The NBA trade deadline has come to pass. You made it. And you’re sad. Twelve deals—or rather, 10 after two consolidations—went down, none of them huge. Tobias Harris went to the Detroit Pistons, Channing Frye was shipped to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Markieff Morris was passed off to the Houston Rockets. That was the extent of the excitement.
One team that was quiet, the Atlanta Hawks, had the potential to shape the deadline. They were flirting with the idea of blowing crap up, and then backed away at the last minute. Al Horford, specifically, was pulled off the market two hours before the deadline, per ESPN’s Chris Broussard:
Source: ATL took Horford off market @ 1 pm EST. His impending free agency scared off teams from making good, equitable offers.
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) February 19, 2016
This makes sense, and it doesn’t.
Horford will be 30 years old when next season tips off, and any team who acquired him would be taking on a flight risk. And if he wasn’t a flight risk, they still had to pay him more than $100 million this summer.
Still, the dude is a legitimate All-Star, with a versatile game that isn’t prided on otherworldly athleticism or explosion and should age well. It’s almost bizarre that teams weren’t manufacturing close to “equitable” offers.
Then again, the threat of Al Horford leaving is real. He most definitely wouldn’t commit to his next destination now, because his free-agency case isn’t cut and try. He isn’t guaranteed a max deal, so it behooves him to test the market and suss out the best offer. And so, he’s still in Atlanta. For now.
Next season?
Well, that’s a different story.
