Philadelphia 76ers: Al Horford is the best backup center in the NBA
While the sample size may be small, new Philadelphia 76ers big man Al Horford already looks like the best backup center in the NBA.
After serving almost a decade as public enemy number one in the City of Brotherly Love, Al Horford has ingratiated himself to the Philadelphia 76ers‘ fanbase like very few players before him.
Why? Easy, Horford has already established himself as the best backup center in the NBA over two preseason games.
Sure, technically Horford isn’t just the Sixers’ backup center, as he’ll be announced all season as the team’s starting power forward over the 2019-20 NBA season, but in just two games, Philly fans have already been given a glimpse of exactly how Brett Brown plans to use his not-quite-seven footer both with and in place of Joel Embiid.
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In the Sixers’ debut – against CBA ballers the Guangzhou Long-Lions – Horford played 17 minutes and scored eight points. Now granted, such a performance is not going to set Twitter on fire like Ben Simmons‘ first 3 pointer, or Josh Richardson‘s outpouring from the 3 point line, but six of Horford’s points came from beyond the arch – giving the 33-year-old a 50 percent clip from 3.
You see, Horford has always been a good 3 point shooter for his position, either center or power forward depending on the team, but when Embiid is clogging up the paint, the Florida product should be able to let the ball fly pretty much at will, without having to spend his evenings bullying it out in the paint.
To follow-up such a performance, Horford then shifted inside to earn a start at center in the 76ers’ stateside debut against the Charlotte Hornets, where Big Al again showcased a feather touch from 3 and an ability to impact the game without a stuffed out stat sheet. With Embiid having the night off, Horford shifted beautifully back into the paint as the team’s small-ball center and racked up a team-high three steals and nine rebounds to go with his 11 points.
Again, nothing flashy, very meat ‘n potatoes: The Al Horford way.
Now granted, these are just preseason games and should be taken with a grain of salt, but Brown’s willingness to stagger Horford and Embiid while also optimizing the time the duo are on the court together shows a real understanding of the 2018-19 76ers’ biggest weakness and a surprisingly effective solution to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
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Despite having signed Kyle O’Quinn in free agency, and Christ Koumadje to complement Jonah Bolden in the reserve front court, it looks like the Philadelphia 76ers could utilize a two-man center rotation for much of the 2019-20 regular season when at full strength and a near-seamless transition back to a more-traditional hierarchy when the team is down one Joel Embiid. Hey, maybe Al Horford is worth $109 million after all.