Horford OK with role as leader as well as C’s pivot

Al Horford smiled at the question. Al Horford smiles a lot.

But this year there is more conviction behind the expression.

The Celtics big man isn’t a bad mood kind of guy. He is a bright individual who is blessed with a healthy measure of perspective. So while he isn’t ready to crown this latest edition of the Shamrock AC, he knows things are different this year. After three weeks of pickup games and the two practices to open training camp yesterday, Horford can see it with his eyes and feel it with the greater certainty that surrounds the C’s.

It isn’t quite night and day from last year at this time — more like early sunrise and noon.

“I think going into last year there was a lot of uncertainty with our group,” the 32-year-old told the Herald, standing between the two courts in the Celts’ new facility and looking none the worse for wear after the double session. “You know, we kind of looked around — Kyrie (Irving), Gordon (Hayward) and I — and there were all these young guys. Like, what’s going to happen here, right? How are we going to be? Is it going to work?”

Horford smiled at the recollection. Then he spoke through a broader grin.

“This year, I feel like, after the type of year that we had last year, we have an identity as a group,” he went on. “We faced some adversity and we had to make adjustments. Now we’re used to each other.

“Obviously now we have to reincorporate Gordon and Kyrie back to what we’re doing, but this year I feel like everybody knows what to expect. We know what our goals are, and there’s not so much tension. I felt like last year there was probably a little of, like, what’s this going to be? We know what it is now.”

He and the Celtics know what relative children Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart can do under pressure. And he knows the value of the veterans that surround them. Last year?

“I knew Tatum was going to be good, but I didn’t know he was going to be that good and that comfortable in pressure situations,” he said. “And he kept improving. That was a really good surprise.”