Big Al's Paint: The Al Jefferson Thread

Winglish · Post #681 » by **Winglish** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 4:25 pm

Second Jazz fan to further clarify about Jefferson's defense. He is really solid one-on-one in the post and he blocks shots at a good clip. Sorry, but Al is horrible against the pick and roll or really anytime he gets switched onto a smaller, quicker player. Teams will try to run pick and roll against the Bobcats every night. You might as well get used to that idea.

JDuaneWayne · Post #682 » by **JDuaneWayne** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 4:49 pm

Winglish wrote:Second Jazz fan to further clarify about Jefferson's defense. He is really solid one-on-one in the post and he blocks shots at a good clip. Sorry, but Al is horrible against the pick and roll or really anytime he gets switched onto a smaller, quicker player. Teams will try to run pick and roll against the Bobcats every night. You might as well get used to that idea.

We have never been particularly stellar in the department with undersized guards.

finnegan · Post #683 » by **finnegan** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 2:12 pm

Winglish wrote:Second Jazz fan to further clarify about Jefferson's defense. He is really solid one-on-one in the post and he blocks shots at a good clip. Sorry, but Al is horrible against the pick and roll or really anytime he gets switched onto a smaller, quicker player. Teams will try to run pick and roll against the Bobcats every night. You might as well get used to that idea.

If Big Al is as bad as you say, then why wouldn't the coach just have Zeller or BtchSlap defend the pick and roll?

Winglish · Post #684 » by **Winglish** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 3:19 pm

If Big Al is as bad as you say, then why wouldn't the coach just have Zeller or BtchSlap defend the pick and roll?

They'll come up with schemes like the Jazz did. The problem with all that switching and having to constantly be aware of your own man, the ball, and Big Al's man is that it leads to defensive breakdowns as often as not. It's many times a tougher situation than an easy switch.

Kembastockton · Post #685 » by **Kembastockton** » Tue Jul 16, 2013 5:41 pm

Who cares if Al is terrible on defense? We are not expecting to be in the nba finals next summer. We signed him to put points on the board for two years while our kids continue to develop. If he is as bad you say good. Maybe we will still get a shot at Wiggins.

Winglish · Post #686 » by **Winglish** » Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:40 am

Re: Bobcats Sign Al Jefferson - 3yrs $41mil
by MountBiyombo » Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:41 am

Who cares if Al is terrible on defense? We are not expecting to be in the nba finals next summer. We signed him to put points on the board for two years while our kids continue to develop. If he is as bad you say good. Maybe we will still get a shot at Wiggins.

The thing is that Al is close to elite with the ball in his hands down low. He scores on anybody and never turns the ball over. I expect to see an improved Bobcats record this season.

LamarMatic7 · Post #687 » by **LamarMatic7** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 12:14 pm

My favorite video of Big Al

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M102G2JO5Eg[/youtube]

Snidely FC · Post #688 » by **Snidely FC** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:07 pm

"You ever fell on your buttocks before?" That's a classic!

The "that's why I don't like to dunk" line is kinda dispiriting, but the Buttox quotes make up for that.

The thing about Big Al is I would rather have had the Cats do what POR did this summer, absorb other team's contracts to grab Robin Lopez and Thomas Robinson, then sign an inexpensive shooter in Dorrell Wright.

However, it's become pretty clear that Kemba was asking for help and the team went out and got it for him. So, I'm looking forward to watching one of the league's offensive savants do his thing down low. And of course now I'm hoping he gets knocked on his butt so we can hear more about it.

Nanogeek · Post #689 » by **Nanogeek** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:19 pm

finnegan wrote:
Nanogeek wrote:
fatlever wrote:http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/13/4163458/charlotte-bobcats-jefferson-possesses.html

Doesn't take a basketball genius to realize AJ is very good offensively. The problem is his defense. You don't pay $14m for half a player. He's worse on defense than he is good on offense. The Jazz were at their worst last season when he was in the game.

Jazz fan here. Nanogeek has no clue what he is talking about!

Jefferson is a decent defender and he is not on the decline.

