Al Jefferson so far

[Jazzfan Bayamon]

Why is Al's rebounding being blamed almost soley for our rebouning woes?? You all know he IS the leading rebounder on the team right now, right? What about Millsap's (the rebound machine) rebounding. Why is he not thrown under the bus like Al has??

[jazzfan1971]

I can cut him a little slack on rebounding because I would think it's at least partially a product of him working harder on defense. Becoming more out of position as he tries to bother shots. I think when we were at our worst rebounding it was because AK wasn't hitting the boards. You can see he's made a greater effort lately, and I suspect that our rebounding numbers have been better as a result.

I see no excuse for his poor aggression when attacking the rim though. Well, I guess it could be injury related, with him being a little gun-shy. But, it looks to me like he's just not that aggressive attacking the rim and that probably explains his poor FTA/Gm.

Unlike Erudite I think his defense has been pretty good. A few problems there, but, more successes. Loved how he took his defense to Dwight and Kaman. Doing things that Boozer could only dream of.

[UTJazzFan_Echo1]

Why is Al's rebounding being blamed almost soley for our rebouning woes?? You all know he IS the leading rebounder on the team right now, right? What about Millsap's (the rebound machine) rebounding. Why is he not thrown under the bus like Al has??

I for one, do not put all of our rebounding woes squarely on the shoulders of Al. But I think we all expected him to be averaging 10+ rebounds a game....

Millsap and AK deserve just as much of the blame for our rebounding woes as Al but Jefferson is our 7 foot big man center who should be leading the team in rebounding. He just misses a lot of easy rebounds because of his lack of boxing out. Just seems to be pretty passive on the boards, not nasty like Millsap is or even Booze when he was here.

[jazzfan1971]

I think Jefferson is 6'10". At any rate he's not as big as you think. Maybe someone can look up his combine measurements.

[Luigi]

Not sure we're watching the same games. I see him taking plenty of shots and still doesn't pass ENOUGH.

He is shooting a lot. But he's at 14.5 shots per game. His best years he was at 17.6 and 19.5. Plus, I was mostly commenting on his shots in a specific context. When the ball goes into him on the block, he seems hesitant to go to work like his Minnesota days, I think because he's now on a winning team and he doesn't want to mess it up. I expect that to change back to normal with more experience.

[jazzed77]

Damn some of you are rough on Big Al!!! I have been disapointed somewhat with him missing close shots but I'm assuming most of that is injury related as he shot those at a high % in MIN...also as far as rebounds I see him give at least 2-4 RPG to Sap( I mean they both go up and he lets Sap have them)

[Luigi]

I'm fairly happy with Jefferson so far. I think he's going to get better with more experience here, too. But the one thing I'm afraid might not improve is his boxing out. Millsap and Jefferson give up an outrageous amount of offensive rebounds. It doesn't matter how soft their front court is, they are going to get somewhere between three and seven offensive rebs out of the 4 and 5 spots. That has to change, but I'm afraid it won't. Again, I'm loving his blocks and I expect his offense to start banging soon enough. But I really hope he can box out like he should, and soon.

[erudite23]

Why is Al's rebounding being blamed almost soley for our rebouning woes?? You all know he IS the leading rebounder on the team right now, right? What about Millsap's (the rebound machine) rebounding. Why is he not thrown under the bus like Al has??

Millsap deserves his fair share of the blame, too. The difference being, of course, that Paul plays PF and spends his time farther from the rim than Al does. When Paul was piling up the boards, he did far more of his damage on the offensive end than the average big guy. Orebounding emphasizes hustle and athleticism moreso than Drebounding, which emphasizes positioning, size and strength. As Paul's offensive game has moved away from the rim, his ORR has plummeted. Still...he can do a hell of a lot better than he has so far, and it upsets me to no end that now that he's become a starter he thinks he doesn't have to hit the boards with the same ferocity.

Al, on the other hand, has no excuse. The "he's trying harder on defense" stuff is an excuse. Its not like he's blocking or contesting many more shots than he ever used to. He might be working harder to get position, but that usually puts you in better position to get boards. No. He's just not getting boards. He's not fighting to box out, he doesn't have the presence of mind to get himself in the proper place to get boards that are out of his zone, and he isn't hustling. I have watched less of this team than any other Jazz team since the 04-05 team that was a train wreck and damn near unwatchable. And the reason is rebounding. Watching the opposition get offensive rebound after offensive rebound sucks the enthusiasm out of me more than any other thing in basketball. And the worst part is that there's no **** ing excuse. Both Al and Paul are capable of posting 17+ rebounding rates. Throw in a motivated AK, who was once among the best 5 rebounding SFs in this league, and you should have a dominant rebounding team. Instead, we suck. And there's no excuse.

