Big Al's Paint: The Al Jefferson Thread

[Logander]

Ok...ok i've changed my status on this whole Al Jefferson thing. After some serious thought process...i don't want him here. I just don't think signing him for anything over $10/4 is not worth it.

This guy was Utah's best player and where did he get them? Out of the playoffs, that's where. Same player in Minny, he was very good(all star snub...whatever) but his "stats' just didn't translate to team wins. He'll just be holding back the development of our young bigs Cody and Biz. Give them a whole season to develop under Ewing and run with them as our starting frontcourt in 14-15, the season where we should be making a serious push for the playoffs and start contending in 15-16.

In all, i think Al Jeff will put up some nice numbers, but would it be worth it? No. He may get us 3-4 more wins though. I don't even want to go anywhere near the max for him either.

Very good point on the Cody and Biz comment. We are in our third year of a rebuild, let the young guys play and develop. We don't need to sign Al just to sign him. Seems like that's what MJ wants to do. He really needs to let Cho do everything and just sit back and watch.

[DY_nasty]

I really hope they're just talking him just to keep fans happy and then not actually sign him. It's a waste of money imo

The team itself is a waste of money.

You don't even need to be .500 to be a playoff team in the East. If they want to build hype this particular way going into the rebrand then they're entirely within their right mind for doing so. As long as they don't cripple themselves moving forward, then the Bobcats aren't 'wrong' for bringing Al out.

15 mil per for 4 years though is absolutely crippling - even if Al surprises everyone.

[Marvel]

If this is a MJ move, reminds me of the JRich maneuver.

[Stun704]

If this is a MJ move, reminds me of the JRich maneuver.

This is a Rod Higgins move. they need to fire the bastard.

[Diop]

Do you think part of it is the front office wanting to finally make a big signing?

To show that some big free agents will sign in charlotte

[vorbis]

just because Jefferson wants 4yrs and 15/per doesn't mean that's what he's going to sign for.

[Stun704]

I still dont understand why the hell we drafted Zeller if we planned on throwing max money at jefferson? it'd be smarter to draft Noel, and then trot out whoever becomes better between Biz and Noel as the rim protecter to play alongside Jefferson. if you play Zeller and Al at the same time, you get raped inside

[DY_nasty]

Do you think part of it is the front office wanting to finally make a big signing?

To show that some big free agents will sign in charlotte

We sign him and we won't have the money to sign anyone else significant really.

I still dont understand why the hell we drafted Zeller if we planned on throwing max money at jefferson? it'd be smarter to draft Noel, and then trot out whoever becomes better between Biz and Noel as the rim protecter to play alongside Jefferson. if you play Zeller and Al at the same time, you get raped inside

compared to what happened last year?

[freakon0mics]

I dont think a player like Big Al is worth crippling our cap situation. We need to have flexibility if we do land Wiggins, Parker, or Randle. I would rather we spend money on free agents after we drafted one of these guys.

[JMAC3]

I think I am done with this subject. Either he signs with or he doesn't. I will learn to live with either result. Be back once this situation has sorted itself out.

[Stun704]

Do you think part of it is the front office wanting to finally make a big signing?

To show that some big free agents will sign in charlotte

We sign him and we won't have the money to sign anyone else significant really.

I still dont understand why the hell we drafted Zeller if we planned on throwing max money at jefferson? it'd be smarter to draft Noel, and then trot out whoever becomes better between Biz and Noel as the rim protecter to play alongside Jefferson. if you play Zeller and Al at the same time, you get raped inside

compared to what happened last year?

Theres a different between getting raped with players on rookie contracts, and getting raped with a player whos maxed teh **** out

[BlackOutBuzz]

$15 mil? ew...

How exactly would that fit with our cap situation? Counting Henderson's ($7,753,318) and Zeller's ($3,214,200) cap holds, we currently sit at $5,999,176 in cap room with only 9 players under contract (though Hendo and Zeller would make 11). Hendo's cap number will be a bit lower, maybe enough to move our cap space to as much as $8 mil (though unlikely).

I guess the good news would be that Tyrus would definitely have to be amnestied, freeing up another $8,694,215. Doing so, and retaining Hendo for about $6.5 mil, would give us just under $16 mil in cap space with just 10 guys under contract.

EDIT: That said, even with Al's monster contract, in 2014 we'll still have a bunch of room thanks to getting out of the Tyrus and Gordon deals.

