Al Horford's legacy has gotten a major boost from both of his tenures with the Boston Celtics. His traditional stats don't do him justice for how consistently impactful he was on both sides of the floor. That's why it's so sad to see that he hasn't replicated the same success both times he's left them. Worse, he hasn't even been close.
Horford is infamous for his time in Philadelphia. After being hyped up as perhaps the last piece of their title team, he couldn't have been a worse fit for them. He and Joel Embiid did not mesh as teammates on either side of the floor. Even if Horford is a good floor spacer, his time with the Philadelphia 76ers proved he also needs some good floor spacing around him to thrive.
It got so bad that that the Sixers salary dumped him the following summer, which was kind of a miracle with how bad he was and with how many years were left on his contract.
His return to Boston made that pretty easy to forget. However, Horford left Boston again last summer for Golden State, both for the money and because the Warriors offered him what he believed was a better chance.
One year later, the situation looks much more dire than it did when he signed with them, getting so bad that there's a possibility that this will backfire worse on him than it did for Philadelphia.
Golden State's window is closing despite Al Horford re-signing
Horford's time with the Sixers may have been dreadful for all parties involved, but hey, that team made the playoffs. They were embarrassed by the Celtics, but at least they had that going for them. The Warriors didn't make the playoffs with Horford, and after missing out on LeBron James earlier this summer, both they and Horford look like they're in serious jeopardy of their fortunes getting even worse.
They're basically running back the same team in an unforgiving Western Conference. They're one of the NBA's oldest teams and did pretty much nothing to improve their ceiling or change their fortunes. It's sad to say it for anyone who watched them go scorched earth on the NBA, but they are quickly becoming yesterday's news.
The difference is that Horford has not gotten any blame for what's gone wrong for Golden State, as he definitely did in Philadelphia. However, it's even sadder that Horford is playing out the rest of his NBA career with a team whose playoff chances are decreasing rapidly.
It all points to the same painful conclusion: From a basketball perspective, Horford made the same mistake again.
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