OKC Thunder season opener part deux: 3 keys vs. Hornets

Familiar Faces:

Al Horford will make his official regular-season debut as a member of the OKC Thunder this evening. And while he’ll share the court with teammates he’s never played more than a few minutes with he’ll face two familiar faces on the opposite side of the floor.

During his tenure in Boston, Horford played with Gordon Hayward

and Terry Rozier. He spoke fondly of his former Celtics teammates following practice.

Regarding Hayward:

"“Gordon can kind of all on the floor and I think being in Charlotte for him is going to be a really good situation. He’s going to be able to show more of what he can do.”"

While there is no doubt Horford is happy for his pal and certainly aware of Gordon’s skill set if we read between the lines there is an underlying message here as well. When he left Boston there was a feeling perhaps Danny Ainge didn’t truly value his contributions. The 76ers weren’t just covetous of acquiring him they saw Al as being the one player who had stopped Joel Embiid. That old saying ‘if you can’t beat em, join em” might be apt here.

The problem was either Elton Brand and Brett Brown didn’t do a deep dive to consider how Horford and Embiid would coexist and excel. Or, they didn’t foresee the issues and adjustments that would be required. Regardless, Horford became the scapegoat for why the system wasn’t working in Philly.

Therefore, much like Chris Paul exited Houston tagged as an over-the-hill, injury-prone malcontent and resurrected his career in OKC, Horford is definitely cognizant he can do the same. His comments about Hayward also speak to recognizing that fact in a friend and peer.

In a similar vein, he cited Terry Rozier and his historic opening night 42-point performance where he connected on a career-high ten 3-pointers. Notably, the Hornets lost that game.

That said, unlike the situation for CP3 in Houston and Al in Philly, the difference for Rozier and Hayward specifically is there were other players already in place to handle the roles they wanted or that limited them. Kemba Walker is an All-Star and Marcus Smart is All-Defense. Jaylen Brown hasn’t been the secondary playmaker but will be afforded that opportunity with an increase in that regard this season as he continues to ascend to his ceiling, particularly while Kemba Walker remains out.

Okay — okay – I know I’m constantly referencing the Celtics dynamic as a comparison for the Thunder to consider – but there are simply so many examples worth emulating it’s worth re-iterating.