Al Horford is a S-T-U-D

[Moranis]

So the Sixers gave up Maledon and a protected 2025 first along with Horford to get essentially Danny Green.

I still don't fully understand what the problem was for Horford in Philly.  I can understand OKC not wanting to take minutes away from young players and give them to a guy who might actually help them win some games.  But why couldn't Philly figure out how to get something out of Horford?  Even if all they wanted was defense, rebounding, and passing.  Al doesn't need the offense run though him or anything like that.  The Celtics aren't "running through" Al Horford.  This seems like a coaching failure on Doc.

Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey announced today that the team has acquired Danny Green, and Vincent Poirier (pour-ee-ay) from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Al Horford, a 2025 protected first-round pick and the draft rights to Théo Maledon (No. 34 selection in 2020 NBA Draft) and Vasilije Micić (No. 52 selection in 2014 NBA Draft).

They didn't think Al had lived up to the value of his contract and felt like they could use the money elsewhere.  And they probably weren't wrong given, they got very similar production from Dwight Howard at 2.5 million the next year, added Curry as well, and had Green all for less than they paid Horford.  I think it was quite simply them trying to better use the money i.e. 3 rotation level players (Green, Curry, Dwight) instead of 1 (Horford).  Now maybe they still could have had Curry (though maybe not), but then you are significantly increasing your dollars.  Dwight wouldn't have made sense with Al on the team so he wouldn't have gone there.

All the payroll considerations that you list are true, I am sure they are all things they considered, but only after it was perceived that it was not working with Al Horford on the Sixers.  They weren't getting much out of Al Horford so then they figured they could make better use of the cap space.  But it was a coaching failure in the first place apparently in that they were getting so little out of Al, that trading him for Danny Green and signing Dwight Howard seemed like it was better than keeping Al.  Think the Celtics would trade Al Horford and throw in a first round pick for Danny Green and Dwight Howard right now?

Al was/is a bad contract, that is not in dispute, but Al is a much better player than what he was on Philly, or at least is contributing more to our winning than he was perceived to be in Philly.  Something went wrong in Philly as it usually does.  They should have been able to get more out of Al than they did.  This season for Boston, he put up 10 pts and 8 rebs and that contributed to historically good winning basketball.  His last season in Philly (well only season I guess), he was 12 pts, 7 rebs, 35% from 3 and he was a problem that needed to be shipped out with a first round pick.

You are making this far more complicated than it was.  The Sixers brought in Al to be both the starting PF and the back-up C, but it was apparent pretty early on that Al and Joel couldn't effectively play together.  They thought they'd be able to, but they couldn't.  So because Al and Joel couldn't effectively play together, they needed to financially make better use of that salary than a 28 million dollar back-up center.  They downgraded to Dwight's veteran minimum contract as the back-up center and used the rest of the money elsewhere (about half to Green). 

[Moranis]

So the Sixers gave up Maledon and a protected 2025 first along with Horford to get essentially Danny Green.

I still don't fully understand what the problem was for Horford in Philly.  I can understand OKC not wanting to take minutes away from young players and give them to a guy who might actually help them win some games.  But why couldn't Philly figure out how to get something out of Horford?  Even if all they wanted was defense, rebounding, and passing.  Al doesn't need the offense run though him or anything like that.  The Celtics aren't "running through" Al Horford.  This seems like a coaching failure on Doc.

Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey announced today that the team has acquired Danny Green, and Vincent Poirier (pour-ee-ay) from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Al Horford, a 2025 protected first-round pick and the draft rights to Théo Maledon (No. 34 selection in 2020 NBA Draft) and Vasilije Micić (No. 52 selection in 2014 NBA Draft).

They didn't think Al had lived up to the value of his contract and felt like they could use the money elsewhere.  And they probably weren't wrong given, they got very similar production from Dwight Howard at 2.5 million the next year, added Curry as well, and had Green all for less than they paid Horford.  I think it was quite simply them trying to better use the money i.e. 3 rotation level players (Green, Curry, Dwight) instead of 1 (Horford).  Now maybe they still could have had Curry (though maybe not), but then you are significantly increasing your dollars.  Dwight wouldn't have made sense with Al on the team so he wouldn't have gone there.

Why bring up Curry? They received him from DAL in the Richardson deal. And they originally got Richardson from MIA in the Butler S&T. Since they both play SG, they very easily could have / would have made that trade.

I had forgotten that was how they acquired Curry, so yeah they probably would have still down that.

[colincb]

Players ≥ 35 YO, in a playoff game, with….

MP ≥ 40
PTS ≥ 20
TRB ≥ 15
FG% ≥ .500

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Charles Barkley
Wilt Chamberlain - 8x
Tim Duncan
Al Horford
LeBron James

Source: Boston Sports Info

Bruce Brown

Players ≥ 25 YO, in a playoff game, with….

MP ≥ 37
PTS ≥5
TRB ≥ 1
FG% ≥ .666
Feet in mouth ≥ 2

[jambr380]

Gotta hand it to OKC, though. They got 3 1st round picks (they traded our 1 1st for 2 future 1sts) to basically take on the money owed to Al Horford (the Kemba buy-out is about the same as Al's if we guarantee him next season). Yes, it's still a lot of money to pay, but that is pretty good asset acquisition for a team that had loads of cap space and nobody to spend it on.

[Phantom255x]

So glad we have Horford back here again. I know certain guys like Jaylen, Pritchard, etc. had some huge plays in the 4th today, but overall in this series so far Horford I think has been our MVP.

He had some huge shots in the 1st half to keep us afloat along with Batman (G-Will), and remember he also helps when playing defense on guys like KD with the switching and stuff. And he's done well on that end too. You can tell the guys look up to him and he's been rock solid so far this series.

He may have had just 2 assists today but I thought he had some great passes and facilitated some good ball movement at times which culminated in a nice shot or fast-break points.   

[celticsclay]

It seemed unthinkable 3 months ago but there is a very legit chance we hit one of horfords escalators in his contract for next season (making the finals or winning a championship). Let’s hope he gets them

[SparzWizard]

Glad we got the better end of his contract- absolutely balling out when it matters most. Glad he folded when he played for the 76ers, he knew deep down he was a Celtics at heart.

[GreenlyGreeny]

He must be emulating TB12, or something. Dude is playing better than he has in over half a decade, certainly better than any other time in his 30s. I bet every player on this team wants to see Al score his final payday with a guaranteed contract. Yet another incentive for all of us to work towards winning the title this year.

I truly believe Horford could have Tom Brady-esque longevity. I would bet heavily he will be the oldest active player in his final 2-4 years in the league. A 44 year old Horford playing off the bench would not even surprise me.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Al Horford stopped the aging process.  We knew he would age well, but this is getting weird. 

[wiley]

He's' well rested....hasn't played a lot in almost three years...playing great!!!

[pokeKingCurtis]

Sucky loss. But Al has been incredible


 They definitely need to take advantage of Al playing our of his mind, it will be tough to replace him on both ends.

[Roy H.]

True or false:  Al Horford is playing as well as he ever has in his career

[pokeKingCurtis]

Can't watch due to being busy at work, just following thru CS and Twitter.

But man, another Al game.

[GreenlyGreeny]

True or false:  Al Horford is playing as well as he ever has in his career

True. The TB12 of the NBA? No matter what happens, we are paying the man next year.

[Phantom255x]

Thank you for playing a MASSIVE role and saving our season tonight Al!



(pretend everyone else is a C's player in the pic, or someone could photoshop them all in lol!)