[MKGsMotor]

I'm leaning towards wanting this. We still have all the young guns on the roster who will only get better. Jefferson is a valuable presence on offense. Could really help us wen we make a playoff push within two-three years. This will give us worse odds in the Wiggins sweepstakes, but who knows what the lottery will do and it's a tough call to not sign a good player because you want to have better odds at a higher draft pick. I prefer a little less than 15 mil a year like the rest of you (i'd say 4 years / 52 mil is the highest i'd go)

[Makaveli92]

Will Dallas even want Jefferson? have they even contacted him? Its not like Dallas has a much much much better roster than the Bobcats, he's not going to win there either, not just with Dirk, Marion and Vince Carter.. Lol. I think the best fit for him is the Bobcats..

Is it that he doesn't want to sign here, or is it, the Bobcats not offering him what he want, and he's waiting to see if Dallas offers it to him??????? I don't think he just doesn't want to sign with the Bobcats, if that was the case he wouldn't have meet with the team, he would've just waited for Dallas or somebody else to hit him up. I think it comes down to the money.

If the Bobcats can get Al Jefferson they better go all out.

Walker
Henderson
MKG
Zeller
Jefferson

That lineup looks crazy to me, and I want to see it, Lol. **** Dallas and **** a re build. I really want to see Jefferson on the Bobcats/Hornets. Maybe they were looking at Jefferson the whole time, that's why the drafted Zeller over McLemore and Noel. I hope they get this done and sign him, he will only help this team in the long run, rather than hurt it, like some of y'all want to believe, just because you want a lottery pick.

[MasterIchiro]

Earth to Al, come in Al, you are not the Mavs' backup plan. Andrew Bynum is their plan B.

It's obvious we did not offer Al anything close to 15 million per season because he left Charlotte after 1.5 days still insisting upon 15 million and then his jergoff agent fakes like Dallas is interested. Dallas is interested in Howard and Bynum.

We will get Al and he and his agent will take whatever we offered.

Welcome aboard Al.

[Makaveli92]

Earth to Al, come in Al, you are not the Mavs' backup plan. Andrew Bynum is their plan B.

It's obvious we did not offer all 15 million per season because he left Charlotte after 1.5 days still insisting upon 15 million and then his jergoff agent fakes like Dallas is interested. Dallas is interested in Howard and Bynum.

We will get Al and he and his agent will take whatever we offered.

Welcome aboard Al.

ahhh mane, this **** was funny to me.. I'm with you 100% I forgot all about Bynum.

[Reckless]

I know Utah has good young backups but there has to be more to why they have not tried to keep him.

Black hole on offense, lacking effort on defense, doesn't get to the foul line,etc..
There is a reason why he hasn't won much in the league, he is a LOSER.
And from a pure entertainment level he is incredibly boring to watch.

[BNB]

This is just a terrible idea. I'm not a Bobcats fan, but I want to see them to do well in the future, so I really hope he doesn't sign with you guys. Honestly, the best case scenario is he doesn't decrease your number of ping pong balls next year. I agree with ut_jazz above me: this guy has shown himself to be a loser. I don't think he can be a major part of a really good team. Empty stats, similar to Marcus Camby when he was putting up big rebound and block numbers for Denver and the Clippers; those teams were worse when he was on the floor.

[MasterIchiro]

This is from Chris Broussard at 9:50 PM last night:

Jefferson, who made $15 million last season, does not want to take a pay cut, and the Bobcats are weighing whether they want to offer anywhere near that figure. The 28-year-old Jefferson, of course, wants a four-year deal, and the Bobcats aren't sure they want to offer that many years.

One thing's for certain, the Bobcats and Jefferson spent an awful long time staying far apart in their negotiations. I still say Bynum is plan B for the Mavs and when Al's agent loses leverage we will get Al at a bargain price. It's one reason why we possibly targeted him in the first place. He could be an asset at the ultimate price we end up getting him. It's highly possible Dallas spurns him and he's left without a serious suitor with sufficient cap space. Then we swoop in and get him cheap.

Charlotte might have intentionally lowballed Jefferson because the front office predicted a limited market. The next move now (and this was probably planned all along) is going to be to engage another free agent as a "Plan B" to Jefferson which will counter Jefferson/his agent's bluff. It would be smart for Charlotte to court someone using the very same money offered to Al Jefferson which is again, nowhere close to 15 imo.

[Snidely FC]

Hey MJ how about sending out a questionnaire to see if fans want this?
You did it to see if fans wanted to spend $3mln changing the name to something that will obviously recoup you the money and then some.
So why not ask the fans whether they want to throw $15 mil at a millstone contract?