

According To ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, The Next Head Coach Of The Celtics Will Be Ime Udoka

 

    If you know anything about the NBA, whatever Woj says is basically gospel so while the Celtics haven't confirmed this big news yet, I think that you can take it to the bank. First off, you are probably wondering who the hell is Ime Udoka? Well he was an NBA journeyman player turned assistant coach who has worked for San Antonio and Philadelphia before his most recent gig with Brooklyn. While he lacks the name brand of a Chauncey Billups (another finalist along with Darvin Ham for this job), he clearly has the resume of someone that has been around the league for a long time in multiple roles. Most importantly, he has the approval of Boston's best players-Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown-who he worked with at the 2019 FIBA World Cup on Team USA as an assistant coach. Marcus Smart was also on that team but unlike the Celtics, I'm not going to pretend like he is some linchpin of this club.  

    Without ever hearing it directly, I think it is safe to assume that one of the main reasons that Brad Stevens burned out as the Celtics head coach is that he probably failed to connect with many of his players. Right off the bat, Udoka checks many of the boxes that Stevens never can: he's Nigerian-American and he played for parts of seven seasons in the NBA with the Lakers, Knicks, Blazers, Spurs and Kings. He is also on the younger side (43) for a head coach like Stevens so that should also help him in terms of relating to current NBA stars some of whom are basically half his age. Off the court, he's obviously doing something right since his longtime partner is actress Nia Long-of Friday and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air fame.

    Stevens has a brilliant basketball mind but every coach-particularly those at the highest level and in a player-driven league like the NBA-has a shelf life. Boston has more than enough talent to finish better than seventh-place in the Eastern Conference like they did in the shameful 2020-21 regular season. It is all about maximizing their time with Tatum and Brown because once those current contracts end, who knows if they will still want to stay here for much longer? While the value of an NBA head coach on the surface is pretty low these days, one of their main purposes is to be liked (or at least tolerated) by the team's star players. If you have them on your side, then you have a shot at getting the most out of them. If not, you run the risk of losing your job very quickly since a coach is always easier to part with than a top talent in a league that is mostly built on accumulating it.

    Finally, in 2021 you simply cannot overlook the fact that in a league filled with players that are predominantly not white, it makes sense to have a coach that looks like most of the players. That is not to say that white head coaches can't be successful anymore but I am happy to see the Celts recognize that Udoka was a solid candidate (along with two other African-Americans) based on his own merits and it was long overdue to go in a different direction in terms of the race of the head coach. This is a franchise with a long history of great black head coaches: from Bill Russell to KC Jones and in more recent years Doc Rivers. Hopefully in the not too distant future, Ime Udoka will be remembered as one of the main factors in a positive culture shift within the C's when they desperately needed it most.