Philadelphia 76ers: Al Horford can’t become Nicolas Batum
The one thing that can’t happen for the Philadelphia 76ers and Al Horford is that he becomes what Nicolas Batum is to the Charlotte Hornets.
The signing of Al Horford this summer has become pretty bad pretty quick. While it’s proven to be a bad move to sign him by the Philadelphia 76ers this isn’t the worst free agent signing in the history of the NBA. There have been plenty of worse signings than even this one in recent history. One that comes to mind is when Charlotte Hornets signed Nicolas Batum to a five-year $120 million deal and the Sixers are in danger of Horford becoming what Batum is to Charlotte.
Batum was never a superstar, let alone a star, yet he was paid like one. He was more of an elite “glue guy” that was great for the locker room and could do all the little things at a very high level. Sounds a lot like Horford doesn’t it?
It should be pointed out that Horford was much better than Batum when both players were in their prime. The most compelling evidence of this being that Horford was an All-Star five times and Batum had no All-Star appearances. Still, both players where paid superstar money despite being high-level role players.
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Horford’s the better of the two players, especially at this point in their careers, he’s at risk of becoming what Batum has become with the Hornets. Batum hasn’t been able to live up to his contract due to injuries and father time catching up to him. Now’s he’s just a low-end rotational player whose contracts takes up a good portion of the salary.
Batum’s best season came in the first year of his current deal in 2016-17 season when he averaged 15.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.1 steals. Since then he’s been on a steady decline to the point where he’s been averaging 3.6 points in 22 games (three starts) this season. Granted he’s still rebounding and playmaking at a decent level, but its appeared thanks to injuries, father time has caught up to Batum.
That Hornets asked too much of Batum since he’s arrived and it’s worn him out. Horford could be in a very similar boat. For most of the season, the 76ers have asked Horford to play out of position, guard more athletic players and become essentially a spot-up shooter. It was only in February that he was moved to the bench.
On offense, Horford works best in the mid-range and acting as a facilitator. His age has begun to catch up with him on defense which makes it harder for him to defend perimeter player as he did in years past.
Unless something fundamentally changes with the roster construction or he’s used purely as a backup (unless Joel Embiid isn’t available), as I’ve suggested in the past, he may become untradable and only playable in limited minutes as Batum has become. He’ll become stuck in Philly and despite still being somewhat productive, that production won’t cancel out the negative his contract could become on the Sixers’ salary cap.
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Ideally, the Philadelphia 76ers should look to trade Horford. If they don’t and they can’t find a way to slow down his rather quick regression, then he may end up becoming what Batum is the Hornets rather quickly.