Horford to Florida
He'll get the chance to play in a 2-post offense with post up opportunities. Wishing him the best.
Considering the fact that his brother went there and their sustained success under Donovan, especially in developing big guys, this move makes a lot of sense.
Florida has landed Michigan transfer Jon Horford, sources told ESPN. Eligible next season. Will help Gators frontcourt depth.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) April 26, 2014on this conversation.
I have seen plenty of people suggest, hey, look what Donovan did for Al, there's reason to think he could do the same for Jon.
Jon is not nearly the fluid athlete that Al is - Jon is reasonably mobile for his height, but is a very stiff player/athlete.
Genes are determinative of body type. And I'm suggesting the fact that they have different mothers is reason enough to take a second look at how Jon's body differs from Al's - an examination that shows that one is very narrow and up and down, and the other looks more like a classic NBA front court player.
April 26th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:51 AM ^
Couldn't get on the court? What team were you watching? He was basically a co-starter for half the season. You missed the whole Morford/Horgan meme I guess.
Oh yeah, there totally wasn't a trend in his minutes that led people to believe that perhaps he was being phased out somewhat. And even with being a "co-starter", he averaged 14 minutes a game despite there being nobody to really man the 4 and 5 except an out-of-position GRIII, Morgan, and a bunch of first-year players.
Morgan averaged about 8 more minutes a game, and in the end Bielfeldt was getting more minutes on average. Just because Brian created a meme at some point in the season doesn't mean it is applicable throughout and alters reality. Heck, he once said Chad Lindsay was going to be transfer and we all saw how that played out.
Nice defensive backtrack. "Totally wasn't a trend in his minutes that led people to believe that perhaps he was being phased out somewhat" and "couldn't get on the court" are very different statements. For one thing, he was getting less minutes because Morgan improved. And Beilein doesn't play a 2-big system; that's why he wasn't playing at the 4.
And again, I don't think you were watching this team considering you actually said Bielfeldt was getting more minutes. In 4 tourney games, Bielfeldt had 5 minutes total. Horford played 38.
Seriously. It's sad how many fans have turned on a guy who worked hard here for 4 years and used the grad transfer rule for what he thinks is a better opportunity for him.
can anyone please explain what is debatable in what he just said?
be able to provide some post minutes. I don't think I'd take it any further than that.
April 26th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
Well, Patric Young is graduating, there are no bigs in Florida's 2014 class, and the other guys vying for the center position are transfers or inexperienced.
So...he might.
But where do you think he would get more minutes?
I honestly don't know. I don't know a thing about Florida other than they have one guy who hasn't played since 2011-12 and a freshman who averaged 4.8 minutes/game last season. And I don't know enough about Donnal and Doyle to know if they'll be better than Horford by next year, and it's entirely possible that they would be because I'm not a fan of Horford's skills.
So...yeah...I don't know.
Fair enough, but if I were to guess (which is what I implicitly asked you), I would say Horford would get ~25 minutes a game at Michigan and ~15 at Florida.
I was actually going to ask that question somewhere in this thread in the hopes that somebody with good information on Florida could inform us. I truly don't know what Florida's expectations are for the center position next year. It looks like a huge question mark to me.
I based my guess on a report from the world leader in sports:
"Horford could vie for a starting spot next to sophomore Chris Walker.
Florida also brings in talented 6-foot-9 freshman Devin Robinson and will add Duke transfer Alex Murphy -- likely in December."
Chris Walker is a 5 star C (Rivals)
Devin Robinson is a 5 star SF (Rivals) (not sure why why ESPN included him unless they think UF will be really desperate up front)
Alex Murphy was a 4 star F (Rivals)
April 26th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 12:37 PM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
I have no ill will against Horford at all. I hope he succeeds. I just don't think Florida is going to present him with some crazy opportunity to have a basketball career renaissance.
April 26th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
It's kind of unfortunate if you think about it. If we never had Horford and he announced he was transfering from another school for his Senior season Michigan would be all in on landing him - except the exact opposite is happening.
April 26th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
Here's to Jon Horford getting 30 post touches a night.
April 26th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:58 AM ^
Go Horford. Even when you play Michigan, I hope you score 30 points and 10 rebounds and yet Florida still lose to Michigan by 10 points.
