Does Al Jefferson know what a lay-up is?

[billyshelby]

Al stunk last night and I'm a big supporter. In fairness to him, Okafor was defending him well. He had like 2 touches at the 6 minute mark. On the flip side, he's got to go to the glass much harder for garbage points. And there were plenty of those for the taking.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

He's just miffed that G-time is best known for his rap than any of his play. See, according to Dwill_PwnasaurasRex, Gordon Hayward was the man. He was all over anyone who even dared question the #9 pick. When he had a good summer league, he again reaffirmed his position and basically called Gordon the next Dirk Nowistki. Now that that comparison is rather... Humorous. He's ticked and needs to tear down somebody. His target today is Al. Even though CJ sucked, Raja chucked, Deron pouted, Millsap played like a 2nd rounder, Fess was lost, Memo coming back, Price and Watson looked like Captain Crunch, he singled out Jefferson. When the entire team sucked tonight, he singled out Jefferson.

Thanks! Nice agenda. Can we just blame everything on Jefferson? Maybe even the economy too?

I wonder if some of Al's injuries have taken a toll on his athleticism? His play has been disappointing. But not as disappointing as AK's lack of motivation to earn another contract, Raja's play, CJ's inconsistency (yet he's been by far our best wing), and Hayword's play that makes Mo Almond or Kirk Snyder look like all stars....

? I'm a supporter of Haywards just because I like to remain positive. He has skills. I'm also a supporter of Big Al's. I think he is great when he attempts to get the ball down low, instead of settling for his 10 ft push shot. Its just irritating when our supposed "nasty" can hardly get over 10 rebounds or shoot over 50% for a single game.

I wasn't a Boozer homer. He was a complete tease. He played great and with heart against inferior teams, then completely disappeared against bigger players. But at least he did something well, REBOUND. When Al Jefferson is sucking, he is sucking hard.

 

[NUMBERICA]

And just to show that this isn't merely a Jefferson witch hunt driven by Boozer-homers;

Compared to other centers.
-Ranked 16th in PER
-While Jefferson is 10th in usage rate, he is 14th (of 15) qualified centers in PPS (which takes into account someone's ability to get to the line), and 43rd in TS%
-23rd in RP48 and 35th in rebound rate, again, just ranked against other centers.

I could go into something about assists, but whatever. He's been a fairly good shotblocker, too. So that's been nice. But to me that just tells me how much better he could be around the basket and on the boards.

And if the Jazz can win as much as they've had and he can get better, then look out. If he can to any appreciable degree.

 

[Chad Feldheimer]

Your hyperbole is mildly amusing, but no matter whether AJ is a better player than Booze or not, if he doesn't put forth 100% on the court, he's not gonna be much of a better cornerstone for the Jazz than Boozer was. The only way that this team is going to win the games that they should and compete for a title is to maximize the talent and effort that they have.

AJ and Bell (perhaps other, too) admitted that they didn't come into the season in shape--which has been a partial (but recently false) explanation for Fesenko not playing. Just another sign of the inconsistent treatment by this coaching staff.

Link to where they admitted they were not in shape? My understanding was that Al was in SLC the whole summer working out.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Your hyperbole is mildly amusing, but no matter whether AJ is a better player than Booze or not, if he doesn't put forth 100% on the court, he's not gonna be much of a better cornerstone for the Jazz than Boozer was. The only way that this team is going to win the games that they should and compete for a title is to maximize the talent and effort that they have.

AJ and Bell (perhaps other, too) admitted that they didn't come into the season in shape--which has been a partial (but recently false) explanation for Fesenko not playing. Just another sign of the inconsistent treatment by this coaching staff.

Ridiculous statemnet. Jefferson and Bell not being in shape means they arent in shape to run for 35 minutes and play starter minutes. Fesenko not in shape means he probably gets winded after 5 minutes.

 

[honz]

So, it looks like the honeymoon with Big Al is about over. Are all you fools ready to admit that Bozzer was better than you made him out to be?

P.S. Bozzer sucks.

 

[InGameStrategy]

Link to where they admitted they were not in shape? My understanding was that Al was in SLC the whole summer working out.

As I recall, it was an interview on KSL after the team had gotten together for preseason practice. You'll have to contact Rod the Rug Zundel for footage. I was surprised that both of them actually admitted to it. Also, Raja is coming off an injury from last year--a hand injury, which is less excuse for not being in cardiovascular condition.

This profile corroborates with what Big Al said. Part of it was the altitude.
https://extras.sltrib.com/jazz/lineup.asp?id=21
In fairness, both of them weren't back under the Jazz expectations until late in the offseason, but that doesn't mean that they should get a free pass on PT. And although AJ has progressed on understanding the offense and defending better, the interior D and the rebounding are still not up to what their ability should allow.

