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Jefferson's development this year

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JAZZGASM

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I'll be the first to say that I'm not a huge Jefferson fan. However, he has improved a lot this year, especially on his passing. Of course he still needs a lot of work, but I have seen his passing improve. The problem is, he knows he can score over 2-3 players, and has actually done a good job of it, even if most of us cringe when he makes those moves as we yell at our tv's for him to pass the ball to a cutter/wing.

The weird thing to me is, I've watched him play in every game for the Jazz, and a lot of games for Minnesota, and other teams still haven't learned to guard him (well, the Spurs have, but he generally dominates other players)

The one trick to guard him is to not leave your feet. He isn't the fastest or tallest center, and he relies heavily on his jump-push shot. As we have seen in this series, Duncan doesn't leave his feet and AJ can't score over him.

At this point, the Jazz are in a huge hole, and I don't see Jefferson bringing them out of it. I think it is time to give the young guys a lot of playoff experience.
 
I like Jefferson, but I think it's time to deal him because his game is way too narrowly focused. He's a black hole, he can't defend, and he can't play pick and roll or run the floor. For his position, that's terrible. All he can do is post moves and an occasional jumper and he's not even close to providing leadership.
 
JAZZGASM said:
The weird thing to me is, I've watched him play in every game for the Jazz, and a lot of games for Minnesota, and other teams still haven't learned to guard him (well, the Spurs have, but he generally dominates other players)

The one trick to guard him is to not leave your feet. He isn't the fastest or tallest center, and he relies heavily on his jump-push shot. As we have seen in this series, Duncan doesn't leave his feet and AJ can't score over him.

At this point, the Jazz are in a huge hole, and I don't see Jefferson bringing them out of it. I think it is time to give the young guys a lot of playoff experience.
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The key to guarding Al is to 3-quarter front him. This denies him the ball on the low-block because Al doesn't fight to get the defender on his back, and the Jazz as a team have been slow to counter with their high-low all season. By the time Al catches the ball he's way off the block, about 12-15 feet from the basket and out of his comfort zone. Keep him out of the lane, and let him shoot from the wing/baseline, with the understanding he'll still make some - but not as many and taking away what someone wants to do and forcing them to play left-handed is what championship teams do. When Al is able to post Duncan, Duncan often overplays Al on the left shoulder to take away that jump-hook/push shot and force Al to spin baseline, where Duncan is better able to challenge the shot because Al doesn't have a left-hand and doesn't get to the rim on his spin-move.

Quite frankly, when you can successfully do this to Al's offensive game - he's quite worthless because of his inability to defend screen-roll (both guarding the screener as well as being a help-defender) at the other end. If he's not giving you an efficient presence in the post, he's a marginal player at best.
 
Jefferson is the same player as Carmello/Marbury/TMac, etc. They are selfish. He has improved, which should be lauded. BUT, he isn't a big time player. The problem is, unless Deron is coming back to Utah, I don't see Jefferson going anywhere. I think KOC is loading up so in the summer of 2013 we will have loads of cap space to sign a max player. Get ready for another year of this, folks.
 
JAZZGASM said:
I'll be the first to say that I'm not a huge Jefferson fan. However, he has improved a lot this year, especially on his passing. Of course he still needs a lot of work, but I have seen his passing improve.
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...frankly, I've seen the same thing, and admit that it seems when Jefferson puts his mind to it, he can pass like he's actually trying to help his team out! Can he be convinced to do it more often? I doubt it.
 
I think for the most part we can remove the "black hole" label to Big Al. His defense is still the same as it was last year, though in spurts it is better at times.
 
carolinajazz said:
...frankly, I've seen the same thing, and admit that it seems when Jefferson puts his mind to it, he can pass like he's actually trying to help his team out! Can he be convinced to do it more often? I doubt it.
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That's the exact thing. I actually thing Big Al is a capable passer when he wants to be. I just don't understand why he doesn't realize that adding passing to his game would 1) get him open more often as opposing teams would be punished for double teams and 2) allow his team to win more games and 3) take some of the load off and he could save some energy for defense). One of the big reasons Malone was so great is because he punished other teams when they tried to double him. He was unselfish and was a good passer.