Best skill Jefferson improved on in Utah is being able to kick it out to a shooter when he is double teamed. He used to fight the double team and try to get the basket (not necessarily a bad thing to have a fighting attitude), but he has improved quite a bit by playing team ball and not having to work quite so hard to get a basket.

Yes yes Jazz thought he was so awesome they let him go for nothing. There's no indication they even made an attempt to offer him a contract.

Nanogeek · Post #690 » by **Nanogeek** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 1:20 pm

MountBiyombo wrote:Who cares if Al is terrible on defense? We are not expecting to be in the nba finals next summer. We signed him to put points on the board for two years while our kids continue to develop. If he is as bad you say good. Maybe we will still get a shot at Wiggins.

I'd rather have a shot at Wiggins without (a) spending $41 million, (b) stunting the development of the two lottery picks we've invested in the frontcourt and (c) placing that shot at risk by signing a non-all star to an all-star contract. Face it - signing AJ was a bone head move - plain and simple.

lmcguir5 · Post #691 » by **lmcguir5** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:13 pm

Nanogeek wrote:
MountBiyombo wrote:Who cares if Al is terrible on defense? We are not expecting to be in the nba finals next summer. We signed him to put points on the board for two years while our kids continue to develop. If he is as bad you say good. Maybe we will still get a shot at Wiggins.

I'd rather have a shot at Wiggins without (a) spending $41 million, (b) stunting the development of the two lottery picks we've invested in the frontcourt and (c) placing that shot at risk by signing a non-all star to an all-star contract. Face it - signing AJ was a bone head move - plain and simple.

You can declare war on Jefferson all you want, but I will never support standing by and trying to lose to sign an 18 year old somethin who could possibly turn into Shabazz. You can't blame a team for trying to get out of the cellar, especially when the fanbase interest is anemic at best right now. This is the time now to start getting people to have interest in the team. If Big Al helps us win games and up the confidence of the guys on the floor playing, then we got exactly what we needed.

Nanogeek · Post #692 » by **Nanogeek** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:48 pm

lmcguir5 wrote:
Nanogeek wrote:
MountBiyombo wrote:Who cares if Al is terrible on defense? We are not expecting to be in the nba finals next summer. We signed him to put points on the board for two years while our kids continue to develop. If he is as bad you say good. Maybe we will still get a shot at Wiggins.

I'd rather have a shot at Wiggins without (a) spending $41 million, (b) stunting the development of the two lottery picks we've invested in the frontcourt and (c) placing that shot at risk by signing a non-all star to an all-star contract. Face it - signing AJ was a bone head move - plain and simple.

You can declare war on Jefferson all you want, but I will never support standing by and trying to lose to sign an 18 year old somethin who could possibly turn into Shabazz. You can't blame a team for trying to get out of the cellar, especially when the fanbase interest is anemic at best right now. This is the time now to start getting people to have interest in the team. If Big Al helps us win games and up the confidence of the guys on the floor playing, then we got exactly what we needed.

I didn't "declare war on Jefferson" - stop with the drama. However, I will not blindly cheerlead the team and its decisions.

MKGsMotor · Post #693 » by **MKGsMotor** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:20 pm

Nanogeek wrote:
lmcguir5 wrote:
Nanogeek wrote:
I'd rather have a shot at Wiggins without (a) spending $41 million, (b) stunting the development of the two lottery picks we've invested in the frontcourt and (c) placing that shot at risk by signing a non-all star to an all-star contract. Face it - signing AJ was a bone head move - plain and simple.

You can declare war on Jefferson all you want, but I will never support standing by and trying to lose to sign an 18 year old somethin who could possibly turn into Shabazz. You can't blame a team for trying to get out of the cellar, especially when the fanbase interest is anemic at best right now. This is the time now to start getting people to have interest in the team. If Big Al helps us win games and up the confidence of the guys on the floor playing, then we got exactly what we needed.

I didn't "declare war on Jefferson" - stop with the drama. However, I will not blindly cheerlead the team and its decisions.

