Big Al's Paint: The Al Jefferson Thread

[Logander]

I spent the last 30 mins looking at other teams forums we've become more of the laughing stock of the NBA than before, if that was even possible, which I guess is because it just happened. Thanks MJ and co!

[Ozymandias]

People are going to laugh at anything the Bobcats do. We could draft Wiggins and people would say he's set up for failure on that terrible Bobcats team. That's just how it's going to be until we start winning games.

That's why I'm beginning to warm up to this move. The front office is convinced to put a better product on the floor. Again, a team this young with 3 of our key players not even at legal drinking age yet has plenty of room to grow. If we even come close to being "middle of the pack" this season, how can someone honestly say we will still be middle of the pack 3-4 years from now?

[Logander]

People are going to laugh at anything the Bobcats do. We could draft Wiggins and people would say he's set up for failure on that terrible Bobcats team. That's just how it's going to be until we start winning games.

That's why I'm beginning to warm up to this move. The front office is convinced to put a better product on the floor. Again, a team this young with 3 of our key players not even at legal drinking age yet has plenty of room to grow. If we even come close to being "middle of the pack" this season, how can someone honestly say we will still be middle of the pack 3-4 years from now?

It's just scary to think about, Bobcats can't afford to have that happen again. Also we've been in a 3 year rebuild and it was kind of imperative we get a good draft pick this year especially, considering the depth and the talent in it. I've just been thinking for the last two years about what next years draft could bring and it sucks that we kind of got out of a tanking phase at the worse possible time. But regardless I still am excited to watch the summer league and the next season. Should make for an interesting year that's for sure.

[vorbis]

I spent the last 30 mins looking at other teams forums we've become more of the laughing stock of the NBA than before, if that was even possible, which I guess is because it just happened. Thanks MJ and co!

if the bobcats were to listen to what other fanbases think they should do, it would be tank, tank, draft the wrong player, sign nobody of note in free agency, shrug our shoulders and laugh at every insult to jordan/the franchise, and politely take a backseat in any competitive endeavor.

[Logander]

I spent the last 30 mins looking at other teams forums we've become more of the laughing stock of the NBA than before, if that was even possible, which I guess is because it just happened. Thanks MJ and co!

if the bobcats were to listen to what other fanbases think they should do, it would be tank, tank, draft the wrong player, sign nobody of note in free agency, shrug our shoulders and laugh at every insult to jordan/the franchise, and politely take a backseat in any competitive endeavor.

True. Good thing I've been a Bobcats fan for so long I've become immune to it by now. Its still silly to look at though.

[Bassman]

National correspondents as well as locals seem puzzled by the move, but that is no surprise. They bemoan Charlotte's pathetic front line but pan the selection of Zeller (instead of talking about his potential to be a game-changing stretch 4 with his combination of height, athleticism and skills). Now they are puzzled by our landing the 4th best free agent this summer in Jefferson to help that pathetic front line.

Al gives us a legit scoring post player; a center who is productive and rebounds, even blocks shots occasionally. He is no defensive stud for sure, but we can rotate players throughout the game to help mix up the D. Al also will help us become multi-dimensional on offense. I hope his presence (along with Zeller) help the young hyphen to really improve his game this year. If MKG can become the guy so many of you here think he can be, we are just one great SG from being a contender in the future.

[MPM]

Welcome Big Al!

The media douchebags are so predictable - Ben Golliver's lazy analysis on SI is pathetic. If Dwight Howard signed with the Bobcats, they'd blast Jordan for mortgaging the future of the franchise on a problematic personality with a wonky back. Think about it - tank aside, CLT just signed a top 5 free agent. WTF? Big Al brings a legitimacy to the team that we've never had, allows us to better compete for FA's, will reinforce to our existing players that CLT is serious (I'm thinking specifically about Kemba and his future with the team), and will be a major stabilizing force in the locker room.

Kemba/Sessions
Hendo/BG
MKG/Taylor
Zeller/McBob
Al Jeff/Biz

I figure Zeller/Big Al/Biz are all interchangeable depending on the matchups and Biz can help cover some of the other two's defensive liabilities.

IF Hendo's 3 shows up this year that is a talented starting 5 that should be exciting to watch with several years to grow - hopefully only translates to 25-30 wins this year which still nets us a top 10 pick, with playoffs within sight for the Hornets in 14-15. Have to say that I'm more excited to watch this team play than any other previous Bobcats squad. Although our 44 win team produced, I gotta admit that I had a hard time watching that team outside of Crash. Heck, we may even see Ben Gordon produce with a legit low post scorer - imagine the trade bait he becomes on that massive expiring if he starts to produce consistently?

