Sixers: Al Horford may be the odd man out for new head coach Doc Rivers

New Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers spoke with media on Monday and indicated that Al Horford may be the odd man out for the Sixers.

The Philadelphia 76ers wasted no time in hiring Doc Rivers as their head coach after he was relieved of his duties by the LA Clippers. In an unusually active coaching carousel, the Sixers opted to go with the most accomplished and biggest name on the market, and he was introduced to the Philadelphia media on Monday.

He laid out some of his plans for the Sixers in the coming season, including intending to make Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid work together, citing the fact that they’ve won the majority of their games together.

One of his most interesting comments during the press conference was all the more intriguing because of something he did not say.

Rivers went down the list of Sixers who can score, and he mentioned Simmons, Embiid, Tobias Harris, Shake Milton and Josh Richardson. Not named among this group was Al Horford, who is coming off a mostly awful season with this team.

Horford was sixth in scoring on the team, averaging 11.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 30.2 minutes per game. He shot 45.0 percent from the field and 35.0 percent from 3-point range, and he had a mediocre true shooting percentage of 53.6.

He wasn’t able to adequately provide effective spacing, and the floor was clogged when he shared the floor with Joel Embiid. When they were on together, the Sixers were outscored by 3.9 points per 100 possessions, and when Harris was on with the two of them, they were outscored by 2.9 points.

The Sixers were able to make things work with Al Horford, sometimes

Not all was lost when Horford played, however. When Horford was on with Simmons, they outscored their opponents by 3.7 points, and when Simmons was on with Horford and Embiid was off, they had a +5.9 net rating. Perhaps the most interesting lineup permutation involved Horford, Simmons and Harris, with Embiid off the floor. In this configuration, the Sixers outscored their opponents 115.2 to 107.3 points per 100 possessions, yielding a +7.9 net rating.

Horford did not thrive under Brett Brown in the non-system the Sixers ran this past season, but then again, nobody did. While he had a poor season, the sheer talent on the roster was able to dominate opponents, and it should be encouraging that his best minutes were without Embiid and Horford should be able to continue to play backup five when Embiid goes to the bench.

While it could have been nothing more than an oversight from Doc Rivers that left Horford off his list of basically every player that can score the ball in any capacity, it’s information that we should consider going forward. Does Rivers have limited faith (or no faith at all) in Al Horford? Does he believe he can incorporate him into whatever his ultimate strategy with this Sixers team will end up being?

Oversight or not, words matter and they won’t go unnoticed by the Horford camp. The fit isn’t ideal, but even if Rivers and the Sixers were inclined to move off of him, it won’t be easy. Horford is due $81 million over the next three seasons ($69 million of which is guaranteed), and it’s a contract that is badly underwater.

His production wouldn’t be much of a problem in a perfect world where his impact is balanced with his cap hit, but that contract is a bloated disaster, something that will go down as a mark against general manager Elton Brand’s permanent record. There’s always a way to get rid of a contract if you want to badly enough, but doing so with Horford’s contract would be punitive indeed.

Some kind of equilibrium will need to be found between Al Horford, Doc Rivers and the rest of the Philadelphia 76ers organization before the 2020-21 season begins.