Why Celtics landing Moses Brown is underrated element of Kemba Walker trade

by 24USATVJune 18, 2021, 9 p.m. 24
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Kemba Walker and Al Horford are the big names involved in Boston’s blockbuster trade Friday which kicked off Brad Stevens’ tenure as president of basketball operations. However, one secondary piece in the deal could end up making a big impact in Boston down the line: 21-year-old center Moses Brown.

So who exactly is the undrafted big man? And why is he a critical part of the deal from Boston’s perspective?

Brown was a McDonald’s All-American in high school and played just one year at UCLA before declaring for the 2019 NBA Draft. He went undrafted back in June 2019 but was signed to a two-way deal by the Blazers in September 2019, playing just nine games with them during the 2019-20 season.

Brown moved on from Portland after one year to sign another two-way deal with the Thunder last offseason. He began the 2020-21 season with a tremendous effort for Oklahoma City’s G-League affiliate, earning several awards during the G-League Bubble before getting a bigger chance with the big club in the second half of the season. He made his first start for Oklahoma City on March 14 and held the starting center role for much of the second half of the season once the Thunder elected to rest Al Horford for games down the stretch.

The UCLA product finished the year with 32 starts in 43 games, while nearly averaging a double-double (8.6 points and 8.9 rebounds) over just 21.4 minutes per game. He provided good finishing around the rim but has no reliable shooting range outside of the paint, something that impacted his free throw shooting poorly (60 percent in his career). His rim protection (nearly two blocks per 36 minutes) and finishing makes him a nice developmental prospect for the Celtics over the long term given his age.

This is where the Brown addition gets even more appealing for Boston as a side aspect of the bigger deal. The young center is under team control for cheap during the next three seasons after signing a multi-year contract with the Thunder back in March. The contract is fully non-guaranteed for the next three years and is for minimum money.

Having proven prospects signed at such a low cost is a big deal for a team like Boston that has so much money tied up in its top five or six players. Those big money commitments will limit Brad Stevens’ ability to add helpful free agents in future seasons. If Brown can develop into a useful rotation player on a winning team in the next year or two, that’s going to be a valuable tool for the Celtics to build forward with, particularly at a position where the team has never elected to invest heavily in during the past two seasons (center).

Brown’s presence also makes other members of the roster available to use as trade chips, potentially as soon as this offseason. Boston already has Tristan Thompson, Robert Williams and Grant Williams under contract through 2022 while adding Horford and Brown to that mix in this deal. Brad Stevens could elect to keep that depth given the injury concerns surrounding Horford and R. Williams but it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see one of those players moved for help in another area of the roster.

Giving up a first-round pick (No. 16 overall) in this deal for Boston probably was not easy when the team was taking a bloated contract back in Horford. However, the addition of another young prospect being acquired in the deal in Brown with good cost control definitely eased the pain of giving up that appealing pick. When all is said and done, Brown could end up being the player who is a more meaningful long-term acquisition in the deal for Boston instead of a 35-year-old Horford.

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