The Celtics Pulled Off A Sneaky Good Deal By Flipping Moses Brown For Josh Richardson

 

    While we wait for the three team trade between Boston, Atlanta and Sacramento to hopefully go through sometime soon, the Celtics did make another notable move over the weekend by trading center Moses Brown (we hardly knew ya!) to the Mavericks for guard Josh Richardson. It beats me if Brown is any good since he was here for a little over a month (dealt from Oklahoma City in the Al Horford/Kemba Walker trade) and finished his glorious Celtics career with a grand total of zero games played. Richardson on the other hand is a much more known commodity since he's played in the NBA for six seasons: four with Miami, one with Philadelphia and one with Dallas. In five of those six years including the last five in a row, he's averaged at least 10.2 points per game which doesn't sound like much but it's nothing to sniff at. 

    In many ways, Richardson has already exceeded any outside expectations for what he would do in the NBA since he was a second-round pick (40th overall) by the Heat in 2015 out of the University of Tennessee. His career averages are pretty solid across the board: 12.3 points per game, 1.1 steals per game, 42.7% field goal percentage, 35.8% 3-pointer percentage and 83.2% free throw percentage. He's definitely used to being a starter in the league since he has started in 299 of 373 possible games and averaged 30.6 minutes per game so it'll be interesting to see what role he carves out for the C's. His best season in a pro was in 2018-19-his last in Miami-when he averaged a career-high 16.6 points per game, 4.1 assists per game, 1.1 steals per game and shot 86.1% on free throws as he started all 73 games that he appeared in.

    Brad Stevens and the Celts still have plenty of work to do with free agency officially opening in the NBA on Monday night at 6 pm. Free agent swingman Evan Fournier-who is currently tearing it up at the Olympics with France-is the main internal question facing Boston: do they bring him back after they traded for him last season or do they let him walk? The aforementioned three-way trade would reportedly culminate with them acquiring former legendary Providence College point guard Kris Dunn and center Bruno Fernando from the Hawks while center Tristan Thompson will get sent to basketball Siberia aka the Kings. I'll save my thoughts on that move until it actually occurs (or sadly doesn't). Until then, let's hope that by whatever means necessary, Stevens & Co. can pick up some more quality players because the Celtics still need plenty of them to improve on their lackluster seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference last season.

In Brad Stevens' First Move In His New Role With The Celtics, He Flips Kemba Walker For Al Horford

 

    The Celtics offseason began two weeks ago but you could say that it officially got underway this morning as new president of basketball operations Brad Stevens (in Danny Ainge's old job) made a pretty significant trade: Boston swapped point guard Kemba Walker, the 16th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and a 2025 second-round pick to Oklahoma City for center Al Horford (remember him?!), center Moses Brown and a 2023 second-round pick. Wow, take a breath. More than simply an exchange of aging players and draft picks, this was about saving some money for the Celts and getting out from under Kemba's awful contract (he's owed roughly $73 million over the next two years). Of course, the C's also had to take on Horford's brutal deal (he's due to make $53 million with $41 million guaranteed in the next two years as well) to make it all work.  

    Before I get into Walker and Horford some more, let me be the first to say that Brown might actually be the most valuable player from this trade in only a year or two. He's 21 years old and he just wrapped up his second season in the NBA averaging 8.6 points per game, 8.9 rebounds per game and 1.1 blocks per game. No doubt, Stevens must have remembered when Brown absolutely torched the Celtics for 21 points and 23 rebounds back on March 27 in Oklahoma City. At 7-foot-2 and 245 pounds, Brown figures to get a legitimate shot at center or at least backup center which have both been somewhat of a black hole for years for the Celtics. As it stands right now, he'd be competing with the likes of Horford (a shell of his former shelf), Robert Williams (always hurt), Tristan Thompson (loves the night life), Luke Kornet (goofy white guy) and Tacko Fall (fan favorite side show) for minutes at center. Also, Brown was undrafted out of UCLA and he has only played for the tanking Thunder so being in (what hopefully is) a winning environment should bring out the best in him. 

    Even if you didn't go to UConn or at least root for the Huskies, you had to love Walker dating back to his college days. He used to be an electrifying guard but injuries really derailed his brief two year stay here in Boston. After missing a grand total of 45 games in eight years with the Hornets, Kemba was out for 16 games his first year with the C's and 29 this past season. He's still only 31 but he has a ton of mileage on his gimpy left knee that forced him to fittingly miss the last two games (Games 4 and 5 vs. Brooklyn) with Boston. In 2020-21, he still averaged 19.3 points per game and 4.9 assists per game but he's never been a great 3-point shooter (36% in his NBA career) and his on-court chemistry with Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown was always sort of lacking something. It sounds like he won't be with the rebuilding Thunder for too long though so hopefully he gets to play for a quality team to wrap up his great NBA career on a true contender. He seems like an awesome guy so we wish Kemba nothing but success in the future. 