[Nanogeek]

Had we cooled our heels we could have taken back Biedrins and Jefferson from the Warriors and gotten Barnes or Thompson (preferably Thompson) as compensation. Cavs would have taken Bogut on a one year rental for little additional compensation.

Then the Bobcats would have had:
PG Kemba
SG Thompson
SF MKG
PF Zeller
C Biyombo

AND mega cap space in 2014.

[BobsBuddy]

The more I think about how Al fits our Rotation the more I like this decision by the CatBees.

I think Dwight wants to go to GSW,but the best move for his career is Houston. After signing Al and if Henderson accepts,Bonnell says we are at 46 mil with a 58 cap. I think our money is better spent not adding any player GSW would offer on 3 way unless we sign and trade Hendo for Thompson and Jefferson and stay under the cap.(Jefferson is UFA next year).

We are better off to stand pat and sign Hendo, McBob and maybe Troy Daniels. Fill out roster with Adrien andor other Dleaguer.

KW Ses FA Swing man or Dleague
Hendo,Gordy, Daniels
MKG JT
Z-man,McBob Adrien
Al,Biz Hay

[_tijo_]

There is a 0% chance GS trades us Klay for taking their contracts. That's a pipe dream that is so homer that it makes me embarrassed.

Some posters make me really mad. You complain how Al Jeff took up all our cap space and sucks and isn't worth the money, but then you pan how we lost out on Wiggins in 2014. Which one is it? He improves us to be "good" (oh no!) but he sucks and kills our cap.

Can't please anyone. Cho, keep on doing what you are doing and don't listen to us. Makes me want to stop reading realgm.

[BeesWax]

There is a 0% chance GS trades us Klay for taking their contracts. That's a pipe dream that is so homer that it makes me embarrassed.

Some posters make me really mad. You complain how Al Jeff took up all our cap space and sucks and isn't worth the money, but then you pan how we lost out on Wiggins in 2014. Which one is it? He improves us to be "good" (oh no!) but he sucks and kills our cap.

Can't please anyone. Cho, keep on doing what you are doing and don't listen to us. Makes me want to stop reading realgm.

He improves us enough to make us a bad spot lottery team but not enough to make us a real winner. He may sneak us into getting swept as the 8th seed again. I was a poor signing brought on by whiny fans who don't understand how to build a team and just wanted something to happen.

[Liver_Pooty]

There is a 0% chance GS trades us Klay for taking their contracts. That's a pipe dream that is so homer that it makes me embarrassed.

Some posters make me really mad. You complain how Al Jeff took up all our cap space and sucks and isn't worth the money, but then you pan how we lost out on Wiggins in 2014. Which one is it? He improves us to be "good" (oh no!) but he sucks and kills our cap.

Can't please anyone. Cho, keep on doing what you are doing and don't listen to us. Makes me want to stop reading realgm.

He improves us enough to make us a bad spot lottery team but not enough to make us a real winner. He may sneak us into getting swept as the 8th seed again. I was a poor signing brought on by whiny fans who don't understand how to build a team and just wanted something to happen.

You've said the same thing literally 25 times.

[JDuaneWayne]

There is a 0% chance GS trades us Klay for taking their contracts. That's a pipe dream that is so homer that it makes me embarrassed.

Some posters make me really mad. You complain how Al Jeff took up all our cap space and sucks and isn't worth the money, but then you pan how we lost out on Wiggins in 2014. Which one is it? He improves us to be "good" (oh no!) but he sucks and kills our cap.

Can't please anyone. Cho, keep on doing what you are doing and don't listen to us. Makes me want to stop reading realgm.

He improves us enough to make us a bad spot lottery team but not enough to make us a real winner. He may sneak us into getting swept as the 8th seed again. I was a poor signing brought on by whiny fans who don't understand how to build a team and just wanted something to happen.

You've said the same thing literally 25 times.

On a positive note it got him off his Zeller rant where he posted the same thing 50 times. Put on your big boy pants and deal with it. There is a reason we all aren't NBA GMs and to be fair there are only a handful of successful GMs in the league. Let it play out. IMO opinion this collective group hasn't made a bad move yet.

[CallMeKahn]

Jazz fan here.

