With a roster like the one the Philadelphia 76ers possess, it can be tough to figure out how to best play with each other and figure out how to have team success. The Sixers had a lot of expectations heading into the 2019-20 season and they have not been able to live up to them due to the awkwardness of the roster.
That is where the veterans on the team have to step up and be more of a leader to guide a young team out of the issues they are having. For the Sixers, that guy has mostly been Al Horford lately.
As the team gets set to resume the season in Orlando, the Sixers are playing with new lineups and new rotations which means Horford has been relegated to the bench unit. However, he handles it with class.
“What I’ve been most impressed with is his him being vocal, his level of competitiveness,” said coach Brett Brown. “There has been a physicality, there’s a toughness, there’s a voice that you just feel. We’ve scrimmaged a bit, we’ve played a fair bit of 5-on-5 and I feel like Al has jumped into that environment in a significant way. I feel like his mood, his spirit, his toughness, his voice, and he’s just been very physical in the games and it has stood out to me.”
Horford has been in the NBA now for 13 seasons. He has made the playoffs his entire career, he has advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals three times, and he came to within one win of the NBA Finals in 2018. He is a guy that has been through the wars of the NBA and he has a wealth of experience. When he talks, the Sixers listen.
“Al has been huge for us since the beginning,” added Raul Neto. “At the beginning, of course, he was the new guy, he didn’t want to talk a lot, but now he feels comfortable and he feels like he is one of the leaders on this team. Everybody listens to him, he’s a vet, he’s been in the league for a long time, he played in a lot of playoffs and big games. Everybody knows that and everybody I think trusts him to be our voice most in the time in a game.”
Mostly, Horford was brought in to help Joel Embiid grow his game a lot more. He gave the big fella a lot of trouble during his time with the Boston Celtics and that is something that influenced the Sixers to bring him to Philadelphia. Now that he’s here, this gives Embiid somebody to learn from.
“Al is a great person so just being around him and seeing the way he presents himself, that’s what I’ve gathered from him,” Embiid said. “He’s a tremendous player. I played against him and now he’s on our team. Everybody’s trying to figure out how to play with each other. That’s what we’re here for and that’s what why we’ve got these couple of games before the playoffs, but he’s a great person and he’s a guy I love having on our team.”
The Sixers will play their first scrimmage game on July 24 against the Memphis Grizzlies before officially resuming the 2019-20 season on August 1 against the Indiana Pacers. [lawrence-related id=34653,34631,34632]