The Utah Jazz' play by play guy David Locke, who is a major stat nerd, watched every single pick and roll that was run for Jefferson last year and broke down his effectiveness in such situations. It can be found here
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... utput=html
He's a much better pick and roll player than given credit for.
Additional analysis can be found here
http://www.nba.com/jazz/features/locked_on_jazz.html
7/14 12:00 pm — Al Jefferson in the pick and roll - A Breakdown
Al Jefferson took part in 87 pick and rolls this last season as the roll man, according to Synergy Sports. Today I watched all of them and broke down his efficiency in pick and roll situations.
Last season the Timberwolves starting running the Triangle offense under Head Coach Kurt Rambis. This eliminated most of the pick and roll from the offense.
The Jazz don’t run the pick and roll nearly as much as people believe. However, I was pleased to see that Al Jefferson is a very effective pick and roll player. In many ways, better than I anticipated.
This is the chart breaking down all of the possessions
Summary
Overall, Jefferson is far better in the pick and roll than I anticipated. The pocket pass that Deron has thrown to Boozer is going to be filthy and unstoppable when they learn each other. Jefferson plays the pick and roll differently than Boozer, he rolls to the basket much more. He is unstoppable (see the numbers literally unstoppable) at the rim. He has an array of moves and he does two things I didn’t realize. He has a better straight up jumper and a decent drive game off a ball fake.
Specific Observations
-Jefferson was much better after the new year. He tore his ACL in Feb of 2009 and after Feb 1 or even Jan 1 of 2010 he was a noticeably more active player.
-He is amazing near the rim. When he catches going to the basket he is nifty with his footwork and is able to get a shooting window. Post Jan 1 he got the ball at the rim 22 times, he was 10 of 10 shooting, fouled 7 times and had 5 turnovers. Prior to Jan 1 he was 3 of 7 shooting and only fouled once.
-Take note of the above after Jan 1 he never missed a shot when on the pick and roll he got to the rim.
-His jumper is also much better than I thought it was. When he popped on the pick and roll and got his feet set he was a decent shooter. I didn’t anticipate that. Overall he was just 12 of 28 on his jumper but again post Jan 1 he was 6 of 13 on the jumper and prior to Jan 1 he was 6 of 15. More specifically, post Dec 10 he was 8 of 17 shooting and prior to that he was 4 of 11.
-He is a post player. Other than the game against Orlando and Dwight Howard he was never bothered by any size.
-A lot of this evaluation is hard to do because the Minnesota point guards are terrible. He never gets the ball in the shooting pocket, he rarely got the ball at the right moment and he often was reaching for the pass. Ohh how his world is about to change.
-He is a terrific target in the paint due to his size.
-He rolls 62% to the rim 63% of the time on the pick and roll. This is a significant change from what Carlos Boozer has done. Boozer popped out for the jumper more often than not. This will change how the floor looks for the Utah Jazz. Jefferson will roll to the basket and with Deron’s vision and great ball movers like AK and Hayward guys are going to get really good looks even when Jefferson doesn’t get the ball.
-The 38% of the time he pops out on the pick and roll he really just flairs or moves toward the basket but stops in an open space. He and Deron will have to get an understanding of this because he will need to pop or flair sometimes so Deron has room to penetrate. His success rate on pick and pops was 47% for the season and if you don’t count the first month of the season when he was adjusting to the new offense and recovering from his ACL it was 55% which is very high.
-Jefferson has a fabulous ball fake. He uses it around the rim to get space for a shooting pocket. He also uses it at 15 feet to get a defender off balance and drive by him. I didn’t know he had this as part of his game.
-He has a nifty little floater in the lane when he is rolling on the pick and roll and is in traffic, he hit 6 of 10 during the season
-He does have a little travelling issue under the rim, 5 times during the season is not a lot and having a point guard that gives the ball in the right spot will help.
Jazz fans should be extremely excited about this upcoming season. I think that despite what others here are saying, Jefferson is going to be an upgrade over what we had in Boozer.
