Jefferson is a center, not a pF

[Dan's with the Wolves]

tf21. The biggest and perhaps most often argument for Jefferson not being a center is his height. Seeing the standing reach stat does a lot to nullify the issue.

His length has been has been known for quite some time. It's what make him a center at the offensive end. His play on the defensive end is what bring into question his ability to be a center. If he was a significantly better defensive player, the questions about his ability to play center would go away.

[revprodeji]

But he is no more of a better defensive player at the 4 spot either.

Defensively the way to improve is to

-let the strength of Love be the primary post defender. He did decent against Duncan as an example.
-Drastically improve the peremeter defense. Hopefully an asset via draft or trade+Brewer helps
-Train Jefferson to be a support weak side shot blocker. He has the skill. If we had a defensive coach it would help.

[Dan's with the Wolves]

But he is no more of a better defensive player at the 4 spot either.

Defensively the way to improve is to

-let the strength of Love be the primary post defender. He did decent against Duncan as an example.
-Drastically improve the peremeter defense. Hopefully an asset via draft or trade+Brewer helps
-Train Jefferson to be a support weak side shot blocker. He has the skill. If we had a defensive coach it would help.

If Love can be a solid primary post defender to go with his rebounding and jump shot that he showed at UCLA and AL can be an 2+ blocks a game guy that can chase face up C/PFs out to the three point line, that would be sweet.

[mandurugo]

I don't think it is reasonable to expect Love to be the primary post defender - he really is small. While he has good strength for his height, it is not sufficient to allow him to defend guys 4-5 inches bigger than him. He did have one ok game against Duncan - but Duncan was playing on only one leg most of this year, and from game to game he was either a mediocre version of himself or a terrible version. He wasn't much of a measuring stick this year. I thought Love had a pretty typical rookie year - that is, his overall defense was pretty bad most nights though he had occasional moments. The real test will be how well he assimilates his experiences and comes out next year.

[Zeitgeister]

Kevin Durant has a 9'2" standing reach, I guess he should be playing center as well.

[revprodeji]

Either you are really that naive and missed the argument, or you are trying to mock it.

People have concern about Jefferson because some think he is too small, but his standing reach is very reasonable for a center. If not longer than other "true" centers. Looking quickly at the DX measurement draft base for players drafted top-15 only 15 players since Shaq have a higher standing reach. of the current rotation players only Lopez (+3) Oden (+2) Howard (+1.5) Bogut, Kaman,Okafor (+.5) have a higher standing reach. His problem at the C spot is not length/size but coaching, desire and athletic conditioning. He is a 5.

Al has no problem rebounding against centers
Al's 3 biggest defensive weak spots are much more of a concern as a 4 then a 5. 1.) He sometimes does not seem to care about defense. Effort is magnified when he is chasing a faster player. 2.) lateral foot speed is much more of a concern then his strength. Defending Lewis would be more difficult then Howard for Al. 3.) Mental lapse. Perhaps because of coaching? but rotations need to be worked on.

I miss where the argument is for him to play the 4 rather than the 5. He scores better as a 5 on the block then a 4 in the high post.

Love has the reach of Griffin, as we established. But Griffin is an athletic freak. Love only has -.5 reach then Noah. Why is Noah considered a long player and Love a stubby when Noah only has half an inch on him? He also has 3 inches on Jeff Green a young 4 in our division. Love's defensive issues are not size, but athletic conditioning and coaching.

Improve the wings, get a bloody defensive coach and lets see what our young post players can do.

[younggunsmn]

I don't believe love actually has a 8'10 reach, I think it is closer to 8'9 because of his "orthotics" issues at the draft camp. Reach is not an end-all, it is a single metric to use among many. Love's 6'11.25 wingspan is exactly the same as tyreke evans, a PG/SG. Noah's wingspan is 2 inches longer than Love's. Plus skinny players often appear longer (and the weed may have stunted the growth of noah's arms LOL). But noah and green are not on our team. love is. those team's styles and defensive shortcomings speak for themselves.

Jefferson can play low post as a 4 too. bosh, amare, kg, and countless other guys do it. the 4/5 are interchangable on offense. They are not on defense. There are many other uses for a 4/5 man than the high post. You could say KG effectively played "center" for us on offense for years as the primary low/mid-post player, with guys like rasho playing a "high post", or weakside picksetter role. KG simply couldn't bang with the bigger centers that were in the west during that time period on defense, that is why he was never a "center" for us.

The one stat that sticks out the most is we gave up a .500 shooting percentage to our opponents last year on 2-point shots, which is beyond horrible and tells me all I need to know about our interior d.

Take all the measurements and metrics and look at the actual game film and results the last 2 years.
Without a doubt we were horrible defensively, and the post players were the biggest culprits. We were outathleticized and undersized in nearly every game we played on the defensive end at those 2 positions. That will NEVER change as long as these 2 guys are our only viable options, especially after the knee injury. We were on pace for 28 wins when Al was injured.

Keep saying they can get better and play smarter. All it is saying is that if they play at the PEAK of their bball IQ they will be AVERAGE defenders. Average defenders win nothing in this league.

Keep blaming the guards or the coachng, it changes nothing about 42 and 25's ability to play defense. Miller and Gomes were not horrible defenders last year, they weren't great but they were better than the rest. I have a feeling all this wishful thinking about Al'/Love being serviceable as a defensive pairing is coming from guys who really WANT to like their team (which is a good thing) and are trying to justify their hopefulness, and the Love trade.

Without a strong defensive center to balance the equation I can't justify any enthusiasm for this team's long-term prospects. And without getting something decent in return for miller I can't justify that trade. If we landed washington's pick with him, that is a different story. But my fear is we will let him expire, and even if we re-signed him, 2 years of miller is worth next to nothing to a lottery team, as I said last june.

[Zeitgeister]

Completely agree with younggunsmn's post, spot on. Everyone talks about shoring up our perimeter defense, and I agree we need to do that but that isn't going to transform our defense from below average to great. Interior D is the most important because it is inevitable that some players will be able to get to the rim and a big man needs to be able to alter their shots.

Everyone also talks about Al Jefferson's inability to guard 4's. Well, Jefferson isn't very good at guarding 4's or 5's but that's only part of the point. If Al is to be the center, that means he's going to be the guy in the lane that challenges every shot (a goalie of sorts) and I don't think Jefferson has the combination of quickness/length/instincts to be that guy.

I think we need to address the perimeter this year (and grab Mullens if he's available) and hopefully pick up a good center in the draft or free agency that can complete a 3 man rotation at some point. Eventually we will need to if we are serious about competing.

[john2jer]

Keep in mind that the Warriors and the Clippers were top 3 in blocks this year, while Houston, San Antonio, and New Orleans were just a hair better than us.

Al Jefferson blocks 1.7 per game which puts him in the top 10 if he played enough games.

Interior defense gets a hell of a lot easier if we don't have a revolving door on the perimeter. Once Jefferson and Love can just worry about having to defend their own guy instead of constantly having to cover for others' mistakes, we'll be a better team.