So what do you want? To suck every year until we strike gold on a Wiggins. or- gasp- maybe we won't ever get that lucky? We've drafted solid talent in the last three drafts. What's wrong with trying to sign good players? Do you not think Al Jeff is good? So his value around the league is completely unjust? Ok so we may have overpaid a little (understandable though), what do you think he's worth. 9 mil? 8 mil? 7 mil? That's value for a good player. I think his value is right around 11 mil per year. And I don't mind what we paid. I thank God that the Bobcats' front office don't have the same mindset as you, or we would all have to watch a terrible product for years for the possibility of striking gold. We may not have struck gold yet, but we have a whole bunch of silver. And I'm ok with getting out of the mine.

James Gatz · Post #694 » by **James Gatz** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:34 pm

He may be a minus defender but I'm personally excited to see one of the last true back to basket post players on our team.

Liver_Pooty · Post #695 » by **Liver_Pooty** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 11:52 pm

We honestly just couldn't go into the season with Biyombo getting heavy minutes again. Jefferson is going to open up so many more opportunities for everyone else on offense that it will seem like night and day compared to last season.

Nanogeek · Post #696 » by **Nanogeek** » Sat Aug 10, 2013 11:53 pm

MKGsMotor wrote:
So what do you want? To suck every year until we strike gold on a Wiggins. or- gasp- maybe we won't ever get that lucky? We've drafted solid talent in the last three drafts. What's wrong with trying to sign good players? Do you not think Al Jeff is good? So his value around the league is completely unjust? Ok so we may have overpaid a little (understandable though), what do you think he's worth. 9 mil? 8 mil? 7 mil? That's value for a good player. I think his value is right around 11 mil per year. And I don't mind what we paid. I thank God that the Bobcats' front office don't have the same mindset as you, or we would all have to watch a terrible product for years for the possibility of striking gold. We may not have struck gold yet, but we have a whole bunch of silver. And I'm ok with getting out of the mine.

I want us to make smart basketball decisions. Investing two lottery picks in front court players and then dropping 25% of our cap space on a front court player by itself isn't particularly smart. Perhaps management is realizing Biyombo's path to being a contributor is longer than they hoped (and hopefully isn't a dead-end). But if you are going to make a free agent signing you don't commit $14m per year to a player that has never played in an All-Star game after nine years in the league and made his team worse this past season. You keep your powder dry for a more suitable player or you wait until the trade deadline when teams are desperate to get below the luxury tax line and you get some assets that way. No one wants to lose but no one wants to spend alot of money only to win 5 more games than we did last year.

Elden Payton · Post #697 » by **Elden Payton** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:12 am

My word that is a terrible post.

We had the worst frontcourt in history which means that drafting and signing a couple of bigs is a logical, wise move.

Biyombo led the team in blocks and rebounds last season so he has at least shown something and he was also the 7th youngest player in the league whilst doing so, nothing points to our FO giving up on Biyombo.

The capspace means jack when we already have 20m available for next offseason, why not sign a big name free agent if possible? This is the biggest signing in Bobcats free agency history and is a coup imo considering we've had historically bad post scoring.

Michael Jordan can do whatever the hell he wants with his own money, people flame him for being cheap and people flame him for spending...

Eoghan · Post #698 » by **Eoghan** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 1:46 am

Don't worry Nanogeek, I'll copilot your Alice Jefferson hatewagon with you.

JMAC3 · Post #699 » by **JMAC3** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:21 pm

You guys act like he just got paid... He is only making 13.5 a season. There are over 30 players making more money than him across the league and I believe he ranks 35th on that list. Their is also 18 post players who make more money than him.

Also, at this stage in our development, we can afford to overpay for players, because more of our talent is underpaid on rookie contracts. Once Kemba and MKG come off those contracts we will have to be a little more opportunistic on deals, but you have to develop some sort of winning culture before that can happen.

Also, we kept the deal short, at most we are paying him for three seasons, and possibly two if things do not work out.

Eoghan · Post #700 » by **Eoghan** » Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:45 pm

He did get paid. He should make like 8 million per, tops. He can't play defense, he's never helped a team win, he's slow and unathletic, his scoring is waning because his tires are getting bald (9 years in the league already) and is a dinosaur in today's NBA, a big that is only effective in a halfcourt, slow-tempo offense. He's a niche player getting paid cornerstone money.