By Patrick Hayes

Aaron McGuire at Gothic Ginobili continues his fantastic player evaluations with a look at former Grand Ledge standout Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks:

There are a lot of people who don’t feel Al Horford has deserved his multiple all-star nods. I think that’s pretty absurd. It’s true that Horford’s position has been miscast for virtually his entire career — the man’s a floor-spread power forward who tends to operate from the post when he’s not spotting up to spread the floor, not a bruising center that requires to be in the post at all times. But his miscast role hasn’t stopped him from being brilliantly productive in his minutes. He’s one of the better floor-spacing power forwards in the league, and for his career, he’s shot an incredible 47% from the long midrange. Wondering where that ranks among the league? Consider this. Last season, only eight players in the entire league matched Horford’s career average from that distance.

My obvious bias for players with Michigan ties aside, Horford has long been one of my favorite NBA players. He’s tough, efficient and was often an afterthought on a Hawks team where much more inefficient players had a tendency to dominate the ball. I’m actually really excited to watch the Horford-Josh Smith frontcourt this season without Joe Johnson around chucking.