Boston Celtics: 2 players who are guaranteed goners following Kemba deal

Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens got to work quickly in the 16 days since officially replacing Danny Ainge as the lead man in the Cs front office.

In his first order of business, Stevens completed the long-rumored breakup with Kemba Walker in dealing him to the Oklahoma City Thunder for former Celtics center Al Horford and seven-foot-two shot-blocking specialist Moses Brown.

The deal saw the Cs concede their 2021 first-round selection, which is set to be the #16 pick, and swap second-rounders. Clearly, Walker’s deal was the albatross at this point, with Horford making significantly less than the injury-prone point guard the next two seasons.

Financially, the Cs won this deal due to the savings on both Walker’s deal and the 2021 first-round pick’s rookie salary which will now be paid by OKC. Roster-wise, Boston could win on this deal depending on what comes next.

With the acquisition of two bigs, the frontcourt situation got much murkier. There are now four centers under contract and another two to who the Cs own the rights to that must be addressed this offseason.

Hardwood Houdini does not want to guarantee the departures of two fan favorites in Robert Williams and Tacko Fall. Stevens might not want to upset the fanbase in his first offseason to that degree.

Walker was someone who did a ton for the local community and was certainly an upgrade in the locker room morale department over the last Boston Celtics star point guard. But fans were accepting that it was time to move on.

But offing the Time Lord and Tacko–especially considering their low salaries–would be a gut punch to the city of Boston.

Instead, these two big men are almost certainly goners instead following the Walker deal with OKC: