That puts an even greater importance on regular-season games. If it were up to me, I would reduce the playoffs to six teams per conference, with the top two teams getting byes. Shorten the regular season, which would make the games more meaningful and hopefully pump up the rating that have long been declining. The playoffs are also too long at four rounds of seven-game series. You can understand the frustrations, and personally, I think the league needs to take a long look at its schedule and playoff format independent of the COVID interruption. The show going on is how these players make the money they do. The league is a business, and the players had a say in this, and surely I don't see a bunch of guys lining up to take less money. 16 pick in this deep 2021 draft as a sweetener. Might we look back at this deal with Boston in similar fashion? There's certainly a chance Walker, if he can get and stay healthy, ends up being a much better player than Horford over the next year or two - which would be a tough pill for Boston to swallow having given up the No. The funny thing is, Paul was better than the guy the Thunder traded in the first place, Russell Westbrook, which makes it laughable in hindsight that OKC got draft picks on top of the better player. He did it for Chris Paul, who came along with four future first-round picks (two swaps) and took the Thunder to the playoffs on his one season for good measure.

Walker's contract, which still has two years and just under $74 million remaining on it, was supposed to be a bit harder than this to get rid of - but Sam Presti was once again ready to jump on another team's desperation to move an All-Star point guard. 16) and a 2025 second-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 second-round pick.Ī Walker trade was becoming increasingly likely, but this still feels like a bomb drop on a Friday morning. On Friday morning, Stevens traded Kemba Walker, the Celtics' 2021 first-round pick (No. Brad Stevens didn't take long to make his first blockbuster move as the Boston Celtics' new general manager.

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