    You have to laugh at the irony of one Celtics free agent flop (Kemba) essentially being replaced by another free agent who willfully chose to leave the team two years ago but since then he's bounced around from the Sixers to OKC and now he returns to the C's at the ripe old age of 35. Does Al have much left in the tank after 14 seasons in the NBA? Probably not, you'll remember that Oklahoma City paid him to sit out for much of last season (what a life!) since they were you know trying to lose as many games as possible. In the 28 games he did play in 2020-21, he averaged 14.2 points per game, 6.7 rebounds per game and 3.4 assists per game. More than anything, I think Horford's biggest role moving forward is to be the leader that this group so desperately lacked last season. It also cannot hurt that such a respected veteran around the league at least appears to be genuinely excited to return to Boston where he had played for three seasons from 2016/2017-2018/2019. The Celts need all the recruiting help that they can get when it comes to free agency because unfortunately they will always be fighting an uphill battle against much more attractive markets for NBA stars like Los Angeles, Miami or New York and Brooklyn just to name a few.

The C's Won The Second Game Of A Back-To-Back For The First Time in Seven Tries, 111-94 In OKC

 

    Let's just say that when Boston (23-23 overall, 10-16 road) trailed Oklahoma City (19-26 overall, 8-14 home) by four points (80-76) going into the fourth quarter tonight at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, I wasn't expecting them to blow out the Thunder. Whatever the cause, the Celtics closed with their best final frame of the season including a 19-0 run-outscoring OKC 35-14-on their way to a 111-94 win that brought them back to the .500 mark. Boston's pair of All-Stars-swingman Jayson Tatum (game-high 27 points, 5 rebounds) and shooting guard Jaylen Brown (23 points) were the best players on the court all night which isn't saying much against a club that couldn't care less about winning at this point of a rebuilding season. On the off chance that you watched any of this, I'm certain you'll remember it for one thing only: center Luke Kornet dropping eight points (including a pair of 3-pointers) and five rebounds in 13 electric minutes off of Boston's bench. 

    Plenty of other guys stepped up for the C's as well: center Robert Williams (9 points, 14 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks) just missed a double-double; ditto for point guard Marcus Smart (8 points, 8 assists); even power forward Grant Williams (7 rebounds, 2 steals) did a few positive things. Besides the Green Kornet, some other Celtics bench players were really good too: rookie guard Payton Pritchard had 12 points and eight rebounds while guard Carsen Edwards scored 12 points in 16 minutes. Rookie French point guard Theo Maledon led OKC with a team-high 22 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Something called Moses Brown a center for the Thunder managed to get a 20-20 game (21 points and 23 rebounds) which is insane. Small forward Lugentz Dort scored 10 points in the loss while small forward Kenrich Williams added 12 points and two steals off the bench for the Thunder.

    Kemba Walker being out on the second night of a back-to back due to load management isn't a new phenomenon. You'd think that the sluggish Celts didn't know that as they played quite an uninspired first half. The Thunder outscored them 25-21 in the first quarter and 27-26 in the second quarter for a 52-47 halftime advantage. Boston inched closer in the third quarter (29-28) but as is usually the case in the NBA-it was all about the fourth quarter where the stars make their money. The Celtics shot 4.8% better from the floor than the Thunder (45.8%-41), they dished out six more assists (22-16), made three more steals (10-7) and had four less turnovers (16-12). There's no doubt that the most important numbers from this were the points in the paint (56-40) and points off turnovers (26-9) which both fell in Boston's favor. 

    It finally sets up nicely for the C's as they get to have some fans for the first time in well over a year at their next game-Monday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) at the TD Garden against superstar Zion Williamson who dropped 38 points tonight in a win for them. Besides the excellent support from the stands, the Celtics have to be thrilled to not only travel home but also to start planning for an epic season-high seven game homestand that begins with New Orleans (20-25 overall, 6-14 road) and ends after Easter, on April 9 vs. Minnesota (11-35 overall, 5-18 road) aka worst team in the league. The C's have already lost that overtime game in New Orleans back on February 21 (which feels like 5 years ago) so the least they can do is pay them back with a beating of their own.