 

[InGameStrategy]

Ridiculous statemnet. Jefferson and Bell not being in shape means they arent in shape to run for 35 minutes and play starter minutes. Fesenko not in shape means he probably gets winded after 5 minutes.

Sadly, your argument is even weaker this year. The bottleneck on Fes's minutes hasn't come justifiably from Fes's conditioning; he doesn't get beat much off the dribble, and when he fouls, it's often due to not playing "hands off" defense. And more often than not, his fouling hasn't prevented the team from holding serve at minimum when he's on the court. His foul rate is down from last year, and so are his TOs.

Fes is in better shape this year, and despite the AJ-PM combo being ineffective in several of the losses, Sloan hasn't used Fesenko or Elson effectively either, actually going away from it in recent games even when there was no evidence that it wasn't working--which is kind of how he arranged Fes's PT last year, which meant that he still didn't have much experience under his belt when playoffs came.

(Last night was just bad basketball from everyone; but it's really sad when the coaches do nothing to break the sluggish tone that the starters set. And Okur's first stint on the court was part of taking the Jazz from 7 points behind to 21 points behind, with many Hornets points coming in the paint. Welcome back, Slowkur; thanks for further disrupting a backup lineup that was producing until it was broken up for no reason. Oh, and BTW, Jerry, AK at the 4 isn't all that great; Kiri playing PF was part of taking the game from a hole to a valley.)

Of the top 20 most-used lineups this year (minimum 10 minutes each), Elson is in 6 of them, and AJ is in 12 of them. Five of Elson's 6 lineups have positive +/-; only 7 of Jefferson's 12 have a positive +/-. Millsap-Elson has been a decent pairing; Millsap-Fesenko has the top +/- rate in its brief usage.

While Williams-Miles-Kirilenko-Millsap-Jefferson has been an effective lineup, 6 of the other 7 Millsap-Jefferson lineups have been lukewarm (near zero) or negative. The 3 lineups with Fesenko in them have all been net positive, good for 12 "wins" (games in which the lineup outscored the opposition while they were on the court together) and only 3 "losses."

 

[mrob]

My problem with Boozer (even though I was never a big Anti-Boozer person) is that he was opportunistic in chasing the almighty stats. He knows better than anyone that being able to maintain 20/10 means something in this league. Some would argue that it means too much. There is no doubt that he was (and is) a great scorer.

A great defender is willing to balance putting up a solid challenge to the other team's shot, but still remaining in position to grab the rebound. Boozer time and time again showed that his only interest was being in position for the rebound ... often at the expense of good team defense.

He knows that by abandoning good defense will lead to easy points scored against his team, but he also knows that 10 rebounds a night looks a lot better than 5-6 when he's trying to get paid.

In fact this is not a Boozer-only problem. The NBA rewards players that put up big numbers. Points. Rebounds. Assists. Steals. Blocks. Unfortunately many of these stats only come to those that are willing to sacrifice something else to get them. There are a few truly gifted players that are able do all these things and still play solid defense. Defense doesn't have the same "awe" factor that the others do, and ultimately many players are more interested in lining their own pockets than helping the team win.

 

[NUMBERICA]

My problem with Boozer (even though I was never a big Anti-Boozer person) is that he was opportunistic in chasing the almighty stats. He knows better than anyone that being able to maintain 20/10 means something in this league. Some would argue that it means too much. There is no doubt that he was (and is) a great scorer.

A great defender is willing to balance putting up a solid challenge to the other team's shot, but still remaining in position to grab the rebound. Boozer time and time again showed that his only interest was being in position for the rebound ... often at the expense of good team defense.

He knows that by abandoning good defense will lead to easy points scored against his team, but he also knows that 10 rebounds a night looks a lot better than 5-6 when he's trying to get paid.

In fact this is not a Boozer-only problem. The NBA rewards players that put up big numbers. Points. Rebounds. Assists. Steals. Blocks. Unfortunately many of these stats only come to those that are willing to sacrifice something else to get them. There are a few truly gifted players that are able do all these things and still play solid defense. Defense doesn't have the same "awe" factor that the others do, and ultimately many players are more interested in lining their own pockets than helping the team win.

You're discounting that scoring and rebounding matters. There are things that don't show up in the stat sheet and lead to team success but Al isn't particularly good at those either. Even when the Jazz's opponent FG% was the best in the league, they were still allowing more opponent PPS because they couldn't get a rebound. I'm not going to say what Al's or Boozer's intent was because I can't know and it's a silly exercise. Al brings things Boozer didn't (and I'm glad he's gone), but that doesn't mean that the things Boozer brought weren't valuable either.

