Philadelphia 76ers: Debunking popular Al Horford trade hypotheticals

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors need a center!  The Sixers fewer centers! A match made it heaven!

Nope.

Again, let’s remember the nature of Horford’s contract. He’s not someone teams will come clamoring for after a season in which he averaged 11.9 points and shot 45 percent from the field. Also, there’s some overlap in skill between Horford and Draymond Green, two aging bigs on the wrong side of 30.

While both Green and Horford are smart enough to coexist — and maybe even form a productive partnership — Horford isn’t exactly the type of center Golden State needs. A rim-runner in the JaVale McGee vein might have more utility. Or someone like Kevon Looney, who is *checks notes* on the roster already. Even Marquese Chriss, who is young and has drawn consistent praise from Steve Kerr.

Golden State does have its own albatross contract in Andrew Wiggins, which makes these hypotheticals are little easier to swallow. It’s not impossible to envision the Warriors front office taking a swing on Horford’s reputation when Wiggins has basically never been a good NBA player.

That said, you can also turn that the other direction. Do the Sixers trade Horford for a potentially-worse contract with even more guaranteed money. Does Wiggins, a notoriously rocky 3-point shooter who struggles to create for others, really help the Sixers? At all?

When you push beneath the surface, I’m not sure either team is really itching to make this deal.