Thunder End of The Year Report Card: Al Horford
The marriage between Al Horford and the Oklahoma City Thunder was never meant to be a long one.
Acquiring the veteran big was always a means to acquire more assets.
The Thunder shipped Danny Green (remember him?), Terrance Ferguson and Vincent Poirier to Philadelphia in exchange for Horford, the 34th overall pick in the 2020 draft, which became Theo Maledon, the draft rights to Vasilije Micic and a 2025 first-round pick.
Here are SI Thunder's report card grades for the veteran big man:
Ryan Chapman: B-
Any actual production OKC got on the floor from Horford was just the cherry on top. And Horford was good in his 28 games of action.
Maintaining his 45 percent field goal mark from a season ago while shooting almost two more shots a game, Horford looked rejuvenated after being handed the license to drift back toward the perimeter again.
He also provided a quality that cannot be quantified: leadership. Even after the franchise shut him down for the season, Horford could still be seen on the bench giving OKC’s young bigs pointers, and every member of the roster it seemed hailed his professionalism at practice.
With his future up in the air, the most likely scenario is that Sam Presti tries to move Horford. Two years remain on Horford’s contract, and he is owed an average of $26,750,000 across each of his two remaining seasons. If a contender needs a big, Horford showed he can still contribute at a high level in Oklahoma City.
If not, the former Florida center didn’t rule out returning to Oklahoma City at the start of next season, but that scenario is hard to imagine after the Thunder front office and Horford’s team worked together to preserve him after the Trade Deadline.
Nick Crain: B
There's two ways to look at Al Horford's time in Oklahoma City.
When grading how he performed on the court, he looked about as good as anyone could have hoped. At age 34 and coming off of the worst season of his career, Horford once again looked like his former self, playing the modern center position where he belongs.
He finished the season averaging just over 14 pointer per game while shooting .368 from beyond the arc on 5.4 attempts. Horford was also just shy of averaging a block and assist per contest as well, showing he's still got the IQ to be a plus defender. :
On the flip side, he only played 28 games before a mutual decision to sideline Horford indefinitely. Although this allowed OKC to play their young guys and climb the lottery ladder, it wasn't the best look. While Horford will have fresh legs for whatever team is willing to acquire him this summer, it'll be interesting to see if his sample size in Oklahoma City was large enough to warrant a real asset in return.
Horford will be 35 at the start of next season and set to earn more than he is probably worth at this stage of his career.
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Derek Parker: B
Al Horford did all he could in Oklahoma City.
Although he didn't see quite the revival that Chris Paul saw, Horford raised his trade stock tremendously. If it weren't for is colossal contract, he could've already been aiding a contender in this postseason.
Horford's time in OKC was short lived, and not as memorable as the franchise' past stars, but the veteran did border on stardom.
After a lot of career lows in Philadelphia last season, Horford averaged 14.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.4 assist. Arguably most impressively, he shot 36 percent on a career-high 5.4 attempts per game.
Horford added intangibles as well, helping the Thunder's slew of young big men progress on and off the court. Moses Brown, Tony Bradley, Isaiah Roby and Aleksej Pokusevski all talked at length about Horford's leadership throughout the season.
All-in-all, it was a successful season across the board for the Thunder-Horford union.
