Brad Stevens has made his first big move as the Celtics president of basketball operations.
The Celtics have reportedly traded Kemba Walker, the No. 16 overall pick in 2021 and a 2025 second-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 second-round pick.
Of course, Horford is well known in Boston from his three years with the team, but who is Brown?
The 7-foot-2 center, who played for UCLA in college, went undrafted in the 2019 draft. He played for the Rockets in the summer league before signing with the Trail Blazers. After bouncing back-and-forth between them and their G-League team in 2019, he eventually signed a two-way contract with the Thunder in December of 2020.
Last season, Brown appeared in 43 games, making 32 starts, while averaging 8.6 points and 8.9 rebounds. His best game was actually his last as in the season finale against the Clippers he had career-highs of 24 points and seven blocks, while also adding 18 rebounds. Celtics fans might remember him for having 19 rebounds -- in the first half -- in a March game against Boston.
Brown saw extensive playing time for the Thunder after it was announced Horford would sit out the rest of the season to give younger players a chance to play, so it's unclear exactly what Brown's role will be with the Celtics.
The Stadium's Jeff Goodman, for one, is not a huge fan of Brown. "So you’ve swapped one bad contract for another. The other one is not nearly as bad and you traded away a first-round pick for Moses Brown, who I never really liked, to be honest," he said on the Greg Hill Show Friday. "I know he went nuts against the Celtics, but I think he’s long and soft. I’ve seen him since he was about 15 years old. I think Boston will eat him up. I just don’t see him being mentally tough enough to handle Boston. Could he be a rotation big? Sure. He looks the part. But, again, for Oklahoma City somebody had to put up numbers. Somebody had to get rebounds. They missed enough shots."
The Celtics still have a few big men under contract like Robert Williams, Tacko Fall and Tristan Thompson.
But, since Brown is just 21 years old, Stevens could see this as an opportunity to work with him since it does seem like there's some upside to his game.