si article "Can Millsap play SF?"

[GVC]

Here we go again....

Ya well, stats be damned. Millsap was statistically more efficient than Big Al in virtually all scoring situations last season. People see the moves, and forget about the rate of finishing and ability to draw fouls. Big Al is a lot more style than substance, and a whole lotta people here are fooled.

With that said, perhaps if he's really committed himself to getting in shape and playing to contact this summer, and comes back with a chip on his shoulder, he can use those post moves to be a smarter, more efficient offensive player. He certainly has the tools to be better than Millsap scoring the basketball. Hopefully the players and owners reach an agreement (in principle) today.

 

[NotDeadYet]

Big Al was actually quite productive later in the season. Given the unique system he had to learn and new teammates to interact on the court with, perfectly understandable it took him some time to fit in. The next season will tell us where Big Al is a lot more clearly. Millsap, OTOH, isn't ever gonna be a consistant quality starter in the NBA. He could be one of the best 6th men if he committed to that role.

 

[billyshelby]

Big Al was actually quite productive later in the season. Given the unique system he had to learn and new teammates to interact on the court with, perfectly understandable it took him some time to fit in. The next season will tell us where Big Al is a lot more clearly. Millsap, OTOH, isn't ever gonna be a consistant quality starter in the NBA. He could be one of the best 6th men if he committed to that role.

How good was Al in the second half? I forget.

 

[Dr. Jones]

Not calling anyone out, specifically, but most fans are just stat watchers. I mean no offense, but they don't understand the game well enough to see the rest of the picture. I'm 39 years old and have been trying to argue this point(s) for 20+ years to no avail. I'll say it again, though ... there's more (much more) to a player than a boxscore.

 

[InGameStrategy]

Big Al was actually quite productive later in the season on one side of the floor--and that side does not start with "d".

Fixed.

Given the unique system he had to learn and new teammates to interact on the court with, perfectly understandable it took him some time to fit in. The next season will tell us where Big Al is a lot more clearly.

Meanwhile, a team that just added Brendan Haywood and Tyson Chandler last year somehow managed to "learn" quickly enough to log a title. Last time I checked, it takes about 5 minutes to "learn" to move your feet on defense; the details can be filled in with the coaches enforcing the effort and refining things in practice.

 

[Deleted member 848]

Fixed.

Meanwhile, a team that just added Brendan Haywood and Tyson Chandler last year somehow managed to "learn" quickly enough to log a title. Last time I checked, it takes about 5 minutes to "learn" to move your feet on defense; the details can be filled in with the coaches enforcing the effort and refining things in practice.

Care to show some evidence regarding whether Al played good D after the all-star break or not? I honestly have no idea personally, but you could be speaking out of your *** here. And I sort of agree with you, however there are things to keep in mind: first and foremost, I feel like Al has always been told to focus most of his efforts on O(due to him being the sole offensive weapon in his below-mediocre Wolves and Celtics teams), and this was probably one of the first seasons where (potentially) the staff might have let him know that he's been dogging it. Examples of this are the Miami Heat game, a Lakers game, and a few others. I think where the "let him gel for more than a year to become familiar" comments stemmed from is his OFFENSE, because there was obviously a huge shift in offensive systems from a awfully organized triangle to the Jazz Flex-Offense. That is where I give him lee-way. Now, I agree with you in the policy when it comes to benching players who show no effort. How ever, we saw Als blocking go up which I would say is a sign of defensive effort for sure. Rotating in pick and roll situations? Sort of thing that you have to get better with through experience. I think it just comes down to the coaching, and how serious he is about defense. If Corbin takes it seriously, so will Al. If not, then I fear our future.

 

[NotDeadYet]

Exactly, dalamon. I see Al as a guy who does take his coach seriously and will do what's asked of him. After DWill left, anytime Millsap encountered a severe mismatch at PF big Al was our offense. I could be wrong, but I think he will respond to coach Ty's edicts. I think coach used last year to assess what he had and see what worked and didn't work. It'll be interesting to see what changes will be forthcoming for the following years.

 

[billyshelby]

I honestly have no idea what the defensive abilities of our players really are. We had the worst defensive scheme of any team I saw. And that's assuming we had a scheme which I didn't see any evidence of. Jerry's big weakness over the years was that defense to him was fundamental -- keep your man in front of you, sag on every driver from the wing, fight over every screen (even when you shouldn't), the 3 point shot is a low percentage shot. That "scheme", or whatever it was, never changed for any opponent.

What I saw last year was a team that could play about 10 seconds of solid D for every clock. But guys didn't know when to switch, rotations were always poor (constant sag + giving up the 3 will do that), there was never any thought to forcing opposing players into their weaknesses (hey, how bout forcing Zach to go right hand? How bout letting Derek Fisher go one on one if he wants to drive?), the list goes on.

We fell into the old trap. Teams would discombobulate us early in the clock, a few guys would be out of position, and then everybody takes turns looking bad. The good news is we don't have a Boozer who doesn't care. Everybody cares. And Thibodeau has proved definitively there are ways to make even a Boozer work in the top defense in the NBA. We can do that, too, but it has to come from up top. When that happens, I'll be able to say this guy or that guy is a bad defender.

 

[sepanol]

I honestly have no idea what the defensive abilities of our players really are. We had the worst defensive scheme of any team I saw. And that's assuming we had a scheme which I didn't see any evidence of. Jerry's big weakness over the years was that defense to him was fundamental -- keep your man in front of you, sag on every driver from the wing, fight over every screen (even when you shouldn't), the 3 point shot is a low percentage shot. That "scheme", or whatever it was, never changed for any opponent.

