Devin Harris on Al Jefferson: Jazz fans will be surprised if they see him

[sepanol]

Not to mention Kanter might suck. So might Favors. Sap's ceiling might be topped out. Al might prove his individual talents are more detrimental to team play than they're worth.

The crazy thing is assuming anyone is a bedrock, or the future, and planning that way. You put the best guys on the floor every night. If Kanter or Favors are so good, they'll force their way onto the floor. You don't assume NOW that they're going to be studs and put proven players out to pasture just to get that assumption going.

Anyway you gotta make choices, after 3-4 years from now, we cant keep all the guys we have right now. We dont have a guarantee Kanter or Favors will be very good players, but it is a high possiblity that they will be. And it is not a bad idea to start guys who have potential right now if we are a rebuilding team. If you think like that, then it was a bad idea that Oklahoma gave all the responsibility to Durant and Westbrook as soon as they get drafted

 

[sepanol]

Sepanol, you always say that we can't keep Jefferson and all these other young players. This may be true, but we will be able to for the next two years quite easily.

Jefferson has 2 years left on his contract
Millsap has 2 years left (or is it 3?)
Favors has 3
Kanter will have 4 (assuming rookie contract length is the same in new CBA)

We will be able to keep this 4 man rotation for 2 years. After those 2 years are up, we will have to reevaluate the direction of our big men. Are Favors and Kanter performing well enough to be trusted wtih full time starter minutes? Are Millsap or Jefferson resign-able? And so on. A lot can happen from now to then end of those 2 years.

Yeah but i think, we should get some nice asset by shipping Big Al and Harris now, because after 2 years, if we wont agree with them, especially Big Al, he will go away without giving us anything in return. I mean instead of having redundancy in big man rotation, we can get a good SF or PG or another top draft pick this year.
You can argue, we can ship Millsap or Memo instead, but millsap is so productive and he can be a bench guy, and he is paid half of Big Al. Memo is already on last year contract, so after this year, he can either leave or stay with a cheaper deal.

Big Al here is the only guy we can use as a good trade asset and we have this flexibility to trade because of the guys we already have. So what im saying again and again, i dont say he is a bad player, he is just clearly not our franchise player. I dont say lets just give him away but if we are gonna get something good in return why not?

It is my opinion, and noone needs to agree with me, but im just asking, why is he so important for us right now? I dont think he is gonna convert into a completely different player in 1-2 years. We already know him pretty much, we have seen his games whole year, does anyone think, he is gonna make a big jump really? I dont think so
If i was the manager, i would move Big Al and Harris right away, get a good PG or SF, and give the leadership to Hayward. Thats what we should consider doing. Because this team isnt retooling, its rebuilding

 

[sepanol]

I like Al.

Seriously though. Who thought Sepanol was a guy without an agenda? Dude wants to sell the USA that Kanter is greater than any NBA player. No big deal. At least we might be able to keep Okur.

****, hire the guy already. He'll ship out Jefferson for a 2nd, Sap for maybe a conditional 2nd and play Kanter 48 MPG. Championship.

At least Kanter is my countryman, and who is Valanciunas for you? or is it another guy you are trying to find to overshadow Kanters talent?

Btw he is drafted 3rd,so i guess the KOC wasnt that intelligent like you to understand Kanter sucks and drafted another big man instead of brandon knight. It is ridiculous isnt it?

 

[sepanol]

And it is sad that only a handful of people are high on our 3rd draft pick. I would say he didnt play 2 years , maybe thats why, but i think most of us have seen him play in Euro cup, and even though being a 19 yrs old guy without game practise of 2 years, he played pretty well. He was the second best scorer in a team where no one gave him the ball and created most of his points by himself, without pick n rolls and good assists.

Maybe i dont understand anything from basketball, i should stop watching it and return back to soccer i guess.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

I like you sepanol. I don't agree with you, but I love your passion and I respect that you have are willing to stand up for your strong opinions - and your reading comprehension comments are spot on. I think fighting for the meaning of your words is pretty cool coming from a guy who clearly speaks English as a second language.

In my opinion, sepanol's ideas are best case scenario. If we had complete confidence that Kanter could meet or exceed Big Al's contribution to the team within a year of learning, and if we were offered a deal like Al for Granger we should take it. The flaw in that logic, for me, is that I expect Al to be much better than Kanter this season (if there is such a thing a 2011-12 season). I agree with those who say that Al has never been in a good situation for his entire career. The bottom line is, I want to see him play some ball in the new Jazz system before I'll be ready to give up on him, especially if I see proof that he really has worked on his conditioning over this long summer.

 

[Dr. Jones]

^^^ Good post, beginning to end.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

^^^ There's another good post. A really good one.

 

[Dr. Jones]

^^^ There's another good post. A really good one.

repped

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Yeah but i think, we should get some nice asset by shipping Big Al and Harris now, because after 2 years, if we wont agree with them, especially Big Al, he will go away without giving us anything in return. I mean instead of having redundancy in big man rotation, we can get a good SF or PG or another top draft pick this year.
You can argue, we can ship Millsap or Memo instead, but millsap is so productive and he can be a bench guy, and he is paid half of Big Al. Memo is already on last year contract, so after this year, he can either leave or stay with a cheaper deal.

