Getty Al Horford of the Boston Celtics.
Al Horford will start the 2022-23 season at 36 years old. As Horford approaches his fifth season with the Boston Celtics and 15th in the NBA, the Celtics will try to conserve him as much as possible. Back on July 7, 2022, Jared Weiss of The Athletic revealed that the Celtics plan to rest Horford a lot more compared to last season when bringing up their lack of frontcourt pieces.
“They will certainly need center depth, as Al Horford is expected to sit out most back-to-backs and have his minutes limited even further next season, according to team sources,” Weiss said.
While Weiss did not go into many more specifics regarding what Horford’s new minutes’ restriction will look like, the Celtics’ schedule for the 2022-23 season was released, thus giving fans their first look at games in which Horford could be sitting out.
The Celtics have 13 back-to-backs in total this coming season. Weiss’ specific words back in July said that he would sit out for “most” of the back-to-backs, not all. While that doesn’t specify a number in mind, the word “most” would insinuate that Horford will miss more than half of Boston’s back-to-backs this season.
Weiss also made it clear that Horford would play even fewer minutes on average than he did during the 2021-22 season. That, coupled with him being more likely to rest than play on back-to-backs, indicates that Boston wants Horford to be fresh for when they need him most.
It makes sense why Boston is going this route. Even while in his mid-30s, Horford played an important role in how they made it back to the NBA Finals. In the 23 playoff games Horford played during the 2022 NBA Playoffs, he averaged 12 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.3 blocks while shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 48 percent from three.
The Celtics understandably want that same player to be back for their next playoff run but know they have to be cautious with Horford as he approaches his mid-30s.
Horford’s not the only one Boston will be cautious of this season.
Malcolm Brogdon Will Be ‘Load Managed’
On August 15, Weiss revealed that new addition Malcolm Brogdon will also be handled delicately by the Celtics alongside Horford during the 2022-23 season. That entails resting on back-to-backs.
“There are several players projected to get significant rest throughout the regular season, particularly with Al Horford and Malcolm Brogdon expected to load manage on plenty of back-to-backs,” Weiss said.
While Horford is expected to be rested more because of his age, Brogdon will be rested because of his injury history. In the last three seasons, Brogdon has played 54, 56, and 36 games due to recurring injuries. Much like Horford, the Celtics plan to handle him with care because they want him for when the stakes are at their highest. Although no one knows if they plan to rest him more or less than they will with Horford.
The newly-revealed schedules for every NBA team may have potentially revealed even more about how the Celtics will approach resting their players this season.
An Intriguing NBA Schedule Statistic
After the schedules for every single NBA team were released, Ed Küpfer revealed via his Twitter account how many games each team will have when they have more rest going into their matchups than their opponent when they face off. The Celtics are among the teams with the fewest.
That is a stark contrast to their 2022 NBA Finals opponent, the Golden State Warriors, who are among the teams that have the most regarding this particular statistic.
This could potentially reveal more about how the Celtics will handle Horford and Brogdon accordingly. Since they will have fewer games in which they’ll have more rest than their opponent, that may inspire them to rest Horford and Brogdon more.