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http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/basketball/fba/story?page=carpenter091130

Al Jefferson, C, Minnesota Timberwolves: It's no surprise that Jefferson hasn't exploded out of the gate. Literally or figuratively, a fast start is not something you can expect from a guy who is 6-foot-10, 265 pounds and returning from a torn ACL. Just like Rose, though, Jefferson has picked things up of late, posting four double-doubles and thrice scoring 20 points in his past six games. The only thing standing in the way of Jefferson matching last season's stats is staying healthy. However, history says that's not likely to happen for the long run.

Bspn again with the win. 265 lbs?

So they're trying to say he'll never regain full health?

southern wolf wrote:So they're trying to say he'll never regain full health?

I'm pretty sure they are saying that once he regains full health he will get injured again. Which I wouldn't doubt.

well for a guy who never really was that athletic or plays a style that requires a lot of athletisism, I'm not too overly concerned about it becoming a chronic problem. I see it becoming a situation like Shaq where he can only play 60ish games a year. For a player with Jefferson's offensive potential, I think thats within acceptable limits.

jade_hippo wrote:well for a guy who never really was that athletic or plays a style that requires a lot of athletisism, I'm not too overly concerned about it becoming a chronic problem. I see it becoming a situation like Shaq where he can only play 60ish games a year. For a player with Jefferson's offensive potential, I think thats within acceptable limits.

IMO, he should play his 60ish games a year with another team.

wolves don't have enough supporting cast around Jefferson and he is trying to keep the ball moving better than he has in the past. If we had enough shooters to make double team pay, he be getting 20 & 10 plus.

As for health, as someone else said, he relies on smarts not athleticism.

He has only had one major injury, the ACL. Earlier in his career he missed games because he "rolled" ankles. But now he plays through injuries like that. He has also lost the 30 pounds, which should IMPROVE his mobility. Jefferson is now a much tougher and mature player. He was planning to play the next game till they told him about the ACL last season. He was going to play through a major ACL injury. This is NOT the same could who couldn't play through "rolled" ankles.

If Jefferson hadn't gotten injured last season, I think they lose the pick last year to the Clippers. 34 wins would have given the pick to the clippers (unless they got lucky in the lottery) - 10 more wins than they had without Jefferson. They were on track for about 35 wins last year at mid-season last year, if you look at their play in January and they had beaten the "bad" teams and stolen a few from good teams like they did in january.

At the very least, they move down from the 6th pick to closer to 9th or 10th.

Man, the Jefferson hate just keeps growing. When are the trade Jefferson sigs going to sprout up?

Wolves2011 wrote:They were on track for about 35 wins last year at mid-season last year, if you look at their play in January and they had beaten the "bad" teams and stolen a few from good teams like they did in january.

January of 2009 was an anomaly. The Wolves had lost 7 games in a row before Al got hurt.

mwithers wrote:IMO, he should play his 60ish games a year with another team.

Terrible time to talk about trading Al. Let him play a while before rushing to judgment.

Steve_Holiday wrote:

Wolves2011 wrote:They were on track for about 35 wins last year at mid-season last year, if you look at their play in January and they had beaten the "bad" teams and stolen a few from good teams like they did in january.

January of 2009 was an anomaly. The Wolves had lost 7 games in a row before Al got hurt.

mwithers wrote:IMO, he should play his 60ish games a year with another team.

Terrible time to talk about trading Al. Let him play a while before rushing to judgment.

Jefferson was injured in the Feb 8th game vs New Orleans. Their record at that point was 17 wins and 33 losses. Their record in the 23 games up to and including the New Orleans loss when he was injured was 13 wins and 10 losses.

They had lost games to 6 teams in the previous 2 weeks to playoff teams:

Lakers
Celtics
Pistons
Hawks
Rockets
Hornets

they won the game mid-way in that stretch vs Indiana. The wolves were consistently beating below .500 teams and stealing a few from better teams.

They only won 7 of their last 32 games after jefferson was injured. If they had won half of them, they would have won 33 games. That probably would have cost us our pick and at the least moved us down in the draft from 6th to 9th or 10th.

Calinks wrote:Man, the Jefferson hate just keeps growing. When are the trade Jefferson sigs going to sprout up?

Let me explain myself a little. I don't believe they should trade him now but I think that they need to seriously explore it before the deadline. I do not have a problem with him as a player as he is one of the best low post scorers in the game. However, I don't believe that he will ever fit into this system.

