PHILADELPHIA — Al Horford knows he needs to play better.
The 39-year-old big man is a quarter of the way through his first season with the Golden State Warriors and knows that the first two months haven’t exactly gone to plan on the floor. Through 13 games, Horford, who signed with the organization in the first week of training camp, is averaging just 5.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in 21.5 minutes, which are all career lows for the proud former All-Star.
“I’m not where I want to be,” Horford told The Athletic after a 99-98 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday. “I would say I haven’t been very good. I understand that there’s a lot of work ahead of me, there’s more that I need to do, and I need to be better, and I feel like I will. But right now, I’m not where I want to be.”
Horford, who no longer plays on both ends of back-to-back games and is scheduled to be out for Saturday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, has dealt with injuries on top of his slow start for a Warriors team that has had a brutal schedule to begin the season. He returned Thursday after missing about two weeks because of a sciatica issue. He is still trying to find a rhythm within the framework of a new group.
“It’s not so much frustrating,” Horford said. “It’s just that there are a lot of different circumstances going on. Whether it’s injury, missing time away from the team, there’s a lot of factors, and there’s no excuses, but I take all of this first part with a hint of salt, and I know that I will be better. So I know that I will be better.”
In the midst of adjusting to a new team, on a different side of the country after playing almost the entirety of his 19 years in the NBA on the East Coast, Horford and his wife, Amelia, recently welcomed their sixth child, a baby girl. It’s why he was away from the Warriors last week.
“A lot of emotions,” Horford said of the last week. “But just very happy, very grateful. Just pretty special for me and my family.”
With the up-and-down nature of his schedule and time away from the group, Horford is still learning the Warriors’ system and a new group of teammates. That process has become even tougher given that star guard Stephen Curry has missed time because of a quad injury and muscle strain, as well as three more games earlier in the year because of a bad cold. Jimmy Butler is dealing with a knee issue of his own, while Draymond Green continues to deal with a lingering foot injury.
As Horford noted, there have been a lot of factors as to why he’s off to a slow start. What the Warriors have to hope is that, now that he’s actually back with the group, he can shake off the rust — and that the state of Horford’s game isn’t just that he’s getting older and coming to the end of a great career.
For his part, Horford believes his body is feeling better, and the progress is getting there.
“I felt pretty good tonight,” Horford said Thursday. “Obviously, not playing or anything, that’s always challenging, so trying to get my legs back under me, but it’s just nice to get back on the floor. Things didn’t go our way tonight, the game didn’t go our way, I’m still trying to find myself as well, but I was encouraged with some of the things tonight.”
As far as what he feels like he’s learned most on the floor two months into his first Warriors’ season, Horford said he’s feeling the differences on both ends. After coming off the bench in every game he’s played this year, Horford got his first start of the year on Thursday.
“For me, it’s continuing to figure everything out defensively,” Horford said. “So being more of a support on the defensive end. And then on offense, getting more comfortable in spots so I can impact the team. Being able to get to the right spots to shoot the three, and just giving the team more on the offensive end. Whether it’s setting screens, getting guys open, things like that. That’s always something that I’m going to continue to try to be better at.”
Horford is the first one to acknowledge his struggles. He’s used to playing at a certain standard, and he hasn’t hit it yet in a Warriors uniform. But he also admits that, while he would like to be playing better, he knows he was brought in to help make a difference for the group in the biggest of games later in the season. He wants to do more in the short term, but he hasn’t lost sight of the fact that one of the reasons he was so attractive to the organization was because of his ability to raise the level of his own games in the games that mattered the most.
“That’s always been my mindset,” Horford said. “And I understand it, but right now the team needs me. We need to be a little better, and this is a part of it; it’s a part of the journey. But in my mind, I know where I need to be when that time comes.”