[erudite23]

Here's Al's splits by distance for each of the last four seasons:

Code: Select all

[size=85]Year                          Distance
          At The Rim          >10 ft            10-15 ft        16-23ft
06-07   3.5/5.6 63.0%       2.0/4.1 48.0%     0.5/1.2 38.0%    0.6/1.8  35.0%
07-08   4.2/6.3 67.0%       2.4/5.2 47.0%     1.3/3.4 38.0%    0.9/2.5  34.0%
08-09   4.9/7.7 64.0%       2.1/4.5 46.0%     1.5/3.6 42.0%    1.2/3.6  34.0% 
09-10   3.3/4.7 69.0%       1.8/3.5 50.9%     1.5/4.1 36.9%    0.8/2.4  34.0% 
10-11   2.8/4.6 61.7%       1.8/4.4 41.7%     0.7/2.4 30.2%    1.3/3.0  44.0% [/size] 


As you can tell, Al is shooting basically his career worst around the hoop as well as his close range shots in the paint. In fact, you can extend that all the way out to mid range. But on his long range twos, he' clearly taken a leap up, shooting a very respectable 44% from that range and taking a higher percentage of his shots there than ever before. The good news is that he's demonstrated a much better ability to convert his close-in attempts, posting both of his career highs at the two closest distances last year, even after the ACL injury. The bad news is that he's not getting nearly as many of his attempt close to the hoops as he used to before the injury. However, if he can get back to shooting in the high 60s at the rim and shoot in the mid 40s within 10 feet, I think we might see something a lot closer to the guy that we were expecting. Something along the lines of a 52 or 53% shooter from the field and 56% plus TS. Combine that with his elite ability to limit TOs and you have a really useful interior scorer.

If he can do that AND get back to rebounding the ball like he was once capable of doing, that's an elite big man. But right now he's a loooooooong way off.

[d-will8]

I'm probably willing to cut Al a little more slack than erudite, seeing as I believe that the big guy has definitely shown some promising signs on both ends thus far. I share erudite's belief, however, that Al needs to take a big step (or maybe two or three big steps) if we're going to become an elite team. He needs to become more efficient scoring the ball, which means converting more close-range shots (his previous splits give me hope that he can do that and make me think the people saying his finger's part of the problem aren't just apologists) and getting to the free throw line more (honestly, with how many convincing fakes he throws at people, he shouldn't have too much of a problem with that). He also needs to rebound better (obviously).

So far, Al's been a nice complementary piece who's shown flashes not only of truly understanding the system, but of being able to dominate games in crucial moments for a winning team. If we're going to contend with the big boys, though, those flashes are going to have become a lot more consistent. The very best teams have (at least) two primetime players they can consistently count on in big moments. Right now, we've got one. As much as I love Millsap, I'm not sure he won't hit his head on his ceiling before he gets to that level. I think Al can get there, but it's not going to be easy. Getting Memo back could really help this team move closer to the elite level, but I don't think we can get there without Al becoming the dominant player a lot of us (unrealistically, perhaps) thought he could/would be.

[Paper Face]

Al's bone bruise on the palm of his hand isn't going to last forever, but it will last for most of this season. It is the main reason why he is finishing so weakly at close range. He's literally avoiding dunking because it exacerbates the problem with the bruise.

Anyone who has had this sort of injury knows exactly what I'm talking about. Even catching normal passes of a basketball can irritate the bruise. It's not enough reason to not play, but it's a painful issue that can make you appear weak until it heals.

I think Al has done exactly as expected for his first 25 games in the Jazz system. He'll improve with reps, and he'll improve around the rim as his bruise heals.

[UTJazzFan_Echo1]

I never realized he had a bone bruise on his hand...that changes things a bit. I've had bone bruises before and they can be extremely irritating/painful so I can only imagine how it feels to have one on the palm of your hand while trying to play ball.

[Ern III]

My thoughts on Al Jefferson in the @Hornets thread...

[Jefferson's] touch and athleticism aren't what I thought. Sure, he has an arsenal of moves down low, but it seems he'd rather cop out with the quick jump-hook. His "bunnies" so often result in nothing. Plus, his defense is, at best, spasmodic. I'm convinced he doesn't "think" the game well, which doesn't fit Jerry Sloan basketball. It's becoming evident that he might've had something to do with all of those losing teams in past seasons.

Several previous posts mention a bone bruise. I'm not sure to what extend there is mitigation. If Memo can get back to his optimum efficacy then we'll learn more about what Jefferson can offer, for he'll have truly operable space on the block and a second/third legitimate perimeter outlet. He has to play both ends better, though. Especially if we ship Kirilenko.

[jazzed77]

Really...you're not sure how much the bone bruise is an excuse for Al's shooting woes??? When he's shooting lower than basicly anytime in his career??? Personally I'm positive it's almost entirely to blame. Plus I give him props for playing thru it....honestly I'm kinda wanting to see AK/Al/Okur start with Sap getting the 6th man role....