Al Horford on Detroit Pistons’ offseason radar?
By John Buhler
Al Horford will enter free agency this upcoming summer. Would he consider going home to Detroit to play for the Pistons, who do have great interest in him?
According to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Pistons will probably have some interest in acquiring Detroit native Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks either in a trade or during this summer’s upcoming free agency period.
Ellis wrote that the Pistons seem to lack leadership on their young, but talented basketball team that should make the Eastern Conference Playoffs for the first time in half a decade this spring.
While Al Horford has played in the Southeastern United States since his collegiate days at the University of Florida, there is some intrigue that could draw Horford back to his hometown besides playing where he grew up.
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With Detroit, Horford could comfortably play power forward alongside traditional center Andre Drummond. Al Horford has played out of position his entire NBA career as an undersized, stretch-five center with the Atlanta Hawks.
Detroit Pistons head coach/general manager Stan Van Gundy is the type of front office guy that will grossly overpay for a player he likes just to ensure that he will come to his team. He did this with Rashard Lewis with the Orlando Magic and Van Gundy did this with Reggie Jackson last season.
The issue is that Al Horford is a maximum salary player at this point in his NBA career. Even if the Pistons give him a maximum contract offer, the Atlanta Hawks can obviously give him more money and an extra year, as the Hawks organization have Bird Rights with Al Horford since he has played for the Hawks the last nine seasons.
The last area that could incentivize Al Horford to join the Detroit Pistons in free agency is that he would have a clearly defined role with the club: a starting power forward that would replace Ersan Ilyasova in the starting lineup and provide veteran leadership in the frontcourt alongside center Andre Drummond.
We’ve seen Horford at times not hold his own on the glass and he would have less of a burden trying to procure rebounds for the Pistons, as Drummond is one of the best rebounders the Association has seen in a decade. Horford would be able to stand mostly as an offensive playmaker in the frontcourt with the Pistons than anything.
Odds are that Al Horford will sign a new maximum contract or close to it to stay with the Atlanta Hawks, as the organization is more together than it arguably has ever been. He may want to stay in Atlanta to help the team win a championship for the next several years.
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However, Detroit is building something special, too, so keep an eye on the Pistons potentially trying to lure Al Horford away from Atlanta this upcoming free agency period.