Al Horford will be in a great position to win defensive player of the year next season
Even though the Boston Celtics came away from this season’s NBA awards empty handed, they will be in an even better position to capture multiple awards next season. They should have executive of the year, coach of the year and MVP candidates. Out of all the awards tho, defensive player of the year could be the most important.
Al Horford was unjustifiably snubbed this season, not even reaching top three in defensive player of the year voting, despite holding together the best defense in the NBA, while dealing with injuries at every single position.
Next season, however, Horford is going to have even more defensive responsibility, and it will be impossible to ignore him if the Celtics are once again a top defense in the NBA.
The Celtics are going to be playing even more small ball next season, and have no sure things behind Horford. He will be getting more defenisve responsibility than anyone else on the team, and they should have more than enough wins to back up that success.
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Right now, the danger is that the Celtics could regress on defense. Who knows what is going to happen with their backup bigs, and if Aron Baynes is going to be able to get as much playing time. Add on the uncertainty with Marcus Smart, and it will be difficult for the Celtics to keep up the defense from last year.
If there is regression, it is hard to imagine Horford getting defensive player of the year, after not getting it this season. If, however, they do maintain their defense, Horford is going to be the one everyone is looking at, and it will mean he is having one of his finest seasons.
The Celtics always defend as a unit, and their ability to switch with their wings makes it hard to say any one individual is more important than another. The difference with Horford, however, is that there is no one else behind him that they can trust.
The Celtics have a lot of trusted options for most defensive roles on this team, but Horford does things that no one else is capable of, unless some of these young bigs really come into their own this season.
Horford will rightfully be given the majority of the credit if the Celtics are once again the best defense in the league, and if they are winning as many games as people are expecting, people will have no choice other than to acknowledge Horford in the defensive player of the year voting.
It really is unfair to expect anything like this from Horford at this point. We do not know what Horford is still going to be capable of, and we do not know what this defense is going to look like.
What we do know is that Horford is one of the truly elite defenders in the NBA, Brad Stevens has a great reputation of getting any players to form a legitimate defense and all the talent around him puts Horford in the best position of his career to capture that award.
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The Celtics have never seemed too concerned with these kind of awards, and Horford is the last one that would care at all about defensive player of the year prospects. After the massive snubbing this year, however, it would be refreshing to finally see Horford get the credit he deserves as one of the best defenders in the NBA next season.