April 26th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
Not really true in basketball. Back to the basket types won't be good in JB's offense because that isn't what he is looking for. He wants spacing that allows dribble drive lanes for easy dumpoff's and kick outs.
Horford just isn't a set a screen and roll to the basket type of guy. For his game this is a bad system for him to feel comfortable and maybe he wants a chance to get touches on the block instead of a lot of screen and rolls.
His explanation for not fitting into the offense is actually a rather good one.
He may not be a good back to the basket type guy but won't find out until he suits up for Florida. It just wasn't going to happen here.
Back to the basket types won't be good in JB's offense because that isn't what he is looking for.
I somewhat agree.
...of course that ignores the other side of the ball - where Horford wasn't a good defender, wasn't a good rebounder, wasn't a good finisher, and rarely blocked a shot.
Talented post guys, even in a offense that features no post play, will still exhibit their talent in other ways.
April 26th, 2014 at 12:16 PM ^
So receivers are going to succeed in Air Force's triple option? RBs are going to excel in a passing spread?
April 26th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 12:35 PM ^
I assume you're talking about Calvin Johnson as one of them.
And no, he didn't. He played under Chan Gailey at Georgia Tech.
April 26th, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^
Yep Johnson left before Paul Johnson's first year. I'm not sure who the second best receiver in the NFL, pretty debatable but I can't think of one who is in the debate who played in a triple option.
April 26th, 2014 at 12:44 PM ^
I'm assuming he means Demaryius Thomas, who has put up good numbers, although I'm not sure that I agree he's one of the top two receivers in the NFL...
April 26th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^
His numbers we're good in college -- he led GT in receiving but sitll lagged behind other receivers in terms of pure numbers. His production could have been much higher. Also doesn't hurt that he's a freak of nature athletically is catching balls from Peyton Manning. Point is if you wanna show off you're skills as a receiver, the triple option probably isn't the best option. If you wanna play with your back to the basket, Beilein's system isn't the best option. There's no harm in saying that -- every system has its strength's and weaknesses. He's not doing anything wrong people are just childish and immature, as if Horford owed them something.
My bad didn't mean to downplay him but they even talk about how the system affected his numbers on his Wiki page. I'm just saying his numbers could have been even higher.
...but that doesn't seem like a good comparison to Horford. Thomas was an elite athlete who didn't need big numbers to be noticed--it was obvious he could run a route and catch a ball and the fact that he did it half as often as he might have somewhere else didn't hurt him all that much. Maybe it even helped him a bit to be in an offense that had such heavy blocking responsibility, as opposed to, say, Indiana or Leach's TT..
A parallel (though I think he's at a higher level) would be if you try to imagine Anthony Davis playing for Beilein. He'd have been great--he's got point guard skills to go with his post game and when he got the ball at the top of the circle, like Michigan's 5 routinely does when the ball's swinging sides after the first set of cuts, he'd be a threat. Nobody'd care that he wasn't getting to use his low-post game, they'd assume a guy that freakishly athletic either had one or could be taught one, and even if he couldn't play with his back to the basket he'd still be a great pro.
That's not Horford. Horford's a middling talent who's going to be off the radar entirely if he doesn't do something to distinguish himself. That something could have been perfecting his screen/roll game and developing some perimeter skills, but maybe after four years it was clear to all that that those skills were never going to come?
April 26th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
April 26th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
Jon was a great teammate and is seemingly a fantastic person. A great basketball specimen, however, he is not. I can't remember watching a guy with worse hands.
April 26th, 2014 at 12:17 PM ^
worn out his welcome.
On the one hand, he was elected captain before last year, but on the other hand, things definitely went sour, and the decision for him to leave was apparently mutual. I can understand his frustration, considering what he thinks he is (I don't, but that's just my opinion), but let's not go overboard with the teammate stuff.
on the mutual part
because unlike Jon, some people would never take shots as someone is walking out the door.
You can take my word for it, or don't, that's up to you, but people who have reason to know have told me this is the case.
Apparently, his unhappiness over how he saw himself and how he saw himself being used or succeeding/not succeeding had become an issue by the second half the season. He looked dour in those pictures not because he's zen or some nonsense, but because he was unhappy.
and mine says it was Jon's call....period. Plus I have the public record on my side.
lol, to support the idea that he just might have been a malcontent.
I know, crazy talk.