Al Horford and the Boston Celtics have agreed to a two-year, $20 million extension that keeps him in Boston until his 39th birthday. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to report the deal, which is fully guaranteed.
Karalis’ take: This is a good deal for both sides. Horford is clearly beloved in the locker room and one of the most respected players in the league, so keeping him around for a relatively low price makes perfect sense.
We still see his value on the court on most nights, and he’s shifting into a more complementary role this season as mostly a spot-up shooter. He’s still a very good defender with a lot to give. Frankly, even as he declines, it will probably be tough to find players who can give what he can on and off the court at $10 million per year.
And to be clear, while that is a lot of money in general, it’s not much in NBA terms anymore. The salary cap is projected to be going up to $134 million next season, a $10.4 million jump. The Celtics are already going to be well over the cap anyway, so Horford’s deal doesn’t take any spending money away from them. They will still have all the same exceptions to spend whether they gave him $10 million, $100 million, or zero, so it doesn’t impact the overall business model much at all. In the end, Horford will occupy less than 8% of the cap, which will be a bargain no matter what his age-related regression might be.
It also is an obvious signal from Horford’s camp that (a) he gets where he is as a player and $10 million per year for a couple more seasons is about right for what he can give, and (b) they're not looking for greener pastures anymore. They tried that once, and it didn’t work. The pastures are greenest right here in Boston.
Boston is the best team in the league, so basically Horford gets to ring chase without leaving. If he was a free agent still in OKC, he’d probably be blowing up Brad Stevens’ cell looking to come back. Boston was basically always going to have its choice of aging veterans looking to make a difference on a winning team, and they chose Horford.
Giving Horford $10 million a year does two other things, though.
First, it makes you appreciate the absolute steal of a contract they got with Robert Williams. I know some of the reaction will be about his injury and that his availability factors into the lower number for a talent like his, but also, it’s a steal of a contract for a talent like his. If that deal was negotiated this past summer rather than the year before, you can bet he’d be making more than $10 million this year. Getting Rob for the same amount as 37 and 38-year-old Horford is a coup.
Secondly, it does sort of set a baseline for the Grant Williams extension talks. He’s been in a slump for the past few weeks, but he’s also proven how valuable he is to this team. His agent can easily say “hey, if old Al Horford is worth this, then young Grant Williams is worth 1.5 or 2 times that much.”
Will Horford’s deal make Grant’s negotiations tougher? It’s certainly possible, though the trump card Stevens holds is the ability to match offers in restricted free agency, so he could dare the Grant Williams camp to go find the money they're looking for somewhere else and then match it.
Stevens seems like he’s been a pretty fair negotiator so far. He hasn’t tried to screw teams over in trades and these contracts all have tended to work for both sides. The edge Danny Ainge kept in his negotiations is gone, replaced by a seemingly calmer, more accommodating approach.
I come out of the Horford deal the same way I’ve come out of most of Stevens' moves so far: it just makes sense for both sides.