NBA: Looking back at 8 of the best/worst offseason moves from the summer

Boston replacing Kyrie Irving with Kemba Walker

When Irving and Horford departed through free agency, the sky certainly seemed to be falling.

After all of the speculation and rumors of Boston forming a dynamic duo of Irving and Davis to compete for championships for the first time since the “Big Three” days, when Irving and Horford departed through free agency, that utopian dream was completely scrapped.

Of course, Ainge had something else up his sleeve by rebounding nicely with the additions of Enes Kanter and Kemba Walker.

In light of their arrival, it has become abundantly clear that the Celtics locker room is not as divided as it was last year.

Notwithstanding Kyrie’s phenomenal talent and how he is slightly the better individual player than Walker, his complicated personality somehow keeps appearing to rub teammates the wrong way.

These chemistry issues have even managed to manifest itself on the court with Iriving’s teams winning more when he’s not playing.

Besides the Celtics being able to make the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017 and pushing LeBron’s Cavs to seven games, this season, with Irving having missed 16 consecutive games because of a shoulder injury, the Nets have surprisingly played better with Spencer Dinwiddie running the show.

Are the Nets’ wins coincidental or is it because Irving is too ball-dominant and the offense becomes stagnant when he amazes us with his flashy plays? Who knows. But the questionable intangibles Irving brings to a team is not something that the Celtics have to worry about anymore.

In fact, the Celtics’ success this season has made it quite apparent that leaving a losing situation and finally becoming a member of a winning culture has really been beneficial for Kemba and vice versa for his young Celtic teammates; Tatum and Brown finally have a star teammate who believes in them and encourages them to shoot rather than having someone demand the ball from them.