The Philadelphia 76ers made a bold move on Tuesday night by moving Al Horford, who they handsomely paid $109 million to in the offseason, to the bench and having Furkan Korkmaz in the starting lineup. It was the first time Horford was not starting a game since November of his rookie season in 2007.
Horford scored nine points and had six rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench in a 110-103 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. Coach Brett Brown completely staggered his minutes with Joel Embiid as he rarely played the two together as he continued to plug away and make this work.
Horford said he was told he would come off the bench on Monday at practice and he understood where Brown was coming from.
“I just accepted it,” he said. “Obviously, not the position that I saw myself in, but it was what was best for the team…he told me about his decision, I respected it, and we went from there.”
Did Horford understand where Brown was coming from?
“Sure,” nodded the veteran.
When Horford came over to Philadelphia, he was expected to join Embiid and form one of the better frontlines in the NBA, but the team was struggling on the floor with him in the lineup. Allowing him to move over to the center spot freed him up a little bit to play his natural position.
Although, he did not feel anything different offensively. Like there wasn’t any extra spacing.
“No, not really,” he said. “I thought it was just us playing and getting into a good rhythm.”
Horford has been an All-Star and a starter throughout the career so this was something he has not experienced in over 12 years. This had to be not ideal for him to go through and swallow his pride, but he was able to tough it out.
“Just trying to stay engaged as much as I could, focused, and just coming in and try to have an impact,” he explained.
Time will tell if this becomes a permanent thing in the Sixers’ rotation, but it is tough for a guy who has had as much success as Horford to really just accept a bench role. This guy has been through so much and has seen everything you could throw at him at the NBA level. This is all so new to him.
The Sixers will now enter the All-Star break and reassess things before playing again on January 20 when they host the Brooklyn Nets. [lawrence-related id=25593,25557,25530]