If there's one clear-cut victory personnel-wise this year, it's been Millsap. Even if his rebounding leaves something to be desired.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Im hoping, with both Paul and Jefferson, they will come in next year more ready to handle the challenges of being a full time starter for the Jazz. Sap with his conditioning and being able to handle a full season and play every game at a high level, and Jefferson working on skills that he lacks that are essential to be successful in Utah (mainly pick and roll).

 

[mrob]

You're discounting that scoring and rebounding matters. There are things that don't show up in the stat sheet and lead to team success but Al isn't particularly good at those either. Even when the Jazz's opponent FG% was the best in the league, they were still allowing more opponent PPS because they couldn't get a rebound. I'm not going to say what Al's or Boozer's intent was because I can't know and it's a silly exercise. Al brings things Boozer didn't (and I'm glad he's gone), but that doesn't mean that the things Boozer brought weren't valuable either.

If there's one clear-cut victory personnel-wise this year, it's been Millsap. Even if his rebounding leaves something to be desired.

I agree with you. Good rebounding is certainly part of good defense and should not be discounted. We certainly need more of it, and I am still baffled by how out of position for rebounding we seem to be. It's great to see the team putting up more fight on defense, but there needs to be some balance. With Boozer though, there was no balance. And maybe it's even arguable that you need someone like that on the team. I would rather see a team that plays tough defense, but still are in position to grab those rebounds ... particularly defensive rebounds.

I think we're better off because I think the rebounding will come. We have players that are good rebounders, so I think it's more of an issue of team defense and being in the right position while still maintaining the better overall defense we're seeing this season.

With Boozer we did know what we were going to get. He was going to get his points and his rebounds, but his defense left us exposed especially since we had others in the post that also didn't defend very well.

Overall, I'm pleased with what I've seen so far this season. We have a lot of talent out there on the floor which is more than can be said about a lot of teams out there. The team looks very good at times and I don't think they have reached their potential as a group. I do hope they hit their stride in the 2nd half of the season and make a nice playoff run.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

We are a bad rebounding team because 2 of our 3 front-court players (AK and Al) are some of the laziest rebounders I have seen on Utah in a while, and Sap is undersized and obviously tired. Ive seen many a ball wiz by Al's head of sharp deflections from the rim, because Al is completely unfocused on rebounding.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

What's wrong with Big Al? He's at 16.3 points, 8.6 rebounds with a career high in FT% (84.8) and near career highs in assists (1.7) and blocks (1.7) per game to boot. Add in the fact that his turnovers and fouls per game are at a career low (since he started getting starter minutes) and I'm quite content. Dude needs to harness his energy, use his brains and take better shots (his fg% is at a career low), no doubt. But I can only think that if he remains healthy and continues learning the nuances of our system, and busts his *** this off-season, he could be the monster we've wanted all along by next year.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

Though 41.6% this month from the floor for a big doesn't do a lot to inspire confidence I suppose.

 

[VINYLONE]

Nah, bro. Dude needs to ****ing dunk the ball. Before he played for his he talked about and referenced on many occasions about bringing the ****ing nasty. He has yet to bring the ****ing nasty. I want to see some ****ing dunking, not some garbage lay ups.

Al Jefferson, I know you have it in you. Show us the dunks.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

Nah, bro. Dude needs to ****ing dunk the ball. Before he played for his he talked about and referenced on many occasions about bringing the ****ing nasty. He has yet to bring the ****ing nasty. I want to see some ****ing dunking, not some garbage lay ups.

Al Jefferson, I know you have it in you. Show us the dunks.

Patience bro. We're not winning it this year anyway. But next year. I think next year could be our year. With Duncan and Kobe each another year older, that title will be ****ing ours.

So let Jeff continue to get into better shape, work out like a fiend this summer, and next year he'll be slammin' away on ****er's heads.

 

[memo is money]

Normally, a considerable amount of rebounding margin can be explained by the negative results of helping, rotating and even swtiching ever position. The Jazz are a help defense team and they sometimes overhelp. However, a 45-16 rebounding disparcity or the having one of the worst rebounding rates among NBA teams cannot explained just by those factors.

I do not miss Boozer's rebounding a bit because I know for sure that defending, helping were never took part in his game. He was the first guy to secure the rebound but it had everything to do with his lack of effort and willingness to defend. It does not mean that I'm content with what our bigs have done but this problem will be overcome.

 

[billyshelby]

Al is still figuring this all out. He'll be fine.

 

[Surely]

I am starting to wonder if Al was once assaulted by a rim or something. He sure seems to be afraid to dunk the ball. If I am almost seven feet tall and I have an open lane to the rim, you can bet your bottom dollar I'm not pulling up for a wussy 5 footer that only has a 50/50 chance of going in. I'm going in strong and making sure if nothing else there is enough contact for a foul.