Celtics Free Agency: Breaking Down Why Luke Kornet Should Stay

The Boston Celtics are going to have a much different roster at the start of next season than they did this year. Jayson Tatum is going to be out because of injury, and several players will have been traded away.

What is uncertain is which of those players will be traded away. The most likely candidates to be shipped out of Boston are Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.

If they do decide to ship out Porzingis, then the Celtics will be down a key big man. That would make it even more important for them to keep Luke Kornet.

Kornet proved to be a solid player for the Celtics down the stretch. He was a huge reason why they were able to win Game 5 of the second round against the Knicks, recording ten points, nine rebounds, and seven blocks.

Kornet will be 30 years old next season and was finally able to find some regular minutes in the rotation this year. He showed that he can be a very capable backup.

If the Celtics trade Porzingis, they need someone to take his spot. That leaves Kornet and Al Horford as the options, but both are free agents this summer.

Letting Horford walk would be the preferable choice of the two, but they could decide to sign Horford to the veteran's minimum and bring Kornet back at something in the ballpark of $6 million a year for three years.

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Kornet is clearly the Celtics' best rim protector. Defensively, his length and solid footwork make it hard for teams to get to the rim and score with regularity.

While shooting threes isn't a strong part of his game, he has shown the ability to hit them occasionally. That could be something he works on this summer.

Bringing Kornet back would give the Celtics at least one capable big man back from their rotation this season. They may even throw him into the starting lineup to see what that would potentially look like in the long run.

This season, Kornet averaged six points, 5.3 rebounds, and one block per game.

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