thebarnes (37 posts)  9/24/2012 10:58 AM

I'm kinda interested in people's opinions on horford for this season. I understand he's ranked highly when he's played but whilst I admired his efficiency kinda felt like he didn't do anything great. When I watched him come back from injury in the playoffs whilst rusty he suddenly seemed much more aggressive ffensively and showed a more polished jumper. He's 26 so not young but he did just miss a season through injury and the one before he kinda just gained consistency over a couple seasons - with johnson home and the team pretty much handed per to smith and horford coupled with how aggressive he looked in playoffs anyone think maybe he will improve and really breakout?

Any chance if he takes a step up of a 20-10 scenario with a steal and block? 

ive been starting to sway more positively on horford so am curious...

mbuser (4344 posts)  9/24/2012 1:08 PM

We can definitely say that whatever he does won't be a "breakout", given that he's previously made appearances in the top-10 and top-15. His game has never been about volume offense, so 20+ ppg doesn't look likely - if anything, I would think his AST would climb to "surprising" levels before we'd see him hit 20 ppg.

thebarnes (37 posts)  9/24/2012 9:59 PM

Fair enough, thanks. Im a bit torn on him. He was taking a lot fo shots in the playoffs more than normal, I guess I meant more of a scoring breakout. I always thought early on he would develop into one of the 20/10 guys but it just hasnt happenned.

ak murthy (196 posts)  9/26/2012 4:47 PM

BBM projects Horford at 3.3 apg this year, which is top 10 for post players. That's obviously nothing to sneeze at, but is it too optimistic to expect Horford to average ~4 apg and join Pau and Josh Smith as the best assist-bigs in the league? Gasol is at 4.2 apg and Smith is at 4.0 right now, while the next tier seems to start with Griffin and Horford at 3.3 apg.

mbuser (4344 posts)  9/26/2012 5:02 PM

As (somewhat) mentioned above, I don't think that is out of the realm of possibility, and he will be playing with a number of good off-ball options. It makes sense to allow for upside in the AST category.