Celtics veteran big man Al Horford will rejoin the team on Friday, Jared Weiss of The Athletic tweets. Horford has been away from the C’s for personal reasons following a stint in the league’s health and safety protocols. Horford, who signed a two-year extension at the beginning of the month, hasn’t played since Dec. 4.
We have more from the Eastern Conference:
- Hawks star guard Trae Young has been fined $25K for throwing the game ball into the spectator stands, Adam Zagoria of NJ.com tweets. The incident occurred at the end of the Hawks’ 123-122 overtime win over the Bulls on Sunday. Young was inactive against Memphis on Monday.
- The struggles of Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson have taken some of the shine off the Heat’s vaunted development program but all is not lost, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. Caleb Martin has developed from a two-way prospect to a steady rotation player and the development program has other potential success stories in Omer Yurtseven, Nikola Jovic and Jamal Cain.
- Pacers wing Chris Duarte joined the G League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants for practice on Monday and he’ll play for Fort Wayne against the Wisconsin Herd on Wednesday and Friday, Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files tweets. Duarte is working his way back from a Grade 2 ankle sprain suffered in early November.
- Pacers rookie forward Kendall Brown is out indefinitely with a stress reaction in his right tibia, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. Brown will be reevaluated by the team in two weeks. Brown, a second-round pick, is one of the team’s two-way players. He’s appeared in six games with the Pacers.
Consider it very unlikely between two playoff sides in the same conference but what about
Duncan Robinson and a second round pick for Thad Young and Karen Birch.
Birch ain’t getting any minutes he’s just a salary dump but Toronto need more shooting and spacing and Robinson has a reputation of being able to do that for winning sides. Duncan at the moment isn’t getting many minutes as Miami has so many guards and no bigs.
Meanwhile Miami needs someone capable of starting at PF, doesn’t have to be great just decent size, play some defence and hit some shots. Thad Young would be a decent fit. Can defend, can hit shots and even make the right pass at the right time if you want him to do that. Birch isn’t the worst contract and in fact you could probably flip it if you wanted. As for Thad he’s just come back from injury but he’s not really getting that many minutes and Toronto has a bunch of guys that can do what he does, like I said they need wings and shooters in particular.
I think it would be a bit of a win win move for both sides probably more so for Miami considering the guaranteed money owed to Duncan but hence the pick. Like I said I likely but could be a simple dub.
(Ps as for a potential Birch move from Miami, Jae Crowder is obvious and would Cam Reddish if that’s the direction they wanted to go)
Karen Birch?
Please edit before publishing.
Pretty simple auto correct, get over it
It’s pretty obvious Al Horford makes the team go. He’s the one who keeps the ball moving. Pretty discouraging to see Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown bring up the ball & just start dribbling & looking around & then taking a shot. But Al missing so much time over the last year because of covid is disappointing too. The silver lining is we now have seen, have more proof, who needs to do what to make the Celtics go. Go Celtics!
And why the heck with key passer center Al Horford out — the 3rd time for covid, aren’t you vaccinated & boosted Al?, you’re really hurting the team — why aren’t we trying energetic, rebounder Mfiondu Kabengele? I mean we signed him, right? This is the time to try him out. Geez, Coach Joe, I’m losing a little faith in you. You in hearted a good team but not great. Make some moves & start working on our defense. Go Celtics!
… inherited
Al was out for the birth of his 5th child.
Ok, fair enough. Thanks. Sorry Al.
Go Celtics!