Philadelphia Is Caught up on the Wrong Crowd Shush from this Weekend
Philadelphia is currently losing their mind to what Jo did following a parade of boos. He made a three told everyone to shut the fuck up whatever. As much as I believe the fans have the right to boo, Joel has the right to be upset. He has been here through the ups and the downs. He has proven that he loves this city and will perform when needed. I have no problem with Joel Embiid showing his distaste to the fans. He is not a problem. However, Al Horford is.
Among the loudest to be booed during lineup introduction on Friday night was Al. For good reason too. Horford has not been a great fit in his time in Philly. He's almost having career lows across the board. If anyone has the right to be booed it is him. So on Friday night, in the midst of a 20 point blow out, he made his second meaningless field goal of the game, and continued to shush the crowd.
He then followed up this crowd silencing performance of 10 points in 31 minutes on Friday night, with a goose egg last night.
The Al Horford experiment needs to change. Obviously he can't be traded. That's fine. Whatever. He is a serviceable big that can alleviate the problems we had in the playoffs last year when Jo came off the floor. But that is all he should be. We're getting healthy. Richardson is back, but still on a minutes restriction, resulting in lineups that include him coming off the bench. But when he is fully healthy, there is no reason that Al Horford should be in that starting lineup. Tobias has played better at the 4 and Horford has played better at the 5. The only thing you are doing by keeping him in the starting lineup is refusing to admit that you fucked up that contract. Too late. It's fucked. Take him out and put in Matisse for defensive situations or Furk for offensive situations. Then you have a very serviceable bench lineup led by Burks GRIII and Al. I do love Brett, but if he doesn't make this simple adjustment going forward, then his time should be up here in Philly.