Big Al here is the only guy we can use as a good trade asset and we have this flexibility to trade because of the guys we already have. So what im saying again and again, i dont say he is a bad player, he is just clearly not our franchise player. I dont say lets just give him away but if we are gonna get something good in return why not?

It is my opinion, and noone needs to agree with me, but im just asking, why is he so important for us right now? I dont think he is gonna convert into a completely different player in 1-2 years. We already know him pretty much, we have seen his games whole year, does anyone think, he is gonna make a big jump really? I dont think so
If i was the manager, i would move Big Al and Harris right away, get a good PG or SF, and give the leadership to Hayward. Thats what we should consider doing. Because this team isnt retooling, its rebuilding

I somewhat agree with you. I think Kanter and Favors are better off sitting on the bench for the next 2 years though and learning behind Al. Also, Harris is probably better than any PG we could get right now through any kind of trade. Also, trading Big Al now for someone like Granger would also lead to problems retaining players, because Granger is another player who is going to command a fairly high salary. I think the Jazz are in a great position to just sit on their picks and players, have another great draft, and let their current young players develop.

I think the year after the next full year of basketball (whenever the hell that is) could be a really good year for us. It would be Favors and Hayward's 3rd year, Kanter and Burk's 2nd, we would potentially have 2 more lottery picks (including a possible stud SF, like Miller,Gilchrist, or Jones) and we would have Sap,Jefferson, and Harris in their primes. That team could make a legitimate playoff run like Memphis did this past year. I think the young guys are better off learning from that playoff experience than sucking, because that's what will most likely happen if we ship Jefferson and Harris away.

 

[Brown Notes]

And it is sad that only a handful of people are high on our 3rd draft pick. I would say he didnt play 2 years , maybe thats why, but i think most of us have seen him play in Euro cup, and even though being a 19 yrs old guy without game practise of 2 years, he played pretty well. He was the second best scorer in a team where no one gave him the ball and created most of his points by himself, without pick n rolls and good assists.

Maybe i dont understand anything from basketball, i should stop watching it and return back to soccer i guess.

You turn a lot of people off of the kid by incessantly pimping him as the GOAT. There isn't anybody on this board that hates him including me. Yet to you that is the only other option to starting and playing the kid 30+ minutes, and trading away players that produce.

Your POV is entirely dependent on the assumption that Kanter is going to be a great player, much better than Jefferson. You don't care that as a guy that hasn't played even a single college game and very limited BBall over the last several years Kanter would benefit quite a bit playing WITH somebody who possesses elite moves under the basket. You don't care that the team has a rookie coach who needs all the help he can get to create a winning culture. It doesn't matter to you that by sitting pat through this season (if there is one) Utah will have an even greater advantage for 2012 in terms of flexibility, young talent and movable assets vs. static salary.

No, nothing is as important as force-feeding Kanter all the minutes his young body can handle so your dreams can come true as soon as possible. And you wonder why everybody else isn't on that train.

 

[Zerol]

I did see improvement at the end of the year, and to hear that he is dedicating himself this offseason, how can you not be happy to know this.

If you are a true Jazz fan, then yes you will be happy to know this.

 

[sepanol]

I like you sepanol. I don't agree with you, but I love your passion and I respect that you have are willing to stand up for your strong opinions - and your reading comprehension comments are spot on. I think fighting for the meaning of your words is pretty cool coming from a guy who clearly speaks English as a second language.

In my opinion, sepanol's ideas are best case scenario. If we had complete confidence that Kanter could meet or exceed Big Al's contribution to the team within a year of learning, and if we were offered a deal like Al for Granger we should take it. The flaw in that logic, for me, is that I expect Al to be much better than Kanter this season (if there is such a thing a 2011-12 season). I agree with those who say that Al has never been in a good situation for his entire career. The bottom line is, I want to see him play some ball in the new Jazz system before I'll be ready to give up on him, especially if I see proof that he really has worked on his conditioning over this long summer.

I never say my points are totally true or not, there isnt one single right, but im just telling my opinion, if we find a good deal, we should trade, because we have flexibility for that. I mean, yeah Kanter may turn out to be not as good as i hope, but still its a good chance that he will, it is not even a big risk we are taking. I wouldnt be against Big Al so much if he get paid less, but i think it is too much, it is same thing as AK was getting paid 17 per year. So i am against any player who gets more than he is worth. Thats all i am saying

BTW an alternative scenario to my opinion can be, we can keep these guys, first year (since best case it will be 50 games) , Kanter will make a rather soft transition to nba and Favors'll get more experience as well, then we can ship Big Al if everything goes right before his last year so that the Boozer incident wont happen. But i really dont see Big Al staying in this team for more than 2-3 years unless Kanter sucks really bad (which i dont think it will happen)