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The Jefferson Question?

The ball moves around, the offense doesn't stall......Do the Jazz want to ruin the cool vibe they've got going? Can they bring Jefferson and his $14 million dollar contract off the bench?

What will Ty Corbin do? What do you think should be done?

....I think we should hire a good lawyer....and try and get back some of the money Jefferson has been stealing from us since he signed his current contract! I think he should be deep sixed/cut/let go/dismissed and a clause in his contract found that allows us to stop paying him. However, since none of that is going to be possible...,.bring him off the bench for limited minutes....until we can dump him on some other team!
 
I think it depends on what Kanter and Favors do from here on. If they continue to play great, I think they'll get minutes. But if they show more inconsistency, then you can expect Al to get his minutes. Al is consistent, and coaches like a player that they can rely on.

Burks got a lot of minutes the past few games because he played great. Sure, he got a chance because of Bell's injury, but Corbin could have given those minutes to CJ and Howard, and even Hayward can play the 2. Corbin playe him a lot of minutes because he was playing so well.
I'll agree that Jefferson is consistent. Consistently inefficient on offense and lazy on defense.
 
I think it depends on what Kanter and Favors do from here on. If they continue to play great, I think they'll get minutes. But if they show more inconsistency, then you can expect Al to get his minutes. Al is consistent, and coaches like a player that they can rely on.

Burks got a lot of minutes the past few games because he played great. Sure, he got a chance because of Bell's injury, but Corbin could have given those minutes to CJ and Howard, and even Hayward can play the 2. Corbin playe him a lot of minutes because he was playing so well.

Ahhh thee ol "consistency" argument. I remember hearing that for YEARS regarding Boozer. He consistently gave us 20 and 10 people said!

LOL

Never mind the sloppy defense, the pansie way he played, and the lack of chemistry we had when he was on the court.

Big Al slows down our offense, never gets to the FT line, and plays unathletic sloppy defense.

Having said that, I'm not advocating that he sucks. However, I would definitely not go with the "consistency" argument here. That's BS. We saw it with Boozer and I'll be damned if I see it again.

Big Al has some legitimate holes in his game (as I mentioned above). Until he addresses those, I'm in favor of playing Kanter/Favors ahead of him. Tough, physical, post play that results in drawing fouls and moving the ball around should not be underestimated nor substituted for the "numbers" Big Al puts up.

I'd rather have Enes give us 14 and 10 in physical post play and not hinder our offense than watch Big Al give us 20 and 10 while playing like a wuss (and destroying our offense).

Just like how the Bulls are better without Boozer and with Taj Gibson. Gibson doesn't get Boozer stats but he's a far better player and fit for that Bulls team.
 
I just want to be on record that Jefferson is a good player. It's mostly that with where the Jazz are at, I know what I want, and I know it's not Al.

To me this situation is similar to when the Jazz had both Dantley and Malone. We know how that turned out. I'm hoping the Jazz trade him in the offseason. If we put him on the bench it will devalue his trade value, and could start a rift in the locker room. Ty needs to do what the bulls coach does, limit Al's 4th quarter minutes.
 
BTW, the idea of resorting to amnestying Jefferson is interesting in that it's very likely most of his salary would be paid by another team. That seems last ditch, but it's a nice last ditch option.

Also, I'm starting to worry that the Jazz have too high a quantity of good assets for them to all work. Maybe he could be paired to get a true great player? The Jazz have kept themselves impressively flexible.

Name one truly great player we could get for Jefferson + pick(s) + whatever else within reason. I can't think of one. "Great player" that is.
 
I think any solid trade may be the byproduct of an unhappy camper on some other team. Here's a proposal I've not yet heard but would be thrilled with...

Jefferson for Maggette's expiring plus filler if needed-- this makes the most sense to me. Charlotte's offense is brutal (last in the league in scoring) and MJ's a moron so perhaps he'd consider a guy like Al to hang his hat on. God knows they could use a 20 point guy and with their slower style (20th in the league in possessions per game), and Biyombo behind Al (who is best at the 4 imo), I think they could be sold on that frontline. And if both teams pretty much know that each respective player isn't currently in their long term plans, why not do a swap to see if the other could be?

Kevin Martin on Houston would be a similar move but with Scola and Dalembert, I'm not sure it makes sense for them at all.

I think we need to seriously explore the former this offseason. We could start Maggs at the 3 next year, still bring Hayward off the bench (where he seems best) at the 2 or at the 3, and have one year to develop our draft pick(s) slowly before Maggs expires.

Harris-Watson-Tinsley-rookie
Burks-Hayward-Bell
Maggs-rookie
Millsap-Evans-2nd round pick
Favors-Kanter
 
Maggette's prime is so long ago. Didn't we sign him to an offer sheet before we ever even landed Okur and Boozer?

