Miami Heat didn’t choose Al Horford
Four-time All-Star who just turned 30, was interested in coming to Miami, but the team never engaged him. Pat Riley said once the Heat had a deal with Whiteside, they eliminated Horford as an option. However Al agreed to a contract with the Celtics before the end of the weekend.
“It’s not out of a lack of respect for him, it’s that at 12:01 a.m. I came to an agreement with Hassan,” Riley said. “I don’t care if Dallas came in after us, we had Hassan. Once we got Hassan, I didn’t want to string along anybody else.
“We like Al, we love Joakim Noah. Everybody that was at the top – the (DeMar DeRozans, the (Bradley) Beals, the (Nic) Batums, (Dwight) Howard, Horford – all those guys, their deals were done. Horford is going to really help Boston, I think. But we didn’t really push on that one.”
Al, average 10.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 blocks, 0.7 steals and 31.4 minutes in 81 games (77 starts). Horford has appeared in playoff history in 48 playoff games for Atlanta (47 starts), totaling 12.4 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 2.7 apg and 1.1 bpg (.478 FG%, .745 FT%).
