Philadelphia 76ers: 3 possible outcomes for Al Horford

The Philadelphia 76ers could just figure out how to use him

Al Horford is a veteran who has seen it all in his career. He’s willing to come off the bench, he has no need to be your primary or even secondary (or tertiary!) scoring option. He doesn’t need the ball, he doesn’t scream at rookies for stealing his rebounds. How on earth is Al Horford a man who you can’t figure out how to use on your basketball team?

Ask Brett Brown that question.

It’s not impossible to make it work with Horford, but the role he’s best suited for now is likely as a big off the bench and that’s something that doesn’t square well with his gargantuan salary. He’ll make $27.5 million next season, and that makes it hard to play him 20-22 minutes per game with Furkan Korkmaz, Mike Scott and Kyle O’Quinn or whoever comes off the bench for the Sixers next season.

What we do know is that last season under Brown, Horford and Joel Embiid fit poorly when they played together. Whether that’s something that Rivers can figure out or not, things worked more smoothly when they were apart, and Embiid is not a player who can play heavy minutes on an every-night basis. That gives Horford some additional value as a player who can slide in and take over when Embiid can’t play.

Horford might have one of the worst contracts in the NBA on paper, but his utility is underrated on this Sixers team in particular. Between Doc Rivers, Daryl Morey and Al Horford himself, it’s most likely that they’re going to find a way to make things work in Philadelphia.

However, let’s say they can’t figure it out. That leads to our final option.