There is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Boston Celtics. The Cs are going to have plenty of tough decisions to make this summer to dive below the league's second apron line and avoid the harsh penalties that it brings.
That hurdle opens the door for some pretty important rotation pieces to be in new homes next season. If you combine that with the possibility of being without Jayson Tatum for the entire 2025-26 campaign, as he recovers from a torn Achilles, things start to feel pretty grim. Having to dump Jrue Holiday and/or Kristaps Porzingis to shed salary makes one of NBA's deeper rotations pretty shallow.
If you ask ESPN's Tim Bontemps, the looming uncertainty could be enough to convince Al Horford to test the waters as an unrestricted free agent.
His biggest threat to lure Horford away?
The New York Knicks.
“Al Horford is a free agent. I don’t think at this point it makes a lot of sense for Horford to be back in Boston," Bontemps speculated on Sunday's "Hoop Collective" episode. "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…Horford is a longtime friend of Karl-Anthony Towns and has played with him with the Dominican National team for a long time.”
How realistic is an Al Horford move to the Knicks?
If I had to put a number on it, I'd say there's probably a 75% chance that Horford ends up back in Boston next season. Since returning to Boston in 2021, the big man has repeatedly voiced his love for the city and his regret for ever leaving to join the Philadelphia 76ers back in 2019.
“I don’t want to get caught up in the past,” Horford told Steve Bulpett ahead of his first season as a Sixer. “But, yeah, that would have been totally different [if I'd known Kemba Walker was coming]."
Horford has now spent seven seasons in Boston. He and his family seem to love being there, by all accounts. His son Ean is a staple on the Celtics bench, hanging on every basket just like every other fan in the arena. For him to leave again and join the Knicks, would be shocking.
There's an argument to be made, sure. New York is set up to be more competitive than Boston next season with Tatum sidelined. At 38 years old, Horford may not know how many seasons he's got left in the tank. He may not want to waste one of those years on a team that isn't going to be playing deep into May and June.
Bontemps makes the point that he'd be joining Towns in the orange and blue, as well. KAT, Horford, and Mitchell Robinson would make for one of the NBA's best center rotations and would allow the Knicks to run double-big lineups quite often -- something they leaned into quite a bit in this year's playoffs. That scheme could appeal to Horford and would allow him to have his scheduled "big toe management" rest on back-to-backs.
With all of that being said, it just feels like a move of any kind would be a big change at this stage of Horford's career. The environment surrounding the Celtics is far different than it was in 2019. This current group of guys have gone through countless battles together and have a strong bond. There's been no real indication that Horford is looking to remove himself from that, up to this point.
If he was to stay, maybe we'd all get treated to an "Al Horford, don't you regret not coming the Kniiiiiiiiiiicks" clip from SideTalk.