My take.............

[cam1218]

And I'd take Al Horford in a heartbeat before those three,,,

And everyone would agree with you. But as far as a balanced roster goes, Horford shouldn't be matched up against these guys. We will maximize his talent if we can allow him to play the 4 and not have him play against guys that are 2 or more inches taller than he is.He is a good C because he plays hard and is a good player. He'd be a better player if he could play PF and have a legitimate, skilled C playing with him.Not just Boss, we'd be a better team if we had size. It's been a reoccurring theme for a long time now..if we play a tall team we usually lose unless somebody has a monster game.

[Guest]

I could give 2 hoots about stats between Al playing the 4 vs 5 (we all know he has logged more time at 5) I'm talking about Al guarding these bigger players and our sorry rebounding. Our team has been too small.

[GameTime]

I could give 2 hoots about stats between Al playing the 4 vs 5 (we all know he has logged more time at 5) I'm talking about Al guarding these bigger players and our sorry rebounding.Our team has been too small.

Rebounding is less about size and more about skill. A Horford-Reggie Evans lineup would be a better rebounding lineup than most.

Edited May 9, 2013 by GameTime

[Guest]

Rebounding is less about size and more about skill. A Horford-Reggie Evans lineup would be a better rebounding lineup than most.

True but we don't have a Reggie Evans so I'll take the size and girth for now.

[LamarHampton]

Dang, seems like everybody's forgotten about Petro!?!?! LOL

But seriously, I'd love to get a true 5 but there just aren't a ton of great options that are realistic. I'm okay with having Al stick it out at the 5 spot most of the time and then having big guy (Zaza or Petro, etc) come in and bang for the few teams we have to face that have centers that cause us problems (Hibbert, Chandler, et al). Not that this approach is necessarily the best option, but Al didn't average a double-double for nothing. He can hang with most any center in the NBA right now, and is actually much faster than most. Dude can run the floor better than 9/10 centers out there. And that he can make his shots drop outside the paint lures other centers outside of their comfort zones, opening up opportunities for the rest of our guys to score. Although slightly undersized, you've gotta respect a guy who can put up those numbers and be that quick at a spot that he's had to adapt to. And it's a balance of liabilities and strengths with every player, and the scale for me says that he's doing just fine. We make a change if a good opportunity presents itself, but I ain't gonna cry if we have to leave Mr. Al "Double-Double" Horford at the 5.