Big Al's Paint: The Al Jefferson Thread

[Diop]

Just the fact that Biz will be able to go against Jefferson in training is a huge to me.

Biz always got killed by him in games as he would fall for all the fakes, hopefully just scrimmaging against Jefferson will help Biz a lot.

[Elden Payton]

A big thing to consider also is that the Jazz did not hire a designated big man coach last year despite the fact they have millions tied up on prospects in their frontcourt.

This speaks a lot of Jefferson's ability to develop young bigs, I imagine not only the practice will help Biyombo and Zeller but the time Jefferson designates outside of basketball with the youngsters.

I'm really excited about this signing.

[Dav7z]

Rick Bonnell ‏@rick_bonnell 1h

MKG says he's thrilled with the Bobcats adding Jefferson and Zeller.

something to consider for why we passed on noel and went after jefferson. perhaps kemba and MKG told management they have to get some real players around them or else... you cant expect hard working, driven, hyper-competitive guys like kemba and MKG to be OK with sucking for 3+ years just for a higher chance at a kid who just graduated high school. just a thought.

Very good post makes a lot of sense . Kemba and Hendo has to be tired of playing one on two. Our front court goes from really bad to solid signing Jefferson drafting Zeller , signing McRobrets. The impact on Kemba, and Hendo is going to be huge. Teams will at least play us honest now.

[HornetJail]

Went over to the Jazz board, and apparently Jefferson mentored Favors and Kanter pretty frequently. I'm warming to this signing, but I will still be pretty upset if Jefferson is enough to make lose our pick to Chicago but still not good enough to make the playoffs.

Also they think Jefferson is like the worst help defender in the entire league. Our frontcourt defense is likely still going to be pathetic next season unless Biz makes enormous strides.

Something that surprised me is that they said Jefferson isn't much of a pick and roll player either. I think that's probably because they haven't had a half decent point guard since D-Will left Utah, but still, it's a bit of a surprise to me.

[hotrod]

Rick Bonnell ‏@rick_bonnell 1h

MKG says he's thrilled with the Bobcats adding Jefferson and Zeller.

something to consider for why we passed on noel and went after jefferson. perhaps kemba and MKG told management they have to get some real players around them or else... you cant expect hard working, driven, hyper-competitive guys like kemba and MKG to be OK with sucking for 3+ years just for a higher chance at a kid who just graduated high school. just a thought.

Very good post makes a lot of sense . Kemba and Hendo has to be tired of playing one on two. Our front court goes from really bad to solid signing Jefferson drafting Zeller , signing McRobrets. The impact on Kemba, and Hendo is going to be huge. Teams will at least play us honest now.

I feel the same way. AJ helps Kemba and Henderson big time. Last season opposition knew if they held Kemba and Hendo in check, game over. This forced Kemba and Hendo to go one on one and force offense. More balance now equals better shots which equals better shooting percentage.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Actually ... as the roster stands now ... all other teams have to do in order to beat the Bobcats is to pack the paint defensively the way the Spurs did in the playoffs. The team needs improved shooting if they wan other teams to "play them honest."

[Kembastockton]

Actually ... as the roster stands now ... all other teams have to do in order to beat the Bobcats is to pack the paint defensively the way the Spurs did in the playoffs. The team needs improved shooting if they wan other teams to "play them honest."

They have been doing that to us for years, but our shooters last year were good enough to convert with good looks. Now that the paint commands attention they should be even better.

[LamarMatic7]

Also they think Jefferson is like the worst help defender in the entire league. Our frontcourt defense is likely still going to be pathetic next season unless Biz makes enormous strides.

This was an extreme, of course, but it's hard for me not to link to this genius video by a mixmaking pal of mine.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Wp6Qkn0zg[/youtube]

The problem with Big Al, from what I've seen of the Jazz, is that he's obviously too slow to hedge pick-n-rolls, yet he doesn't have a big impact when waiting for the point guard to attack the paint after sagging off the pick either. He's simply too slow and unathletic to challenge those layups, not to even talk about the guard pulling up from mid-range.

[Snidely FC]

That's some ugly Mully-style defense. Yikes, I hope these are his worst moments and not representative of how he usually plays D.

[Eoghan]

Yep, that's Alice Jefferson. Glad we gave a guy with cement shoes almost 14 million a year.

[dmutombo321]

I honestly would have preferred they roll the dice on Bynum after seeing what Cleveland has on the table for him:

A two-year, $24 million deal with incentives (completing training camp and playing in a certain # of games)

Since the deal has a team option for season two, they've really hedged their bets so they win either way.

A) Bynum actually reports with healthy knees in which case they have one of the 3 best centers in the game who is only 25 years old for only $12mil/year

or

B)Bynum is still injured and misses a bunch of games in which case they simply cut him loose at the end of the season with no 2014 cap hit or future obligation.

[Elden Payton]

I honestly would have preferred they roll the dice on Bynum after seeing what Cleveland has on the table for him:

A two-year, $24 million deal with incentives (completing training camp and playing in a certain # of games)

Since the deal has a team option for season two, they've really hedged their bets so they win either way.

A) Bynum actually reports with healthy knees in which case they have one of the 3 best centers in the game who is only 25 years old for only $12mil/year

or

B)Bynum is still injured and misses a bunch of games in which case they simply cut him loose at the end of the season with no 2014 cap hit or future obligation.

Since we are playing hypotheticals, say we offered the exact same deal to Bynum as Cleveland has at 2/24, who do you honestly think Bynum would sign for?

[HornetJail]

I honestly would have preferred they roll the dice on Bynum after seeing what Cleveland has on the table for him:

A two-year, $24 million deal with incentives (completing training camp and playing in a certain # of games)

Since the deal has a team option for season two, they've really hedged their bets so they win either way.

