Al Horford has the 23rd highest contract for the upcoming season, tied with Nikola Vucevic. He probably is a bit worse than that as a player, but I'd say he should still have top 30ish impact when accounting for everything and he obviously is making more than anyone on a rookie scale contract.
In 2020 without accounting for any new money (like say Anthony Davis), he has the 38th highest contract. Again that doesn't seem that far off from where you would expect him to be especially without the rookie scale contracts.
In 2021 he is sitting at 28th. By the time that season rolls around though he will be much lower than that after 2 more summers of new contracts.
In 2022 (with all incentives), he is at 22nd. That will obviously be much lower by the time the season rolls around, especially if he doesn't hit the incentives.
In other words, Horford is paid about where you would expect based on his perceived production. This just seems like a case of not fully grasping just how much money players are making these days. Everyone makes a ton of money.
I would respectfully disagree.
Year one of year 1 of the contract is fine, and year 2 will probably be reasonable too. But when he goes into year 3 and 4 at the age of 36 and 37 there's a good chance that Philly will be paying all-star money for a guy who is playing a fringe-starter level.
I think Philly's screwed themselves in a huge way financially, and taken a MASSIVE risk in the desperate hope of winning a title in the next two seasons.
Lets look at it this way. Three years from now, In the 2021/22 season, the 76ers will have the contracts of Embiid ($31.5M), Simmons ($31.5M), Horford ($27.0M) and Tobias Harris ($36m est).
That's a total of $126M tied up in four players:
- One of those guys (Embiid) has missed 252 games over 5 seasons (an average of 50 games per season)
- One of those guys (Horford) will be 36 years old and is probably a fringe-starter by this point
- One of those guys (Harris) when at his very best is a fringe All-Star
- One of these guys (Simmons) has immense talent but has shown limited progression, isn't an Alpha, and has a game that's clearly incompatible with Embiid's
They are taking a HUGE risk by effectively throwing all of their eggs in one basket in the desperate hope that Embiid can stay healthy nd develop as a leader, and that Simmons can develop a decent enough jump shot to be able to play alongside Embiid. If they don't get to AT LEAST the eastern conference finals either this year or next, then it'll be at least another 3 years before they will have the flexibility to make roster changes and try to compete again.