All I can say is that, I definitely did not see this one coming.

Al Horford has decided to opt out of his $30.1 million option for the 2019-2020 NBA season to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Celtics big man had one year left on his contract that he signed back in 2016, but he decided to opt out of his contract to pursue a new contract somewhere else.

When I first saw this news, I was excited at first. Al Horford is such an unselfish player, and during the time when I heard this I thought that he opted out of the contract to take on a new contract for less money. I was so pumped, I was thinking in my head we have our big man veteran taking less money and we now have a chance to sign a max contract player.

I was thinking Kyrie is going to get a big contract this summer from the Celtics if he resigns. I was thinking if Kyrie goes to Brooklyn, then we can sign D’Angelo Russell to that max spot. Or if that didn’t work I was even thinking that we could have money to re-sign both Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier back on the team. The whole day I was just happy thinking about the Celtics are definitely going to bounce back after that disappointing season they had this past season.

Well………..lets just say that happiness came to end right after I finished my supper.

I turned on my phone and went on to Twitter to find a post from Bleacher Report saying that “Al Horford and Celtics are no longer discussing a 3 year deal, is expected to sign a 4 year deal somewhere else.”

At first I was like “yeah right. There is NO WAY Al Horford is leaving Boston! He loves it here!” I reloaded my twitter and all I saw was posts saying that Horford is expected to leave Boston. I didn’t even want to believe at first because I thought that Al Horford was a true Celtics player and thought he would retire as a Celtic. As five minutes go by, I see a tweet from Woj from ESPN saying the exact same thing from the Bleacher Report post.

Ok…….now I believe it :(.

Woj was saying that there was a gulf between the two sides on how much Horford wanted and how much they were willing to give to him. According to reports, they are saying that Horford wants to go a new team to sign a four year deal for the money he wants.

I was thinking if Horford wanted money so bad, why on earth would he opt out of his $30.1 million dollar contract? He isn’t going to get more money if he goes to another team. I was thinking that he was only going to stay if they added a big time star on the team and still got paid a good amount of money to make room for that free agent. Al wants to win and I think he was willing to take only a little less money if it meant to bring back Kyrie or another big free agent to the team. Now he decided that the offer wasn’t enough to keep him in Boston and he is now likely to leave Boston.

So what happens now?

I am not really sure where Al Horford is going to go this off season, it is really hard to predicate. I saw a report that he has a destination on where he wants to go that will offer him a big contract. I will be curious to see what happens to him and where he will go. But I know whoever gets him, is getting a good big man who plays the game with heart and passion.

So what does this mean for the Celtics?

With Kyrie Irving and Al Horford most likely leaving the Celtics, the Celtics will be looking to build around Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Gordon Hayward. They have an upcoming draft this Thursday night as they have the 14th, 20th, and 22nd draft picks. I will be curious if they will keep all three of the picks or possibly trade up to get a higher pick or possibly trade for a current NBA player. The Celtics are definitely going to be in for an eventful summer. I think that this team will still be a playoff team, but I don’t think that they will be championship contenders. But I never know, I thought that this team back in the 2017-2018 season had no chance of going far with Hayward and Kyrie missing the playoffs, but they went all to a Game 7 against Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Danny Ainge might have something up his sleeve to make this team really good.

I am both nervous and excited to see what the offseason has in store for the Celtics this summer. I don’t like the thought of possibly rebuilding this team, but Danny Ainge always knows what he is doing which makes me confident about the Celtics.

When June 30th comes around, I will probably be seeing a lot of “Woj bombs” tweets on my twitter. Hopefully it bring some good news for the Celtics this upcoming summer.

Who knows maybe Kyrie and Horford will change their mind and come back. Maybe Isaiah Thomas will come back to the Boston to wear a Celtics uniform in TD Garden. We will have to wait and see what the future holds.

Go Celtics!

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