For the Atlanta Hawks, Al Horford is the rock – the foundational piece and culture-setter.
Back in October, at the start of a timeout of an early preseason game, Horford took a young player to the side to gently instruct about one of the finer points of the team's scheme.
"I was just helping him and pointing something out to him, and just trying to help him be better," Horford said at the time. "Everybody on our team does that. Everybody takes up on that role, whether it's Thabo (Sefolosha) or Paul (Millsap) or (someone else).