The Celtics losing Al Horford was a disaster for them

picc · Post #1 » by **picc** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:26 am

Kept forgetting, but i've been watching some of the '18 and '19 playoff games and MAN he was a beast, on both ends.

They basically swapped Kyrie for Kemba, which is a lateral move imo. But it wasnt Kyrie who was the Celtics most important player last year, it was Horford. He was the defensive anchor, the 2nd offensive anchor, locker room and floor leader, and swiss army forward who could guard anyone from Embiid to D'angelo Russell on switches.

I think the C's are kind of screwed without him. He wont help Philly as much as he helped Boston, imo, but on that team he was indispensable. Dont see anyone being able to make up half of what he did for them.

karkinos · Post #2 » by **karkinos** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:29 am

well hopefully kemba can be a similar leader for them that horford was

Post #3 » by **ThunderBolt** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:30 am

Losing Al Horford in itself isn’t the end of the world. Having Kanter as the starting center is less than ideal.

PistolPeteJR · Post #4 » by **PistolPeteJR** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:30 am

Absolutely agree. They’re back to being like similar to the ‘16 Celtics with Isaiah but a bit better on O because of Kemba being better and them having younguns growing into themselves (assumption on that last part), but they won’t be as good defensively.

PistolPeteJR · Post #5 » by **PistolPeteJR** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:31 am

karkinos wrote:well hopefully kemba can be a similar leader for them that horford was

He won’t be that leader or anchor on D, you can count on that.

HotelVitale · Post #6 » by **HotelVitale** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:31 am

I was just re-watching the Sixers-Celtics series from two years ago (cuz summer), Horford was incredible. Made everything difficult on defense and covered a ton of ground, and he was surprisingly spry on offense. With all those slow-release set-shots, it's easy to forget that he can out-quick most bigs and beat them in a sprint to the hoop.

000078ude54 · Post #7 » by **000078ude54** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:32 am

We still love Al but he's on the back end of his career and we couldn't justify giving him the contract Philly gave him.

With Kyrie, Rozier, and Morris gone, the time was right to shift towards building around youth. It was inevitable. Far better that Al left now and got his (likely) last big pay day. Hopefully Kanter fills in nicely, and Tatum and Brown take another step forward.

Dominator83 · Post #8 » by **Dominator83** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:33 am

ThunderBolt wrote:Losing Al Horford in itself isn’t the end of the world. Having Kanter as the starting center is less than ideal.

To put it lightly

picc · Post #9 » by **picc** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:41 am

Kanter will give you a good finisher and someone who can reliably create some low post offense for himself.

He cant play point forward a la Draymond the way Horford can, or run the offense from the high post, or do anything with those high PnR passes Horford was a genius taking advantage of and finding shooters or rolling to the rim.

Obviously you know that, which is why you said having Kanter is less than ideal, I just felt like elaborating to hopefully make any Celtics fans present feel worse than they did entering the thread. 8-)

CeltsfanSinceBirth · Post #10 » by **CeltsfanSinceBirth** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:45 am

Well, Stevens will need to work his magic somehow. Celtics had a top 5 defense back in 2016 with IT and Amir Johnson's corpse. Going to need to do that again with Kanter at the 5.

FWIW, Ainge tried to make some moves in order to bring Al back while having capspace to get Kemba, but he just couldn't afford to match Philly's deal. Best of luck to Al though. He's a class act and I enjoyed his time in Boston.

Kobblehead · Post #11 » by **Kobblehead** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:45 am

I guess, but he aged out of being worth keeping for them. It was a regretful, but necessary parting.

Post #12 » by **GeorgeMarcus** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:50 am

As much as I trust Stevens- and prefer Kemba to Kyrie in that setting- losing Horford was definitely a huge loss. If the Cs manage another top tier defense with Kanter then just give Brad COY already.

Post #13 » by **GeorgeMarcus** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:51 am

Will Time Lord be ready to contribute?

Johnny Bball · Post #14 » by **Johnny Bball** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:51 am

Toughest position to fill seems to be that quality smallball centre. To have one that plays both small and big well is indispensable.

Bird4Three · Post #15 » by **Bird4Three** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:54 am

Disaster is a bit dramatic. He was a great player for us, but time marches on.

picc · Post #16 » by **picc** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:59 am

Bird4Three wrote:Disaster is a bit dramatic. He was a great player for us, but time marches on.

Although I stand by the thread title, I'm not too good for click bait.

Higgs Boston · Post #17 » by **Higgs Boston** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:03 am

Nope, the bad thing is that celtics don't have a starter C. Horford wasn't as good as other years, had health issues and he is 33 years old, it doesn't make sense to give him a big contract.

LofJ · Post #18 » by **LofJ** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:17 am

Ainge will end up trading for Myles Turner or Sabonis before the deadline.

israelfirst · Post #19 » by **israelfirst** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:25 am

kanter is a bigger, younger, and better version of horford.

reload141 · Post #20 » by **reload141** » Tue Aug 13, 2019 2:26 am

GeorgeMarcus wrote:Will Time Lord be ready to contribute?

Still a bit off it, but he's always been a bit of a project.

Think we will see how the first 30 odd games go and assess the bigman situation then... Not too many teams will have the defensive wings to match up with us but totally agree we will get beaten up on the inside.

The one thing Kanter does better than almost anyone is rebounding though so that will be a nice change instead of Ol'Flinchy.