The Thunder weren’t able to trade Al Horford before Thursday’s deadline, but it appears the veteran big man has played his final game for the franchise, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Horford, 34, won’t play any more this season as Oklahoma City focuses on developing its young talent, sources tell Wojnarowski. He will train at the team’s facility and will remain around his teammates, but won’t be active for games.
Horford has been a positive influence on younger players since being acquired from the Sixers in an offseason deal, and the organization wants to keep him as a locker room presence, Woj adds. General manager Sam Presti has promised to work with Horford and his agent, Jason Glushon, to trade him after the season ends. Horford still has two years and $53MM left on his contract.
The Thunder had been planning to eventually make this move with Horford, a source tells Wojnarowski, but the recent loss of star guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is expected to miss significant time with plantar fasciitis, sped up the timeline.
Horford has appeared in 28 games this season and is averaging 14.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per night.
Can’t trade him, can’t buy him out. So he comes to the facility and works out and then goes home. Wonderful situation. This is what the buyout haters want?
Guess so. Lot of reacting, not much actual thinking.
No I don’t like this either. But it is better than stacking someone else’s deck.
If you are going to have the buyout market, at the very least there should be a midseason buyout draft so that one team can’t stack the deck.
Teams that are currently in the playoffs would be inverted and given the chance to pick among all buyout players. Meaning the team with the worst record that is currently in the playoffs would get first chance. Teams with the best record would be at the end of the line because they need the least amount of help.
Silver wants to have a midseason tourney, so how would a midseason draft be any worse?
Love the idea
Yes it would be and it wouldn’t work. The guy gets the buyout and goes in the draft. The hornets pick him and offer him the league minimum. He says no. Then what happens. The draft works cause positions are slotted. How would you work out the pay in this situation.
Then if that player chooses not to sign with the Hornets, then he can sit out the rest of the season. Every player would only get offered the minimum salary. If they are concerned about money, then they shouldn’t accept the buyout in the first place. By accepting a buyout, they are accepting the terms of the draft. Otherwise they can stay under control of the team they have the contract with.
Then you’re stacking the deck against fringe playoff teams. Essentially, if you’re one game out of the “if the playoffs were today” standings, you’re frozen out of getting any buyout guys, but the teams one game ahead of you aren’t.
This buyout draft you’re talking about? It’s called waivers. Teams are more than welcome to place a claim on a player to prevent them from going to a rival. Could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure bought out players are still subjected to waivers.
not sure about waivers but bottom line – there’s really no great way to go about this type of situation. its inevitable guys are going to sign big contracts late prime, then decline, then find themselves on a team where it no longer makes sense to have a high priced former all star on the roster
not sure how a draft would work – you could do a worst to best draft with the buyout guys post deadline – then blake and lamarcus and drummond will end up in new orleans chicago and indiana, probably will struggle to crack the rotation then have a first rd exit
remember lma was in san antonio who have been that middling playoff team all year
Waivers is not the same thing I am talking about. With waivers, a player would have to fit in under the cap with their full salary. No team could possibly claim LaMarcus Aldridge even if they wanted to. My idea is to do a minimum salary draft of buyout players. No team is allowed to offered one dime more than minimum. If these want to chase rings, they can. But they have to do it with minimum salaries.
You can’t chase a ring if your draft idea happens. Bottom level playoff teams have literally zero chance.
So you want to take away the players’ ability to choose where they want to sign after essentially being cut? What’s next? Are we going to get rid of free agency and let teams bid for players and whoever offers the most money, the player will be forced to sign with? Can’t have the good teams convincing players to take less than they might get on the market by signing them with the MLE or other tax payer exceptions…
I mean all of this is silly. Regardless if the player is somehow forcing their way out, it still takes ownership/management to agree to basically let the player go knowing full well they are likely chasing a ring and will join one of the top teams. The teams could just refuse to agree to a buy out, but they don’t because the owners are saving a bit of money and they’d rather do that then have someone like Andre Drummond, and whatever remained of his $28m salary, sit on the bench and possibly take a roster spot/minutes away from guys they are trying to get more playing time to.
JT19.. this the best take on the entire thread. Spot on brother. Well said, I love it !!
Presti should have just bought out Horford – so Al could have joined the NETS, who have plans to go 16-0 this coming post-season.
I don’t think Al Horford can be bought out. He’s owed 53 million dollars !! He won’t want to give up very much so what are you going to give him to walk away.., a 45 million-dollar check? And with that salary they can’t trade him. So you have the situation described above, he sits at home.
They would waive and stretch him, not cut him. With a couple of additional seasons on his contract, he has no motivation to take a buyout for anything less than what he’s owed anyway.
Thank god the sixers gave him that contract. Otherwise it would have been the celtics the ones who would have done it
Some Celtics fans still actually act like Horford leaving was a bad thing.
They have 34 picks the next 7 years (17 first rounders!). They could have a attached a few of those to dump that contract if they really wanted to.
Lol what’s your point. Obviously they’d rather have the picks? They knew they were on the hook for the money when they took him.
photo unit hopefully Presti is better at drafting than Danny Ainge did. He had the opportunity to have a Rolls Royce and wound up with a VW
Al can be moved next yr. His last yr on contract is not all guaranteed.
