Al Horford knows how to play the numbers.
The Atlanta Hawks big man, who remains one of the NBA’s most versatile yet underrated players, will reach unrestricted free agency in 2016, at which point he could sign elsewhere. And while he can put all speculation to bed by signing a contract extension with the Hawks beforehand, that’s not something he plans on doing.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Chris Vivlamore:
Al Horford is not concerned with his contract status.
That business can wait.
The Hawks center will enter the final year of a contract that will pay him $12 million in 2015-16. He will become an unrestricted free agent July 1. Then and only then, Horford said, will he think about his future. The priority is the season at hand.
“My focus right now is to get better individually and help our team be the best team that we can be,” Horford said Tuesday. “I have the same mindset and that is to help our team win and put us in a good position and try to be better.
“As far as the contract stuff, I’m going to wait until the season is over. I’m not going to let that linger and be a distraction. The focus is to be on the Hawks, on our team and getting better. Once the season ends, we’ll be able to sit down and talk and figure out all of that.”
This doesn’t mean Horford is going to leave the Hawks, to be sure. Nor does it mean he’ll stay. It doesn’t mean anything except for what it’s supposed to mean: Horford plans on taking advantage of the league’s exploding salary cap.
The biggest financial boon in NBA history will bring the cap to $89 million, perhaps more, next summer. Player salaries are going to skyrocket as a result. If Horford were to ink an extension now, he would actually be costing himself money.
A crap ton of money.
An inexcusable amount of money, as former NBA executive Bobby Marks pointed out on Twitter:
Maximum amount for Horford extension, $12.9,$13.8,$14.7, Starting max for 2016-17 projected to be $25m for 7-9 years of service.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) August 18, 2015
Signing an extension means that Horford could be leaving more than $12 million on the table in 2016-17 alone. That’s assuming some team, even if it’s not the Hawks, hands him a max deal. And, assuming Horford is himself next year, that seems like a foregone conclusion. He won’t turn 30 until June, and he’s a defensive plus who can space the floor or score in the post or serve as a secondary playmaker on offense.
That, and there will be an unfathomable amount of free cap floating around the NBA in 2016. Teams will be itching to spend, even if it entails overpaying for talent.
Horford is smart to wait—mostly because it would be super dumb, at least financially, to do anything else.
