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First the negative.

Al Jefferson isnt' the force I thought he would be. It's pretty clear to me now that Boozer was the better fit for the Jazz. Boozer was a vastly better rebounder and much better pick and roll player and probably even a better defender. Although if he's better it's probably not enough of a difference to matter.

However, Jefferson can do a couple of things better. He can create his own shot in the post. And he can block the shot of his man on occasion. He's a little longer and not AS injury prone. I still think Jefferson has the potential to be better, but, he's going to have to work diligently to get there.

Things to work on:
- Attacking the rim. I've seen Jefferson get the ball delivered to him on several occasions where he's 5-6 feet from the rim with absolutely nobody inbetween him and the basket. On each occasion he's opted to shoot an open 5 foot shot instead of taking one bounce and throwing down a dunk, possibly getting an And One in the process. I'm not sure why he's so timid in attacking the rim, perhaps he doesn't trust his knee yet.
- Boxing out. This might be something he never improves on, sadly. But, we are giving up way too many offensive rebounds so far this season and one reason is that Jefferson is doing a poor job of boxing out.
- Mastering the slip move. For me the slip move was Boozer's bread and butter play. He used it to terrific effect. Boozer and Williams had a nice bit of teamwork there. Jefferson really needs to put some time into trying to duplicate Boozer in this.

Now the positive.

CJ Miles has arrived. I think a large part of the reason we've continued to win games at a good pace, despite the downgrade to Jefferson, is the emergence of Miles.

Miles has always been on my stink list. I've never liked his play. He is usually out of position, taking shots out of the offense, and playing defense with his hands. And just overall unintelligent play.

This year, he's still showing some of that. He's not an altogether different player after all. But, he's improved a bit. He is not nearly as often out of position, probably his largest improvement. He still relies far too much on his hands for defense and his shot selection is well... my next point.

CJ has become a top shelf scorer.

He's really put it all together this year. His long bomb is falling. He's driving the paint. His step back jumper looks money. He's got the length, the athleticism, and the lack of conscious to be a major scorer in the league. Right now he's firepower off the bench, and that's probably the ideal situation for him. But, I have no doubt he could be a 20pt scorer on a bad team. Not a difference maker, but a volume scorer.

He now has a NBA skill. Scoring the rock. Creating his own shot.

I can't remember the last player we had in that mold. I don't think we've had one in the last 20 years at a minimum. Well, unless you want to count Williams. But, that's not quite the same.

Props to CJ, the coaching staff, and all you fans who stuck with him through all the learning process. It's finally paying dividends.

What games are you watching, 71?

CJ is shooting 38% from the field and 28% from three. His chucking last night down the stretch was a big negative for us, despite hitting one amazing high-degree-of-difficulty runner.

I'm watching all the games really. He had one really stinky game. 1-11 or something. I think that single game is why the stats are so bad. But, I'm looking at the degree of dificulty in the shots he's been making. He's been bailing the Jazz out of countless bad situations.

He's a volume scorer, not an efficient one. That's true. He's going to have his bad nights. But, he can score with a man on him. He can make the difficult shot.

If you take out his worst game (which I see no real reason to, since it's indicative of his tendencies), he's shooting 41% from the field and 31% from 3. Both of those numbers are lower than last season's. He's averaging .8 more PPG. Not exactly "he's arrived" material, in my opinion.

This is the same CJ I'm used to. Flashes of brilliance, can hit some big shots, but keeps chucking up crap at the rim day after day. He's the kind of guy who, if he banks in a three by accident, thinks he's on fire and starts tossing heat-checks.

I don't hate CJ, but I think it's inaccurate to say he's somehow put it all together this season. Hope that changes.

Millsap has made the biggest leap for this team this season.

CJ has not impressed me.

The thing with Al IMO is that, among other things stated, he is REALLY anxious to please everybody. I recall when Korver first arrived, he was supposed to be a 3pt specialist, but couldn't hit anything especially at home. He was rushing shots, sometimes overthinking plays, etc. Ring a Bell? I think that has a lot to do with Big Al. He was brought here to be a 20-10 (he himself I believe expects that from him) type player and he is really feeling the burden of those expectations.

I like that he works his ass off on both sides and isn't lazy, that's all you can expect. Oh, and on last night's game, he got shafted by the officials at the end of the game. Should have shot at least 8 FTs but what can you do?

Ya I disagree with you about CJ....he is the same, if not worse than he was last season. He still can't attack the rim effectively, post up and his jumper is very inconsistent to top everything off. He seems like more of a black hole this year than he had in the past couple seasons too. His defense hasn't improved at all, he still reaches in on every stinking play and gets a lot of stupid fouls because of it. I haven't liked his game since the start of the season and I don't know how much longer I can keep waiting for him to breakout. I have him as one of my most disappointing players of the season thus far.

Jefferson....is frustrating me but I still have faith in him. I believe he is trying to think his way through the game too much and that is affecting his shooting. Once the offense starts to click in his head and he can stop thinking so much and just play he will be a monster. He may not fully come into his own this season which will be frustrating but I fully expect him to be one of our center pieces heading into the future. I believe once he starts clicking everything in his game will begin to flow like we expected...which includes defense and rebounding. He does need to box out better though...