I think he has been "convinced" to pass out of the double team because he has done it more, but I agree that he is so selfish on offense. It is truly the achilles heel of his game.
 
Reading Cyrone and listening to Corbin....If they aren't the same, Cyrone has to Tyrone's mom.
 
Do I like Jefferson? Absolutely, but only on offense. I think he hurts the team more than most of you would like to admit.

"Jefferson is unstoppable out there"

Meanwhile... Jefferson is getting abused on pick and rolls almost every play of every game. That negates his effectiveness on the offensive end. Also, as good as Jefferson can be offensively, he doesn't have a knack for drawing fouls, which hurts his value to the team. If he goes out there and draws fouls it does a few things for the team (and himself):

1. He gets to the line and scores more points.
2. He gets the opposing big men in foul trouble which is HUGE since he gets abused on the other end by pick and rolls all game.
3. By drawing these fouls, it forces the opposing big men to be less aggressive and hesitant on defense.

Yes, Al has had some respectable games on defense but they're few and far between. I like the guy, I really do, but he's not irreplaceable. Favors brings it on both ends and will continue to improve game-in and game-out. It just makes sense to trade him for other needed pieces (shooter/point guard/draft pick).

As far as him improvement on passing the ball.. I've seen it at times but it hasn't been consistent. One game he'll willingly pass out the ball and other games he'll take on double and triple teams by himself trying to score the ball.
 
Jefferson is that annoying guy you play with that should help your team but rarely ever does... He is so bad on defense, and such a crappy passer that unless he is just killing it on the post your team has absolutely no chance of winning.
 
I like AJ and I believe he has improved since coming to Utah. I agree that the "black hole" description should be dropped. There are three problems I have with AJ, his bad pick'n roll defense. He is on Boozer's level. You can score all you want but if you can't stop the other team then it doesn't matter. I also don't like his shooting effectiveness. There are many times where his stats are good but he had to take a lot of shots to get them. There are times that AJ does revert back to his selfishness but I think he has made a big improvement with his willingness to pass.

However the major probably I have with AJ is he is slowing down the progress of Favors and to some extent Kanter. AJ playing big minutes takes away from Favor and Kanter getting more minutes. The Jazz have a decision to make and I would rather keep Millsap instead of AJ. I like AJ as a person and a teammate but sometimes you have to let go of talented players to make the team better (Jeff Malone for Hornacek). Trading AJ can help the Jazz improve and also potentially lighten our financial costs. I hope the Jazz have a deal in the makings to move Jefferson so the Favors/Kanter careers can move forward.
 
vslice02 said:
The key to guarding Al is to 3-quarter front him. This denies him the ball on the low-block because Al doesn't fight to get the defender on his back, and the Jazz as a team have been slow to counter with their high-low all season. By the time Al catches the ball he's way off the block, about 12-15 feet from the basket and out of his comfort zone. Keep him out of the lane, and let him shoot from the wing/baseline, with the understanding he'll still make some - but not as many and taking away what someone wants to do and forcing them to play left-handed is what championship teams do. When Al is able to post Duncan, Duncan often overplays Al on the left shoulder to take away that jump-hook/push shot and force Al to spin baseline, where Duncan is better able to challenge the shot because Al doesn't have a left-hand and doesn't get to the rim on his spin-move.

Quite frankly, when you can successfully do this to Al's offensive game - he's quite worthless because of his inability to defend screen-roll (both guarding the screener as well as being a help-defender) at the other end. If he's not giving you an efficient presence in the post, he's a marginal player at best.
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The 3 quarter fronting is frustrating because Al just doesn't fight for position very hard (I wonder if this is related to his poor boxing out skills). Btw this bad habit seems to have rubbed off on Kanter.
 
Yes we can remove the black hole label, his 2.2 assists per game is, by far, a career high and above average for centers in the NBA. The Jazz have no reliable three point shooters for him to kick out to so don't think we can complain there.
Two areas we can complain is defense, specifically pick and roll, and failure getting to the foul line. He was below his career average on foul shots per game, which is very low to begin with. It points to him taking more jump shots and push shots, and not being able to back defenders down in the post. His career low FG% (49.2) is consistent with that as well.
 
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