The Dominican center has received a new opportunity to show everything he has to contribute in this stage of his career with Celtics very different from those he left.
What happened to the Boston Celtics since 2016, year of the arrival of Al Horford to the franchise, to date it has been quite a roller coaster.
In the playoffs of the previous year, the figure of Isaiah Thomas and with the arrival of the Dominican to the team together with Jaylen Brown, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart and company, the Celtics wanted to hit the table with a forceful blow.
In 2017 they totally changed course with one of the most surprising changes of their management sending Thomas to the Cavaliers for Kyrie irving. They also got the free agent Gordon hayward and the rise of Jayson Tatum began.
Everything pointed to Danny Ainge He had moved the right pieces to make the Horford Celtics a team that was above all their rivals in the East, but they always fell short.
Sometimes the Boston press had a cue for these failures: “Average Al (To the Average) ”. Perhaps because many of the things that the Dominican contributes are not seen in the statistics of the matches.
After his steps through the Philadelphia 76ers and the Oklahoma city thunderHorford is coming to the Celtics new, but the Boston team will be very different, after the Kemba Walker bet didn’t work out.
Only Marcus Smart, Semi Ojeleye, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Robert Williams remain from those Celtics Horford played for. Ainge is gone and the role is now occupied by his former coach Brad Stevens, which opens with this change in position.
For Horford it will feel like a second chance where he can show that Boston can be better with him, although there is no certainty that the Dominican will stick around in the long run.
At the moment the move saves the team money and they no longer have to deal with a Kemba walker that he did not fit into the team, but the fact that the Dominican who left at the time for a contract that Boston was not willing to pay (and now will) returns will be a criticized move if it does not bear fruit and even without have a leader.
Now it is up to Al Horford to show that Stevens the executive’s first big move is one that will bring benefits to the Celtics and unfinished business may already be crossed off the agenda.