And Keven Martin's game is over with, now that he doesn't get ft's for jumping into players.
 
Keep Al. Cut his minutes by 5. Give them to Favors.

Start Al. Keep the first and second quarter the same. Start Al in the third. Pull him three minutes earlier (8 mins left in third). Let Favors finish the third. Start Al in the fourth. When there is 5 mins left, sub Al out, put Favors in. Simple.
 
I think any solid trade may be the byproduct of an unhappy camper on some other team. Here's a proposal I've not yet heard but would be thrilled with...

Jefferson for Maggette's expiring plus filler if needed-- this makes the most sense to me. Charlotte's offense is brutal (last in the league in scoring) and MJ's a moron so perhaps he'd consider a guy like Al to hang his hat on. God knows they could use a 20 point guy and with their slower style (20th in the league in possessions per game), and Biyombo behind Al (who is best at the 4 imo), I think they could be sold on that frontline. And if both teams pretty much know that each respective player isn't currently in their long term plans, why not do a swap to see if the other could be?

Kevin Martin on Houston would be a similar move but with Scola and Dalembert, I'm not sure it makes sense for them at all.

I think we need to seriously explore the former this offseason. We could start Maggs at the 3 next year, still bring Hayward off the bench (where he seems best) at the 2 or at the 3, and have one year to develop our draft pick(s) slowly before Maggs expires.

Harris-Watson-Tinsley-rookie
Burks-Hayward-Bell
Maggs-rookie
Millsap-Evans-2nd round pick
Favors-Kanter

I'd rather just keep Howard than trade for Maggette. Then just let Al expire for nothing. We get a better deal that way. Al for nothing is a better deal than Al for Maggette.
 
I like Al Jefferson. I actually like him a lot. However, he does have some glaring holes in his game that is a huge problem for the team and these need to be fixed. Al deserve a lot of credit for his effort to improve over the off-season and came back a much better player. There is a chance that he might come back even better next year, but he will never be an elite defender. So what do we do with him? I would love for him to succeed somewhere and most of all with us. However, I do not see this happening with this squad so changes need to be made. For us to be able to attract big name players, we need to start making some noise. If we managed to get to the play-offs and make it really hard for a team like the Spurs to beat us, players like Rondo, Lowry or Harden might take a look at our young core and see that Utah will be a very exciting place to be in the near future. Big Al has to be the major trade piece to get a guard of this caliber, and the better we as a team and he as our team leader plays, the better the chances of us getting a major piece back for his are. Right now Al Jefferson is 3rd among centers in Pts/Rbs/Asts and 13th in Hollinger`s PER-ratings, just below Paul Millsap. The man is having a very good season and a good run in the play-offs could actually be even more important to us than a mid- to late lottery pick as it could help us land an established guard who could lead this team over the next 4-5 seasons.
 
also one thing we are forgetting is cobrin doenst manage al well he relies on him to much how often do you see big al tired as ****. then instead of pulling big al. we go to al down the stretch when he is tired the most.

most oevrtime losses are to blame on corbin. big al playing most of 4th + overtime being exhausted then force the ball to al, having disastrous effects both on offense and defense.
it's no coincidence jazz won their first 2 ot games without big al.

either al needs to improve his conditioning(which cant be done on the fly) or corbin must manage Jefferson minutes accordingly
 
The only real problem here is how all that versatility we have, which is better to have instead of a mix of superstars and scrubs, gets UTILIZED on the court. Big Al DOES have skills of value offensively, BUT coach Ty needs to get away from this "primary option" concept of dumping the ball to him virtually every time down the court. The games where he didn't play him clearly revealed we have plenty of guys who can score or make plays as a TEAM. If Big Al could score against ANY defense, great, but it's been demonstrated by some of the better teams they can seriously slow him down. Bottom line; coach Ty needs to be SMARTER in building a strategy from game-to-game that will work against his opponent. We KNOW we can match up with every team in the NBA with our versatility IF we got a smart game plan AND use the proper personnel; don't be afraid to have a different lineup/rotation against different opponents!
 
https://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-nba-free-agents

There are an awful lot of very nice FA targets on this list for 2013. And I very much believe AJ is a great mentor for Kanter. Those moves he put on Bynum looked like Al had a vanilla milkshake poured all over him and he actually got mad about it.

IMO Utah will probably move Jefferson in the offseason but he easily could be in very high demand as the deadline comes up. If I'm KOC I wouldn't worry about there being tension over the bigs rotation more than making sure if there is a trade that it is the perfect one for the team. 14 mil + expiring might be better considering the above list. Of course I still want Rondo lol.

I dont' have a problem with having too many good big men. It'd be sweet next season to see none of them over 30 minutes. Hell, they probably aren't far off right now from trying that out.
 
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