I'm sorry, but Al Jefferson needs minutes

[Pacersike]

This Turner-Sabonis-Jefferson rotation reminds me too much of George Hill-Monta Ellis and Sabonis-Kanter-Adams.

Neither Ellis or Jefferson could/can do much off ball so Hill and Sabonis have to take care of that but Sabonis plays better when he is often involved. The last one not similar to Hill though.

Sabonis loses his quickness advantage when playing at the 4, but Turner at the 5 still has it to set screens and Jefferson is a ballhog, so again, you are using Sabonis the wrong way as the Thunder were using him. Adams is such a great screen setter (and not much else) and Kanter is pretty great too with both having no 3 point range, Sabonis had to do things he not very good at.

That, my friends, is why KP was looking to add another smallball 4 in place of big Al.

As emergency center when either Sabonis or Turner can't play, great, but I'm glad if big Al goes back to the bench after the ASB.

[boomershadow]

I actually thought the Jefferson/Sabonis lineup was a neat look. They had some cool high/low action going on at times. And if it gets the team used to the idea that Sabonis can play the four next to another center in Turner, I am all for it.

Though I have to admit, I'm only embracing this small ball era of the NBA because it's looking like I don't have any choice. It doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, and that's fine, but I grew up watching NBA with two traditional Big's and there is something about that just looks right to me still.

[Jake0890]

Al Jeff had a FILTHY pump fake on Jarrett Allen, he looked good today. 13 points in 8 minutes. He showed up.

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[Pacers_Freak]

Al played great on the offensive end. Nate had to pull him quickly in the 2nd half because D Russell was abusing him in the P&R. It is really when Nets made their big run.

[Pacersike]

Big Al almost didn't miss in 8 minutes of playing time and still managed to give Brooklyn 5 more points when he was on the court, that gives you an idea of how much value his blackhole offense and weak defense really have.

If he had missed more shots and had the same -5 +/- that would actually mean his overall game would have been more useful to the Pacers. The game is about scoring points and stopping the opponent to score points.

Al Jefferson had a weak game. He hit his shots, but he kills ball movement and is a weak defender. He was a negative for the team.
He makes it harder for his teammates to score points and play good defense.

13 points on 6 of 7 those are just 3 numbers, but the context in which they appear matters just as much and for Big Al Jefferson, that has been a negative for his entire career. Playoffs series won: 0

[Wizop]

Big Al almost didn't miss in 8 minutes of playing time and still managed to give Brooklyn 5 more points when he was on the court, that gives you an idea of how much value his blackhole offense and weak defense really have.

I didn't see the game. we were at Assembly Hall watching the Hoosiers. it looks like the whole 2nd unit was minus and Victor and Sabonis too. is it fair to single out any one second unit player as the entire problem?

[winter_mute_13]

Al Jeff is still a post up maestro and he's been making a lot of young bigs look foolish the past few games. The trouble of course is that he's never been a good defender and is pretty useless on that end now. Still, it shows that the Pacers still value having a post up option.

KP hinted at that too during his press conference, when he pointed out that Myles needed to get stronger to post guys up. At some point in the future, Al won't be around anymore and Myles will have gotten stronger and more aware defensively, and at that point all that time Sabonis spent at the PF position will pay off