NBA Insider Views Celtics Rival As Landing Spot For Al Horford

Al Horford left things up in the air about his future when the season came to a crashing end for the Boston Celtics.

But if the veteran center, who turns 39 on Tuesday, does return for a 19th NBA season, it might not be with the Celtics.

Horford is one of three unrestricted free agents for the Celtics as they try to navigate a tricky offseason in which they in all likelihood will look to slash payroll in a variety of ways. Not bringing back Horford, who spent the last four seasons with Boston and made a modest $9.5 million — by NBA standards — for the 2024-25 campaign, would be one way to decrease payroll.

That could have Horford choosing to retire or searching for a new team to join. Horford probably would want to be on a contender at this stage of his career and ESPN’s NBA insider Tim Bontemps said on “The Hoop Collective” that he believes Horford would be a great match for one of Boston’s chief rivals.

“Al Horford is a free agent,” Bontemps said. “I don’t think at this point it makes a lot of sense for Horford to be back in Boston. Maybe he will be, but given where things are with the Celtics, I think he’s now much more in play than he might have been a month ago. Al Horford is a longtime friend of Karl(-Anthony) Towns, has played with him with the Dominican National Team for a long time.

“If (the Knicks) go get Al Horford this summer, who I think would be an unbelievable fit on this Knicks roster. And they go get another perimeter player to deepen their rotation and they have a bench of Al Horford, another ballhandler, Deuce McBride and Mitchell Robinson to go with their starting five, that’s a much better team. That’s a team that could beat the Pacers next year. That’s a team that’ll be in the mix in the East.”

According to MassLive’s Brian Robb, the Knicks’ best contract offer to Horford would be the taxpayer midlevel exception given their financial situation as a first apron team next season.

Even though Horford’s production dropped off while coming off the bench the last couple of seasons, his impact on the floor and leadership in the locker room is still a valued commodity around the league. Payton Pritchard even urged the Celtics to bring Horford back for at least one more season.

The Celtics will have a chance to retain Horford, who averaged 9.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting 42.3% from the floor and 36.3% from 3-point range this past season, but it likely will have to be at their price as it feels they are entering a new era.