Walking into the Warriors’ locker room at Chase Center, looking directly to the left and seeing an emptiness to spaces Klay Thompson used to occupy was an unfillable void left behind by a legend last season.
Kevon Looney isn’t headed for the Basketball Hall of Fame like Thompson. His locker room presence will be just as missed, or more, when turning to the right and seeing somebody else in that first spot that served as an invitation to laughs and real wisdom for teammates and media members alike.
“Loon is everything I talked about in terms of committing to the team and sacrifice and getting through adversity,” Coach Steve Kerr said more than four months ago after the Warriors’ 2024-25 NBA season ended. “He is in many ways our moral compass in that regard.”
The Boston Celtics will find themselves in a similar situation for the 2025-26 season. They’re already in a gap year knowing star forward Jayson Tatum is out for the season after tearing his Achilles in the second round of the NBA playoffs, deciding to make multiple trades and shed money over the offseason. Boston still will have a second star in Jaylen Brown to lean on, as well as Derrick White, Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard and a handful of other talented players.
Who they won’t have is Al Horford, missing both his play and veteran leadership on and off the court.
Brown will do his best replacing the talents of Tatum. Horford will be a different kind of absence, especially emotionally.
“You can’t replace Al,” Pritchard said the day after the Celtics’ season ended. “I definitely hope we get that figured out because his locker room presence alone is just crucial. We definitely need him back.”
Horford isn’t coming back to Boston, he’s finally coming to the Bay Area to join the Warriors. Golden State and Horford, according to the center’s agent Jason Glushon, have committed to a multi-year contract.
Horford, 39 years old, in his own ways will have influence over the few young players on the Warriors, most notably for 25-year-old centers Quinten Post and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Plus, any help at center is a win for Draymond Green and his health for a full season. Horford also bring something the Warriors have never had at his position.
Through Horford’s first eight NBA seasons, he attempted a total of 65 threes, making 21 for a 32.3 3-point percentage. Everything changed for him the next year in the 2015-16 season, the same season that Steph Curry won his second consecutive NBA MVP while making a record 402 threes – taking 886 shots from beyond the arc.
That also was the season Horford took nearly four times as many threes as he had his first eight years in the NBA. Horford went from a total of 65 3-point attempts for his career to making 88 and taking 256 in one season. He now has made the fourth-most threes (877) by a center in NBA history, behind only Karl-Anthony Towns, Brook Lopez and Nikola Vučević, in that order. Horford has made at least 100 threes in each of the last three seasons while connecting on 40.9 percent of them.
This past season he only played 60 games, a career low for a full season, yet still made his second-most threes (114) and also attempted his second most (314).
Post was an afterthought for the Warriors last season as a rookie until late January. It didn’t take long to notice what a change his ability to stretch the floor as a center made for the Warriors. Post played 42 regular-season games and went 73 of 179 (40.8 percent) on threes. His prowess from deep as a center was a revelation in the Curry era.
The 73 threes Post made were the second-most ever by a center to play with Curry, one behind Dario Šarić’s 74 two seasons ago in 64 games. Aside from them, we’re talking about Nemanja Bjelica making 54 threes in the Warriors’ 2021-22 NBA championship season, Omari Spellman making 43 in their 15-win 2019-20 season when Curry only played five games, DeMarcus Cousins making 26 in 2018-19 and Marreese Speights draining 24 in 2015-16.
Just like in Boston last season, Horford likely won’t play both games of a back-to-back for Golden State, putting more of an emphasis on needed leaps from Post and Jackson-Davis. Horford isn’t the same lockdown defender he once was, but still can be highly effective on that end. He isn’t going to erase the legacy Looney created over his decade as a Warrior.
Between Kerr and Horford’s new Warriors teammates, that won’t be asked of him. They’ve seen and heard what kind of leader Horford is and won’t want him to change a thing. The Warriors also know what Horford still brings to the hardwood and the history he has against them.
In the 25 regular-season games Horford has played against the Warriors, he has averaged 14.9 points and 9.4 rebounds, both being career bests of his vs. any team.
Horford, even at his age, is the player the Warriors had to add this offseason as much as anybody else.
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