A botched 2020 trade would have changed the Boston Celtics' entire landscape
By Matt John
No Al Horford means the Celtics were stuck with Kemba Walker
By the end of the 2020-21 season, it was clear as day that despite his best efforts, the long-but-not-forgotten Kemba Walker was declining fast on an albatross contract. The Celtics lucked out that, at the time, Horford was seen the same way around the league following a disastrous stint in Philadelphia and a mostly inconsequential season in Oklahoma City.
Because Horford and Walker were put under that same umbrella, it was hardly any skin off the Celtics' nose to swap the latter for the former. That probably wouldn't have been the case if Turner was on the team. Horford would have been superfluous, meaning the Celtics had to look elsewhere to get rid of Walker.
That would have been tough because Walker was owed over $70 million for the next two seasons, and it was clear that his days as an All-Star were long gone and never coming back. Getting rid of him probably would have required more first-round picks to fork over.
And the likelihood that the Celtics would have found a player in a Walker trade with as much to give as Horford has would have been next to nothing.