Yes it is. And it goes up if he happened to go to a contender that won the chip. He’s untradable for at least a year, if not longer
link to hoopshype.com
“Only $14,500,000 guaranteed in 2022/23. He would get $19.5M guaranteed if his team makes the NBA Finals in 2019/20, 2020/21 or 2021/22. 2022/23 fully guaranteed if wins championship.”
Nice find! 14.5M/26.5M still a hefty guarantee.
I always thought it was a Player Option.
Why would presti buy him out? Okc will trade him in the offseason for another terrible contract but get draft picks attached to take it.
Buyout doesn’t make sense right now. They can do a buyout in the off-season if no trade materializes. At that point his agents can determine his market value for the next 2 years, and deduct it from the 41-42 mm he’s guaranteed in that period.
Dang. They could just bring Horford off the bench. The man is having a decent season. At least give him a chance to put in some work on court so if/when he’s traded or bought out in the off-season, he’ll have some suiters.
People know what they’re getting with Horford at this point, he is not exactly new. He does not need to be showcased lol good grief some of the takes on here.
Look “Lil D”, if u have a problem with people’s opinions on this site, don’t even comment. Everyone’s opinion is respected from all angles.
Lol sweetie if you have a problem with people disagreeing with you, stay off the internet
How is this not tanking? This is a bit blatant. Sixers just traded away quality dudes and played GLeaguers. They didn’t bench quality players. Benching for the BO or Trade is equally annoying.
It is tanking.
There are big structural problems in the NBA right now:
1) Teams in a handful of cities have huge advantages over the rest of the league
2) The whole buyout market process
3) Teams openly tanking
4) Players being able to drive super team creations
None of it is good for the long term health of the league.
Yea, I mean even tho the Sixers tanked, their process produced some hidden gems that have had solid careers. Dudes that wouldn’t have gotten run anywhere else.
It will be hard to overcome geography and destination cities. Philly is the 5th largest market, but honestly its trash. There’s no allure to make Philly your home. The beach is only 1-1.5 hrs away, but you’ve gotta pay to use it.
Giannis staying in Milwaukee is great for the league. But it’s hard to compete with Miami, LA, NYC esp if the roster is good.
“These are the 4 main excuses why my favorite team isnt better at playing professional basketball. Feel bad for me.”
I don’t feel bad for you, but I do feel sorry for you.
There’s literally nothing that can be done about certain teams having built in advantages. I mean we’re talking things like tax rates, marketing opportunities, type of weather, etc that are all completely out of the control of the league. I mean the only solution to that would be to have every single team play in the same state/area.
Also “players having the ability to drive super team creations”…so free agency shouldn’t be a thing then? Shall we go back to the 20th century where teams (maybe not so much in basketball, but at least in baseball) basically agreed to not partake in free agency so they could keep salaries low?
Zero reason why the Oubre+Smiley for Horford trade didn’t go down. Dumb front offices all round.
Marty you are just such a ray of sunshine in this grim world.
Not sure who smiley is, but the salary cap is a thing. Also its HIGHLY unlikely that Al Horford would somehow be the magical missing link the Warriors needed to reestablish their dominance. I’m all for positive thinking, but let’s not act like Horford is a star anymore.
OKC is not allowed to trade for Oubre since they already traded him this season.
@Arthur – I think the last line should read sped up not speeded
OKC playing games. Pushing Horford to give up at least 10 million so he can be bought out and play this year. If Horford is willing to give up alot of cash, OKC will buy him out. Ball is in Horfords court. OKC will otherwise have to attach picks to him to be traded next season.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they come to agreement before the buyout deadline. Probably in discussion with Nets as we speak.
Any player can be bought out. Just give him his full salary on contract. Guaranteed he will walk. Horford only has (I could be wrong) 12-14 mill guaranteed on his last yr. so give him 40 mill I bet he walks. Horford can be traded next yr. His contract won’t Be as big an issue as now.
OKC is such a mess. The Rockets are in so much better shape than the Thunder.
Lol….you’re just praying you keep that draft swap.
…and no they’re not, and it’s not close.
No buyout here, that salary gives them options next year. Nobody, and I mean nobody else has an outgoing salary for them to play with entering next year- Plus next years free agent class is bad, there not gonna wanna jam a buncha “new” bad money in
They can sell before the season, but more than likely they Will sell next trade deadline (And possibly/probably for some worse dead money+picks
They need him spry for those first 40 games next year. If he’s ok with the vacay, I am
I love how the NBA has a rule that you can’t rest certain players for certain games but teams can stop playing other players indefinitely. I don’t know how Horford feels about it but it seems like he is being extorted. Why isn’t the union commenting on this? If I am a player, I have to play to get my next contract.
He’s signed until 2023. This isn’t messing up anything with his next contract. It’s probably adding a year to his career.
On the BOS-OKC broadcast last night, OKC’s coach said it was a mutual decision. The way he spoke it seems like Horford is now more of a (highly paid) assistant coach helping develop the young bigs. He also said that Horford is still playing at a high level but his “timeline” and OKC’s “timeline” don’t match.