Frankly, I love this signing for you guys for a few reasons. For what it's worth, he should be able to help on offense by providing a good low post threat who's efficient at his job (career 50% FG%, PPS above 1) and he'll board for you as well. He will open up things for your shooters, which will only help your overall offense. His defense is suspect, as you know, but most of this is a motivational thing. That said, he'll give you a block and a steal per game.

What isn't talked about his locker room presence. The be succinct, he's a guy you want. Our young bigs, Canter and Favors, absolutely RAVED about learning under Jefferson. In that regard, this signing I think was partially for Zeller's benefit. Dude is not a drama queen (like, say...Howard). Hard to really not like the guy as a human being.

He won't be the main option on a championship team and he won't be the type to win the game in the clutch, but he's a reliable second option and is consistent with his scoring. Get him to play some defense like he did earlier in his career and you maybe have a steal. As it stands, this is a good signing for you. Good luck guys.

[JDuaneWayne]

Jazz fan here.

Frankly, I love this signing for you guys for a few reasons. For what it's worth, he should be able to help on offense by providing a good low post threat who's efficient at his job (career 50% FG%, PPS above 1) and he'll board for you as well. He will open up things for your shooters, which will only help your overall offense. His defense is suspect, as you know, but most of this is a motivational thing. That said, he'll give you a block and a steal per game.

What isn't talked about his locker room presence. The be succinct, he's a guy you want. Our young bigs, Canter and Favors, absolutely RAVED about learning under Jefferson. In that regard, this signing I think was partially for Zeller's benefit. Dude is not a drama queen (like, say...Howard). Hard to really not like the guy as a human being.

He won't be the main option on a championship team and he won't be the type to win the game in the clutch, but he's a reliable second option and is consistent with his scoring. Get him to play some defense like he did earlier in his career and you maybe have a steal. As it stands, this is a good signing for you. Good luck guys.

Thank you very much for the insight. Everyone here is on the ledge. A few of us are very happy with the signing for reasons that you stated.

[MasterIchiro]

I'm a huge fan of this signing. I'm sick of getting blown out by 20-30 points. I can't stand losing as it is but if all this move does is close the gap in losses then I'm happy. We might not add more than 5 wins but games will be closer and this young core needs to at least know what it feels like to have a chance to win games. Kemba, MKG and company worked hard out there last year and there were some games where they would have been better off just tearing off their jerseys and heading for the locker room because the game was over before it started. That's no way to build a winning culture. It's a way to crush a young man's spirit.

Al Jefferson will do more to keep the youth movement motivated and engaged, adding more close games but not necessarily outright wins that pull us out of a deep draft.

If we sign Mayo though it's a whole different ball game. With Mayo I think we're the 6th seed.

Kemba is a wild card. Give him an inside threat and an outside threat. He is an upset/underdog guru to his very core. UConn knows all to well. If anyone thinks he's even close to his ceiling, you're in for a big surprise in 2013-2-14 and a potential shocker if you give him Mayo in the back court as well.

[Benjamin Linus]

I've had mixed feelings about the signing. For a while now, I've been pro-tank. As in - I want to be the worst team in 2014 to guarantee a top four pick. As in - let's draft Noel and let Henderson walk.

But I actually felt pretty good when we signed Al Jefferson. I've always been a big fan of his and I've been wanting an offensive big for years. And I still can't get over the fact that we just signed a really good free agent. I never thought that would happen, even if we had a good team. And I don't think his contract is all that bad.

The ideal scenario would be - we're more entertaining to watch, our young guys improve, we win a few more games and get blown out less, and then either a) get lucky and move into the top three through the draft lottery or b) we end up with a really good player in the 6-10 range.

[BlackOutBuzz]

Had we cooled our heels we could have taken back Biedrins and Jefferson from the Warriors and gotten Barnes or Thompson (preferably Thompson) as compensation. Cavs would have taken Bogut on a one year rental for little additional compensation.

I doubt they'd give up Barnes or Thompson, but I wonder if we could still take on one of those guys for picks or something. Richard Jefferson, in particular, seems like he'd be a good vet mentor for MKG, and he's an expiring. I just don't know all the nuances with trades; I know we can at least somewhat exceed the cap in a trade, but I'm not sure by how much. I'm guessing we would have to re-sign Hendo first, or else we'd have to renounce his rights to free up the space (I think).

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

I honestly think that Jefferson was “Plan B” for the Bobcats.

