Anthony Slater<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cHorford would slide in as the presumed starting center, lessening the regular-season load on Draymond Green, which is a priority,\u201d Slater wrote. \u201cHorford\u2019s ability to pass and defend fits well into the Warriors\u2019 system. His ability to shoot from the center spot is something they\u2019ve been sorely lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horford is coming off a season where he averaged 9.0 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists while hitting nearly two three-pointers per game at 36.3 percent.<\/p>\n
During Boston\u2019s title run the year before, he was even sharper from deep, connecting at 41.9 percent. Playing alongside Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, those open looks could become automatic.<\/p>\n
Still, there\u2019s a gamble attached.<\/p>\n
\u201cHorford is 39,\u201d Slater added. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t been playing both sides of back-to-backs. The Warriors can\u2019t rely on him to be an every-night 25-minute option. But the desire is to have him in the lineup when it matters and open up space for five-man combinations, which would especially benefit a downhill driver like Kuminga.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden State faces 15 back-to-back sets this season, tied for the second-most in the NBA.<\/p>\n
Adding Horford would also push their starting unit into one of the oldest in the league, with four core players in their mid-to-late 30s.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Steph Curry on How His Offseason Training Has Changed Over Time<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden State Warriors continue to be linked with veteran big man Al Horford as they search for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-78269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}