Boston Celtics: 2017-18 player grades for Al Horford

Weaknesses

As nice as it would be to sing Horford’s praises all the day long, he does have one glaring weakness: his inconsistent scoring.

Let me be clear before I go any further: Al Horford does not to be averaging 20 points a game to be considered a good player; he already is a great player. It’d just be nice if he scored a little more.

In the 72 games he appeared in during the regular season, Horford posted double digits in the scoring column in 54 of them. Of those 54 outings, he only cleared 20 points 11 times. That last stat should be looked at with a bit of an asterisk, as Horford was still the fifth-leading scorer on the Celtics, and only one player averaged more than 20 points a game (Kyrie Irving).

Another weakness Horford possesses is his over-willingness to be a good teammate.

It won’t show up on film to the casual observer, but Horford can waste a few extra seconds off the shot clock looking for a cutting teammate when he has a lane himself. It’s not like Horford hasn’t shown he can handle the ball quite well on his own:

Al Horford has had a few nicknames throughout his career — Playoff Al, Big Al to name a few — but one that he and the Celtics hopes he adds is Aggressive Al. It could mean the Boston Celtics are the new representative of the Eastern Conference in next year’s Finals.