Dogen wrote:As it stands, well, he went for the money, the extra year, the weather... whatever. It's kinda sad, but I see why he did it. L like GS just fine, lived there for years and it's a good org. And that's a vet team on last hurrah. I just don't really see it for Horford. Maybe they'll squeeze one more year out of him but I doubt they do much in the playoffs, and Al could have retired here and moved right into another role with the C's, keeping his family at the home where they already have everything.
Sure, Al could have done that. But he's a competitor. He wants to compete for a championship. GS is going for it. They know this might be their last chance to win a title with Steph. They're putting all of their chips in. They have their core back and they added Butler at the deadline.
Boston meanwhile just traded 2 of its best players and cut more payroll in 1 offseason than basically any team in NBA history. And our best player has a torn achilles.
GS is competing for a championship this season. We're not.
Even though they might not do much in the playoffs, the fact is Steph, Draymond and Kerr have won 4 titles together. Last year they went out in the 2nd round. But Steph only played in 1 of the 5 games vs Minnesota. And Butler was still getting used to playing with them.
This season a Big 3 of Steph, Draymond and Butler is about as good as any Big 3 in the league.
Pretty much the only teams who had interest in Al this offseason were GS, Denver, BOS and MIL. Milwaukee got Turner so if he went there he'd be a backup and if he went to Denver he'd be a backup. Seemed like Milwaukee's interest went away after they got Turner and Denver got Valanciunas instead - perhaps because they knew he was gonna go to GS since he could start there, rather than just being Jokic's backup in Denver.
GS was the only team that a) wanted him b) is competing for a championship and c) he'd get a starting spot
Plus GS is able to pay him more $ than Boston..again, the better weather is just icing on the cake.
Sure, it's a bummer that he has to move his family with 5 kids across the country but clearly the most important thing to him is competing for a championship. So he doesn't mind moving.
As for moving into another role with the Cs, he probably isn't even weighing that at all right now. He said in his presser the other day that retirement was not even a consideration for him this summer. So he's probably not thinking about what role he may or may not have somewhere after he retires. Plus he could move into a role with the C's, regardless of whether he plays this season in GS. Clearly, based on what Brad and Joe have said about Al over the past few days, they both still (even after he leaving for GS) think VERY highly of him.
We also don't know what Al might want to do after he retires. For all we know, he wants to get into broadcasting. Or he wants to just take it easy and coach his son's youth basketball team, who knows.
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