What I saw last year was a team that could play about 10 seconds of solid D for every clock. But guys didn't know when to switch, rotations were always poor (constant sag + giving up the 3 will do that), there was never any thought to forcing opposing players into their weaknesses (hey, how bout forcing Zach to go right hand? How bout letting Derek Fisher go one on one if he wants to drive?), the list goes on.

We fell into the old trap. Teams would discombobulate us early in the clock, a few guys would be out of position, and then everybody takes turns looking bad. The good news is we don't have a Boozer who doesn't care. Everybody cares. And Thibodeau has proved definitively there are ways to make even a Boozer work in the top defense in the NBA. We can do that, too, but it has to come from up top. When that happens, I'll be able to say this guy or that guy is a bad defender.

Even thibodeau couldnt make Boozer better defensively by the way, so we must be really lucky that we get rid of him

 

[InGameStrategy]

Care to show some evidence regarding whether Al played good D after the all-star break or not?
I honestly have no idea personally, but you could be speaking out of your *** here. And I sort of agree with you, however there are things to keep in mind: first and foremost, I feel like Al has always been told to focus most of his efforts on O(due to him being the sole offensive weapon in his below-mediocre Wolves and Celtics teams), and this was probably one of the first seasons where (potentially) the staff might have let him know that he's been dogging it.

Well, now Al's a Jazzman, and even though Big Al didn't go to college, it seems to me the he could handle the instruction of playing on both ends of the floor. Not too much to ask. And not too much to enforce, either.

Examples of this are the Miami Heat game, a Lakers game, and a few others. I think where the "let him gel for more than a year to become familiar" comments stemmed from is his OFFENSE, because there was obviously a huge shift in offensive systems from a awfully organized triangle to the Jazz Flex-Offense. That is where I give him lee-way. Now, I agree with you in the policy when it comes to benching players who show no effort. How ever, we saw Als blocking go up which I would say is a sign of defensive effort for sure. Rotating in pick and roll situations? Sort of thing that you have to get better with through experience. I think it just comes down to the coaching, and how serious he is about defense. If Corbin takes it seriously, so will Al. If not, then I fear our future.

Glad you're on board, sort of, but I'm not impressed that his defense went up only if his blocks went up.

I don't recall when the all-star break was, but Big Al's block total stayed about the same (2.1 BP30) between when Sloan was here and when he left (about February 24).

 

[vj_74]

Sloan had nothing much to do with Jazz's defensive struggles. This team just had a bunch of mediocre defenders some of whom lacked in lateral quickness and some of whom were young and clueless. On top of that there was a star player-coach feud going on behind the scenes for the whole season. If your star player doesnt want to run the offense, you can forget him running your defense. It is not going to happen. (Not that Deron was a great defensive player otherwise.He had his own limitations.)

And BTW, Thibodeau has not transformed Boozer into a defense-first player or anything.Their defense is good despite Boozer not because of him. Fortunately they have other options like Noah,Gibson to turn to without losing a lot on offense.

 

[InGameStrategy]

Sloan had nothing much to do with Jazz's defensive struggles. This team just had a bunch of mediocre defenders some of whom lacked in lateral quickness and some of whom were young and clueless. On top of that there was a star player-coach feud going on behind the scenes for the whole season. If your star player doesnt want to run the offense, you can forget him running your defense. It is not going to happen. (Not that Deron was a great defensive player otherwise.He had his own limitations.)

I simply disagree that Sloan is (or any coach) is blameless here, because Boozer himself proved occasionally that he could play some semblance of defense. Although Boozer didn't have good lateral footwork, he could've played better defense most of the time just by putting forth the effort. And I bet you dollars to doughnuts that better footwork wasn't even suggested in practice, much less implemented; and I'd be interested to know how much time they even spent on team defense. But the #1 thing would've to enforce it; namely, bench a player who isn't defending. This could have been done without sacrificing wins, especially in the long run (i.e., across an entire season).

The concept that a coach isn't partially responsible for a team's subpar performance--any more than a manager isn't partially responsible for a department's subpar performance--is puzzling. To do so, you have to prove that the coach did everything reasonable that he could to maximize the team's effort and skill. Only then can you put it on the players for falling short. Not surprisingly, I flatly disagree that Sloan did do all he could--which was poetic irony, given that he was known during his playing career as a tough-nosed defender (and during most of his coaching career as a tough-nosed coach).

And BTW, Thibodeau has not transformed Boozer into a defense-first player or anything.Their defense is good despite Boozer not because of him. Fortunately they have other options like Noah,Gibson to turn to without losing a lot on offense.

Nobody's asking for "defense first." And the fact that Thibodeau was willing to bench Boozer is exactly the strategy that I am recommending for the Jazz. You simply don't keep a player on the court if his defense is being a net liability at a given moment. If he continues to refuse to play defense (or not to be able to be better defense, which I do not think is the case with Boozer or Jefferson), then you evaluate their value against other options. Despite Boozer's scoring prowess, there were times that he was better to be off the floor. Evidently Thibodeau thought the same, even though he probably wasn't successful (yet) in making Boozer a passable defender.

Same goes for Jefferson--especially now, where last year the alternatives might have been better, it's gonna be even more likely this year and next as Kanter and Favors continue to improve that his minutes should not be taken for granted.