After the Draft the following had to be apparent to the front office:

1. More teams were tanking this year than initially expected. The competition to be in the bottom is going to be almost as fierce as the competition to do well among the elite teams. Even with no free agent signing getting high odds on a top pick was going to be tough.

2. The Bobcats were going to be improved this year, with a better coaching staff, a draft pick that fit needs well, and continued growth from Kemba, MKG, & Biz.

Given these I think that after the draft the front office decided to accelerate the rebuild. Yes there is the potential to miss out entirely on what is going to be a super strong draft … but at the same time given the situation the odds were against them anyway draft pick wise. Might as well go all in on improvement given this. And even if the Cats miss out on the 2014 draft entirely they still have strong picks coming to them in future drafts, and thus still have much room for improvement from new young players as the team gets better and better.

I absolutely don’t think that this signing means that the Bobcats will end up as a middle of the road team. They could end up being an improving playoff team with multiple lottery picks over the next few years. That has potential.

My main concern with obtaining Jefferson was spacing and defense. Lots of folks here have pointed out that he is a strong inside sorcerer that doesn’t play defense. While that’s scoring is a potential plus for Kemba’s development as a PG, it’s also a potential negative for MKG who also mostly scores at the rim. So I did a bit of research and have a bit more optimism now.

First on Big Al himself. Going by 82games.com this is what he did last year:

Shot Att. eFG% Ast'd Blk'd Pts

Jump 71% .414 59% 6% 9.3
Close 22% .665 42% 11% 4.6
Dunk 6% .887 73% 6% 1.6
Tips 2% .381 0% 0% .2
Inside 29% .693 49% 9% 6.4

Compare that with MKG

Shot Att. eFG% Ast'd Blk'd Pts

Jump 49% .294 76% 11% 2.3
Close 41% .556 50% 23% 3.6
Dunk 10% .898 66% 5% 1.4
Tips 0% .333 0% 0% .0
Inside 51% .618 54% 20% 5.0

Given this I don’t think that Jefferson is going to get in MKG’s way as much as I feared. Also in terms of team spacing (something Zach Lowe has pointed out as a concern) … *IF* MKG can develop any sort of mid range or outside shot that will help … but the real answer here could be Jeffery Taylor. The Bobcats played some of their best ball last year with Taylor starting. Why? Spacing. Taylor took more 3 attempts per minute than Hendo and was reasonably accurate. If the new staff can salvage Taylor and start him at SG suddenly I have far less worry about the team spacing wise.

Defense is still iffy. Lots of folks are assuming that Jefferson and Biyombo will start. They might. That could be a nice way to help cover some of Jefferson’s shortcomings, but it will not help the offensive spacing much. I honestly think that the best hope here is a good team defensive scheme that will help hide Jefferson a bit. We will have to see what the coaching staff can do here.

Anyway, TDR, I’m on board with this move by the team and think it will work out.

[MasterIchiro]

I honestly think that Jefferson was “Plan B” for the Bobcats.

After the Draft the following had to be apparent to the front office:

1. More teams were tanking this year than initially expected. The competition to be in the bottom is going to be almost as fierce as the competition to do well among the elite teams. Even with no free agent signing getting high odds on a top pick was going to be tough.

2. The Bobcats were going to be improved this year, with a better coaching staff, a draft pick that fit needs well, and continued growth from Kemba, MKG, & Biz.

Given these I think that after the draft the front office decided to accelerate the rebuild. Yes there is the potential to miss out entirely on what is going to be a super strong draft … but at the same time given the situation the odds were against them anyway draft pick wise. Might as well go all in on improvement given this. And even if the Cats miss out on the 2014 draft entirely they still have strong picks coming to them in future drafts, and thus still have much room for improvement from new young players as the team gets better and better.

I agree 100% so +1 from me. The growth of Kemba alone is cause for alarm among the front office that he would help pull the team out of the top 5. But look at all the other dynamics working against them that you mentioned with all those teams tanking, Zeller, improvement of MKG and Biz, new coaching. The tide has really shifted. All the middle pack teams lack an identity. If they get worse they don't really care because they are living a Wiggins fantasy. We saw an opportunity to capitalize on the hoopla and we pounced and accelerated the rebuild (without ending it at all).

As far as spacing issues, I think you could start Jefferson, Biyombo if you have a SG like Mayo and continue to give minutes to Taylor at SF. With Jefferson and Zeller, MKG plays and that would be the typical lineup. Biyombo just needs to get minutes against tough bigs that would manhandle Al and Zeller.