Athletic: Horford Opens Up About Leaving Boston

[Roy H.]

I wonder if Horford now regrets leaving Boston (again). Warriors are 10-10, look discombobulated and Curry is likely gonna miss at least the next 1-2 weeks as well.

Horford would have easily been the best big man here and helped the C's, maybe even adding 2 wins to our total (maybe 12-6 instead of 10-8). Plus JT could come back in March-April but even if not, he still could have been a nice piece off the bench on our next championship core at low money

Hard to say, but in fairness it wasn't apples to apples.  The Celts offered him the minimum.

I never understood him choosing the Warriors, though. 

[ozgod]

I wonder if Horford now regrets leaving Boston (again). Warriors are 10-10, look discombobulated and Curry is likely gonna miss at least the next 1-2 weeks as well.

Horford would have easily been the best big man here and helped the C's, maybe even adding 2 wins to our total (maybe 12-6 instead of 10-8). Plus JT could come back in March-April but even if not, he still could have been a nice piece off the bench on our next championship core at low money

Hard to say, but in fairness it wasn't apples to apples.  The Celts offered him the minimum.

I never understood him choosing the Warriors, though.

I can't blame him for chasing the money, let's be honest a lot of us have changed jobs for the money. We're fans, so we expect loyalty from players to the team we love...but this is their job. And our loyalty to players only lasts until they start sucking. The it's "ship him out, trade this bum!" 

That said, I would be lying if I wasn't feeling some schadenfreude at poor Al's travails on the other side of the country...he's bricking it at 30% from the floor, he's been injured more often than not, and his team is struggling. Maybe Lucky the Leprechaun cursed him on his way out 

[keevsnick]

I wonder if Horford now regrets leaving Boston (again). Warriors are 10-10, look discombobulated and Curry is likely gonna miss at least the next 1-2 weeks as well.

Horford would have easily been the best big man here and helped the C's, maybe even adding 2 wins to our total (maybe 12-6 instead of 10-8). Plus JT could come back in March-April but even if not, he still could have been a nice piece off the bench on our next championship core at low money

Hard to say, but in fairness it wasn't apples to apples.  The Celts offered him the minimum.

I never understood him choosing the Warriors, though.

I can't blame him for chasing the money, let's be honest a lot of us have changed jobs for the money. We're fans, so we expect loyalty from players to the team we love...but this is their job. And our loyalty to players only lasts until they start sucking. The it's "ship him out, trade this bum!" 

That said, I would be lying if I wasn't feeling some schadenfreude at poor Al's travails on the other side of the country...he's bricking it at 30% from the floor, he's been injured more often than not, and his team is struggling. Maybe Lucky the Leprechaun cursed him on his way out 

I can and I do. This guy has made 330 million dollars in his career. The difference between a vet min and the MLE for him is only like 2 million dollars a year.

If he thought GSW was a better place to chase another ring that's one thing, but if its just for money that's sort of insane to me.

Now I also think it was sort of stupid to join GSW if you're ring chasing, I'm not sure their chance of winning a title is actually a ny greater than the C's this year. Like I think there's a larger chance that Tatum comes back an the C's make a final run THIS YEAR than there is that the old guys in GSW get through the west.

[ozgod]

I wonder if Horford now regrets leaving Boston (again). Warriors are 10-10, look discombobulated and Curry is likely gonna miss at least the next 1-2 weeks as well.

Horford would have easily been the best big man here and helped the C's, maybe even adding 2 wins to our total (maybe 12-6 instead of 10-8). Plus JT could come back in March-April but even if not, he still could have been a nice piece off the bench on our next championship core at low money

Hard to say, but in fairness it wasn't apples to apples.  The Celts offered him the minimum.

I never understood him choosing the Warriors, though.

I can't blame him for chasing the money, let's be honest a lot of us have changed jobs for the money. We're fans, so we expect loyalty from players to the team we love...but this is their job. And our loyalty to players only lasts until they start sucking. The it's "ship him out, trade this bum!" 

That said, I would be lying if I wasn't feeling some schadenfreude at poor Al's travails on the other side of the country...he's bricking it at 30% from the floor, he's been injured more often than not, and his team is struggling. Maybe Lucky the Leprechaun cursed him on his way out 

I can and I do. This guy has made 330 million dollars in his career. The difference between a vet min and the MLE for him is only like 2 million dollars a year.

If he thought GSW was a better place to chase another ring that's one thing, but if its just for money that's sort of insane to me.

Now I also think it was sort of stupid to join GSW if you're ring chasing, I'm not sure their chance of winning a title is actually a ny greater than the C's this year. Like I think there's a larger chance that Tatum comes back an the C's make a final run THIS YEAR than there is that the old guys in GSW get through the west.

Maybe his market - at his desired price point - was a lot smaller than we thought

[Kernewek]

I think it was ultimately two factors:

a) the Dubs are trying to load up to win another championship as their goal this season. They may not get there, but it's a goal the organization has from the front office, to the coaching staff, to the players. Nothing in the language - whether by words or actions - coming from Brad and Joe suggest they're trying to win a championship this season. The message they're sending with the roster moves is that they want to get below the second apron and then build a new, younger, cheaper team around the Jays next season or the season after. It's entirely possible that both GS and Boston will end up in the same position in the playoffs, but the organizational goals are different and presumably the has less constraints on them.

And b) the Benjamins. Boston is trying to get below the second apron, the Dubs are prepared to spend all the way up to the 2nd apron and maybe even exceed it during the season to maximize Curry's waning light. We were never going to be able to match the $$$ they were giving him.

I think these are/were the two main factors, most likely. There's clearly a world where one of Curry's one-last-ride seasons brings the dubs to a deep playoff run, and Boston's front office isn't gunning for it the same way Golden State's is.

[obnoxiousmime]

First off, I don't know why there's any surprise. He already left the Cs once before for contract and also team fit/timeline reasons. This time is a very similar situation, with the team being in a transitional year and also only likely offering the minimum vs. 6m. Sure, he loves the franchise but it's not like he was going to live in Newton after retirement. He put his house up for sale ahead of time, for ****. Not that that means everything, but you have to assume he (and Holiday and Porzingis) knew this version of the team was going to be broken up.

Even though Brad made a token offer, it's clear that the team needs to develop guys like Queta or even Garza and Williams for the next generation of this team. Yes, Horford could have helped mentor them, but he also wants to play. Those minutes would have been at the expense of someone else who might be better for our future.

Secondly, I think fans sometimes underrate other motivations such as, maybe he wants to have the experience of playing with some of the iconic players and teams of the 2000s. Maybe he wants the experience of playing for Steve Kerr. We can argue about how realistic it is for the Warriors to actually be a contender, but you can't discount the fact that when his career is over, he'll be able to say he was teammates with Steph Curry or Draymond.

Let's speculate further and say maybe he wants to go into media after retirement. He'll bring more value to the table if he can speak directly about the Warriors franchise and stars like Curry, Butler, and Green. He'll have a connection to the Boston market and also the SF market, which are two big ones.

But really, I think it's 99% the opportunity to play with Curry and have the experience of being in another iconic franchise. Whether or not they really have any better shot than the Celtics isn't as relevant as the simple fact that one team is going for it, the other is still trying to shed salary for tax reasons.