I totally agree with the Korver comparison above to Jefferson, that is a perfect example of what is going on with him.

Hmmm, I guess I see CJ differently. But, I can see Im in the vast minority.

1971,

I am with you are CJ. He has arrived as a NBA role player. Now he needs to improve his percentages. He is carrying the half court offense when Deron, Millsap and Jefferson are out of the game. Now he is still improving and needs to continue. But this was an important step forward.

Offensively he can take people to the hoop and his the floater and stepback jumper. His 3pt shot is still inconsistent.

C.J. has arrived.... His head just hasn't yet. Kid has absolutely zero clue when it comes to shot selection. To CJ if the ball is in his hands, its a good shot. Like chucking up a contested 3 from 3 feet behind the arc with 13 seconds left on the shot clock. beginning to think CJ is what he is and won't ever come around mentally.

Ok, Jazz thoughts...Does anybody think Jefferson would be any better playing power forward? Two scrub centers in a row have had career nights on us. I think all of the talk we heard that he is not a center is true. From what I've seen Memo is a better center.

I hate Al's pump fake. Its really good, but he does not look to draw contact when his man in up in the air and he uses it way too much. I've even seen him use it when swiched with a small.

I'm still waiting for CJ. If he is really a low efficient high volume scorer, is he the right fit for this team?

I know Memo is a bit of a question mark. but if he comes back healthy. i think this team will have a real dilemma on their hands with who to start and who to bench.

C.J.'s percentages have been very disappointing so far and he definitely takes some dumb shots, but here's one thing we should remember: he's a streak shooter. Right now, he's not exactly hitting threes at a high percentage In fact, I think he's something like 2 of his last 17 and 3 of his last 26. That being said, if his history's any indication, he's probably not going to continue to shoot like that. He'll probably hit a hot streak at some point (hopefully fairly soon) and his percentages will skyrocket.

He's still not going to be a hyper-efficient guy, but, honestly, if he was even hitting threes at 35%, he'd be having a pretty good (not great, but pretty good) season. I think he'll get there and, when he does, he'll be a pretty dangerous bench scorer. Personally, I've been fairly impressed by the way he's been attacking the basket, keeping the offense afloat and hitting tough runners and turnaround J''s. He's definitely a frustrating, inconsistent player and it may simply be unrealistic to expect him to develop enough consistency to be a core guy, but the same can be said of J.R. Smith, and he's an electrifying sixth man. C.J. may not be nearly as athletic or explosive, but I think he's shown all of the abilities to be an excellent bench scorer as well.

Biggest disappointment has to be Al, seems like a real likable guy, but the player he has shown so far is not the player we thought he was. He is learning a new complex system, which is very valid, but I agree with the OP, his rebounding has been disappointing. I guess its apparent how good of a rebounder Boozer was. Also, I am hoping his inability to catch the ball in traffic is attributed to his unfamiliarity with the players.

Similarly, Millsap has been a very nice surprise. So far, looks like a player that can be a go to guy for a team. Thought he would be overshadowed by Al, when really Al is being forgotten.

As for CJ, I agree with OP to a degree. CJ is one of the most important players on our team, when he is playing well, he adds a different dimension to this team. When he disappears, it really hurts the team.

I have been impressed with CJ. He's extremely streaky, but other than a few games, he seems to come out in the second half and play really well. I think he still has some progression to do, but he's showing more to me than he ever has before. He really is being asked to be a huge player for this team and he's at least trying to meet the challenge.

As for Al, while it's been a slow start for him, he's still giving us 16.3/8.6 right now. Those are EXACTLY the same numbers Boozer gave us in his second year. Also, does anyone remember how terrible Okur was his first year here?

It will take a while for these big's to adapt to each other, and when Okur backs that should help quite a bit as well.

Don't panic, we're 11 games into the season, we'll be fine.

I think the time to judge Jefferson's impact is not there yet. We have to revisit this issue somewhere about 30 games into the season. At this point he's shown some lights and some shadows. If he can box out and score the easy ones he's been erring, then he will be a force.
What I do know now is the same I knew before: Boozer was not the guy to take us to a championship.

Also, getting extremely PO'd that we didn't match Matthews.

jazzfan1971 wrote:Also, getting extremely PO'd that we didn't match Matthews.

And 1.

Jefferson has been disapointing, but what has Boozer done this year nothing because injury prone Boozer injured again. Team chemistry seems better with Jefferson as well. So we are better off with Jefferson than Boozer. The issue as the trading deadline approaches is what to do with Memo and Ak-47.

It seems clear to be that we need AK-47 and he cant be traded.

It seems clear as well that Memos outside shooting would also be helpful but whose min does he take away? I like Fess getting minutes. So maybe we should trade Memo away for a wing player that can help us now such as

Memo for Prince to help out our bench or an outside shooter should he become available near the deadline. I think we should look to trade Memo.