Calinks wrote:Man, the Jefferson hate just keeps growing. When are the trade Jefferson sigs going to sprout up?

Now.

Wolves2011 wrote: They only won 7 of their last 32 games after jefferson was injured. If they had won half of them, they would have won 33 games. That probably would have cost us our pick and at the least moved us down in the draft from 6th to 9th or 10th.

I agree. 34 wins was the 10th worst record, 35 wins was 11th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%9309_NBA_season

With Al Jefferson (and Foye and Mike Miller), would the Wolves of January have been able to win half their remaining games?

I think our pick would have been a question mark, and instead of Flynn and Rubio in 2009, we could have still had Miller and Foye, and possibly no pick at all.

shrink wrote:

Wolves2011 wrote: They only won 7 of their last 32 games after jefferson was injured. If they had won half of them, they would have won 33 games. That probably would have cost us our pick and at the least moved us down in the draft from 6th to 9th or 10th.

I agree. 34 wins was the 10th worst record, 35 wins was 11th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%9309_NBA_season

With Al Jefferson (and Foye and Mike Miller), would the Wolves of January have been able to win half their remaining games?

I think our pick would have been a question mark, and instead of Flynn and Rubio in 2009, we could have still had Miller and Foye, and possibly no pick at all.

If we are winning 10 more games, we are probably beating other teams in the top 10 in the draft. [Bottom 10 teams in the league.] So even 33 or 34 wins might have been enough to lose the pick.

At the very least we move down in the draft.

If we moved down to #10 in the draft and assuming Flynn was gone, who would we have take from the guys left 10 and beyond:

Jennings, williams, henderson, hansborough, clark, daye, holliday??

mwithers wrote:

Calinks wrote:Man, the Jefferson hate just keeps growing. When are the trade Jefferson sigs going to sprout up?

Let me explain myself a little. I don't believe they should trade him now but I think that they need to seriously explore it before the deadline. I do not have a problem with him as a player as he is one of the best low post scorers in the game. However, I don't believe that he will ever fit into this system.

I have hard time thinking we should make a major move before the deadline. Our pick this year is going to be a major piece. Let's wait and see who we get, then make a decision on how we build.

ESPN is about as intelligent and informative as CNN or Fox. If you go there and come away with "How could they be so stupid/ignorant..." you only have yourself to blame.

As far as trading Al goes you could see this coming with Love. It'll continue to grow as people will become more infatuated with Al's flaws and Love's "upside".

Worm Guts wrote:

mwithers wrote:

Calinks wrote:Man, the Jefferson hate just keeps growing. When are the trade Jefferson sigs going to sprout up?

Let me explain myself a little. I don't believe they should trade him now but I think that they need to seriously explore it before the deadline. I do not have a problem with him as a player as he is one of the best low post scorers in the game. However, I don't believe that he will ever fit into this system.

I have hard time thinking we should make a major move before the deadline. Our pick this year is going to be a major piece. Let's wait and see who we get, then make a decision on how we build.

I think the major disagreement here is that I am looking at what Jefferson is and always has been and saying that I don't think that there is even a chance that he fits in with this offense. I also don't think that there is any chance that they scrap the offense style because Jefferson doesn't fit. My thoughts are that you shouldn't try to build a house from a cracked foundation with Jefferson being the cracked foundation (that is not intended to be a hit on Jefferson being injured). The sooner that you can replace the cracked foundation without costing you anything the better. And you never know, you may get a better deal and more value by replacing the cracked foundation. Sorry for the extended metaphor.

so you're saying after the season we should move Big Al + stuff for Chris Paul and sign Amar'e or else Haywood/R Brewer? Interesting plan and food for thought

Devilzsidewalk wrote:so you're saying after the season we should move Big Al + stuff for Chris Paul and sign Amar'e or else Haywood/R Brewer? Interesting plan and food for thought

I actually like the core of Flynn/Love/Brewer. I really think that we should use Jefferson to go after Noah. He would fit nicely in this offense next to Love. I also believe that Rudy Gay would fit great on this team and think that this lineup could be more competitive than any lineup we have now:

Flynn
Brewer
Gay
Love
Noah

We don't tear down walls and build new ones in minny. We just grab a bucket of spackle and say "that'll hold, right? That'll be good enough?"