A) Bynum actually reports with healthy knees in which case they have one of the 3 best centers in the game who is only 25 years old for only $12mil/year

or

B)Bynum is still injured and misses a bunch of games in which case they simply cut him loose at the end of the season with no 2014 cap hit or future obligation.

Since we are playing hypotheticals, say we offered the exact same deal to Bynum as Cleveland has at 2/24, who do you honestly think Bynum would sign for?

Cleveland. Bynum probably doesn't know where Charlotte is.

[Logander]

I honestly would have preferred they roll the dice on Bynum after seeing what Cleveland has on the table for him:

A two-year, $24 million deal with incentives (completing training camp and playing in a certain # of games)

Since the deal has a team option for season two, they've really hedged their bets so they win either way.

A) Bynum actually reports with healthy knees in which case they have one of the 3 best centers in the game who is only 25 years old for only $12mil/year

or

B)Bynum is still injured and misses a bunch of games in which case they simply cut him loose at the end of the season with no 2014 cap hit or future obligation.

Since we are playing hypotheticals, say we offered the exact same deal to Bynum as Cleveland has at 2/24, who do you honestly think Bynum would sign for?

Cleveland. Bynum probably doesn't know where Charlotte is.

Hahaha^

[LamarMatic7]

Zach Lowe's take on us signing Jefferson.

And the Bobcats understand they are dealing with a major perception problem. There is being bad, and there is being a total embarrassment, and the Bobcats over the last two years have been the latter. That is untenable for a team holding a very fragile grip over its local market, likely losing money (before revenue-sharing), and carrying max-level cap space into the foreseeable future.

The Jefferson contract is bad. There is no way anyone could have watched the NBA over the last few seasons and concluded Jefferson might be worth double Millsap over the potential length of their deals, and about $4 million more than Millsap over a per-year basis. He’s a slow-footed, not intuitive defender against the pick-and-roll in a league in which just about every team runs a pick-and-roll on every possession. Want to be depressed, Charlotte fans? Find video of the Spurs-Jazz series from the 2012 playoffs.

And using up cap space on Jefferson early removed Charlotte from the list of teams that could have plucked an extra pick or two from Golden State in the Andris Biedrins–Richard Jefferson salary dump. There is always a cost to overspending one’s cap space — a lost opportunity to do something else, whether it’s snagging extra picks as trash ground for another team’s mistake, bidding on an amnestied player, or something else.

But Jefferson is a very good offensive player, if an overrated one, and the Bobcats over the last two seasons have been just as terrible on offense as on defense. Jefferson shoots 47 percent like clockwork, draws near-automatic double-teams to his residence on the left block, and avoids turnovers at a historically unprecedented rate. He’s not ultra-efficient — he rarely gets to the line — but he’s efficient enough, and he’ll take a ton of possessions away from very bad offensive players dotting the rest of this roster.

And there’s no long-term cap damage here, especially if Jefferson flees the scene after two seasons, as his deal will permit. Tyrus Thomas is the only other Bobcat on a non-rookie contract going forward, and the Cats have to vaporize his awful deal in order to sign Jefferson. Charlotte will still have max cap room next summer and (as projected) in 2015, and free agents will be more likely to at least consider the Bobcats then if they are a run-of-the-mill mediocrity and not a D-League outfit.

And Jefferson does enough damage to his team’s defense that he can only lift a club so high. The Bobcats this season will still be bad, perhaps bad enough to snag a top-five pick even while improving their leaguewide standing. Win-win?

[Elden Payton]

I honestly would have preferred they roll the dice on Bynum after seeing what Cleveland has on the table for him:

A two-year, $24 million deal with incentives (completing training camp and playing in a certain # of games)

Since the deal has a team option for season two, they've really hedged their bets so they win either way.

A) Bynum actually reports with healthy knees in which case they have one of the 3 best centers in the game who is only 25 years old for only $12mil/year

or

B)Bynum is still injured and misses a bunch of games in which case they simply cut him loose at the end of the season with no 2014 cap hit or future obligation.

Since we are playing hypotheticals, say we offered the exact same deal to Bynum as Cleveland has at 2/24, who do you honestly think Bynum would sign for?

Cleveland. Bynum probably doesn't know where Charlotte is.

That was basically my point, he'd definitely go to Cleveland.

We'd have had to pay him 13m at least.

[ohara]

I would much rather have Jefferson than Bynum. Not a fan of Bynum at all.

[KembaWalker]

I usually don't care that much about "the culture" and all that fluff but my god, Bynum would be horrible for our young group. Jefferson is a teacher, mentor, great teammate, leader. Bynum is everything you don't want from a culture perspective. then obviously his knees are torn up.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Zach Lowe's take on us signing Jefferson.

In part 2 of the Simmons/Lowe podcast they talked about the Bobcats a bit. Simmons was overall more positive in tone than Zach, he really liked the Bobcats signing Big Al and felt that they likely had to overpay some, but both ended up in agreement that the moves would likely not be enough to take the Bobcats out the bottom 10 teams in the league.

[LamarMatic7]

Zach Lowe's take on us signing Jefferson.

In part 2 of the Simmons/Lowe podcast they talked about the Bobcats a bit. Simmons was overall more positive in tone than Zach, he really liked the Bobcats signing Big Al and felt that they likely had to overpay some, but both ended up in agreement that the moves would likely not be enough to take the Bobcats out the bottom 10 teams in the league.

I've only had the time to listen to part 1 so far. Thanks for the heads up, anxious to hear part 2 now.