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Rethinking Jefferson

SiroMar said:
I've been complaining about Jefferson all season long, but he sure proved me wrong last night. I mean, he made 3 clutch shots! Yep, 3 of them. Not 1 or 2, but 3! It is true that he often take it upon himself to take all the shots late in the game, and that those shots were no different than his old black hole self. It is also true that the shots could've just as easily missed, and the forums would've erupted in delicious anger, but they went in! Jefferson! Jefferson! Jefferson!

Either way, I'm excited to watch the playoffs. I don't have very high hopes, but it is what it is. Might as well enjoy it.
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Big AL also had 4 assist and one was a killer pass for anyone. He also is personally taking extra time with Favors and Kanter and is teaching them post moves and tricks to improve their game. That goes a long way with me.
 
I knew this thread would be coming. Two Words.... "Fools Gold"

Al is a good player. He is not good enough to be the long tern answer, and he is limiting the younger guys. I like him, but think he needs to go.
 
BluesRocker said:
And that's the million dollar question. Trade him now and get something for him. Or wait til his contract expires and hope you can get him on the cheap.

On a side note. The more I think about the new CBA, the more I think its going to hurt teams like the Jazz the most because no way the Jazz pay the tax(or at least not a lot) but other teams might(NY,Dallas)

This is going to be tricky for KOC to figure out what to do here. He has to keep in mind future extensions for the young four.
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jazz are 6th in attendance so it might be possible to pay for him.
although jazz tv deal isnt near the lakers tv deal
 
When people evaluate Jefferson I dont think they take into consideration that he was the same player who accepted much less money from Minny because he didn't feel like he deserved the max and didn't want to cripple the team financially . Jefferson has shown from that event to the amount of money he gives back to his community that money isn't the major issue influencing his decisions. And if you think about his background growing up in one of the poorest parts of Mississippi and his personality it makes sense.
 
franklin said:
The Jazz are getting up to an extra $10 million in revenue sharing under the new CBA. They have to go deeper into the luxury tax before it hurts them the same. They can afford a $75,000,000 payroll now if it has the potential to get them to Conference Finals.
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That revenue thing I didn't hear about. So is it like the NFL? You are not talking about the money shared when a team goes over the tax are you? Who is it coming from? The big market teams?
 
mrob said:
It's hard to fairly evaluate Al Jefferson by virtue of the huge amount of money he makes on his current contract. His detractors will point out his deficiencies (poor defense and not passing out of double teams) as if that's his whole game. I find it nearly impossible for someone to argue that he hasn't been both our biggest scoring threat, our most durable player, and most consistent player night in and night out.
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One things for sure: although not as polished as Boozer, he's more reliable, grabs more rebounds, hits his free throws, and plays a tad bit better defense than Boozer did! Plus, he doesn't spend half the season on the injured reserved list!
 
Purch said:
When people evaluate Jefferson I dont think they take into consideration that he was the same player who accepted much less money from Minny because he didn't feel like he deserved the max and didn't want to cripple the team financially . Jefferson has shown from that event to the amount of money he gives back to his community that money isn't the major issue influencing his decisions. And if you think about his background growing up in one of the poorest parts of Mississippi and his personality it makes sense.
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I do take that in consideration i have said it numerous time how nice guy he is postive influence blah blah the wokrs
 
carolinajazz said:
plays a tad bit better defense than Boozer did!
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i tend to disagree boozer calls his bad defense to attention by screaming al sorts of stuff so teh attention immediatly focousses on boozer. meanwhile jefferson just quetly backs off on defense slowly and quietly walking away backwards.

that ebig sad i'd take al over boozer.
but the big al discussion isnt about which player we would take
 
Cyrone Torbin said:
I think it depends more on how Sap does @ the 3. If he can prove to be a long term answer to our SF spot, that woud allow Favors to average 30 mpg next year. That is the biggest key, getting Favors starting minutes next year.
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Couldn't agree more with this. I want to also add that keeping the current starting five together, Harris, Sap, Favors, Jefferson, and Hayward is more important long term and will only get better given the chance. With Sap at the 3 we are seeing something special happen right before our eyes and it's truly exciting.

As a fan, I wasn't sure Al/Sap/Favors could co-exist and I wanted to see Favors play more. Initially I thought that we would have to give up on Al and/or Sap in order to get Favors more playing time, but as we are all finding out, Sap is great at the three and allows us the opportunity to play Favors which makes a HUGE difference on the floor. This big line up is scary good. I'm still not entirely sold on Harris, but I think longevity is something current/younger fans have mostly forgotten about and that we should really sit tight with him running the point. KOC has a done a great job of building this team and Ty has done a good job of integrating the young talent with the vets. That being said, I would have loved to see the big 3 earlier in the year and I hope that next year our starting 5 includes what we are now seeing.
 
al has been a beat lately and has forced me to rethink many of the criticism i've had against him. he has been playing harder, defending better than his usual matador style, and passing better out of the post if he sees the double coming before it gets there. he has played huge of late, the best examples being must-win games against dallas and phoenix.

but he still is what he is. he's an inefficient volume scorer who doesn't do too much on the floor that makes his teammates better. even during this four-game clinching win streak, he has scored 78 points on 79 shots and made a trip to the free throw line once in every 20 minutes played.

more importantly, our best chance at improving this team is by trading either millsap or jefferson. since i DON'T want to part with millsap, that kind of makes jefferson the odd man out when it comes to shaping this roster into a contending team.
 
NAOS said:
Candrew and I are in total agreement on this issue.
I can imagine loving Jefferson as a $9million/year sixth man, or at least as second fiddle to Millsap on offense. We've seen bursts of Millsap being the linchpin, so I think it is possible. It just comes down to Al's willingness to take a pay cut when signing an extension. If that is totally off the table, then he definitely needs to be traded for assets.
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Been thinking the same thing, crunching numbers in my head. Jefferson and Millsap at 9M apiece. Harris at 6.5M per. I see Hayward eventually making 7.5M per though he maybe could or should make more. Favors is a beast and will get somewhere around 13M per I'd have to think. That's 45M for five guys with Burks and Kanter also having to be re-signed at some point...spelling it out that way, keeping this entire core together is going to be tough...too tough. Especially considering I think I put some very reasonable (low even?) numbers all the way around.
 
Chad Feldheimer said:
Jefferson has been pretty much Jefferson (better passing now though) all year. It's been the supporting cast that has improved. Hayward, Harris, Favors, Carrol, Burks etc that have helped more than anything else.
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True, but Jefferson is actually a nice piece when he isn't asked to do too much. Earlier in the year, Hayward and Harris were too tentative to shoot the ball, so Jefferson had to carry almost every offensive possession as well as play defense. Last night there was some balance with Favors playing well on both ends and other players scoring all night. So Jefferson was able to come in and score on his last few possessions to close out the win. He only had about 12 or 14 points in the game prior to the final few minutes.

Jefferson isn't a bad second option on a contending team. He's good at following up other people's shots and scoring on the block when he needs to.
 
The Jazz offense gets better when the focus isn't solely on getting the ball to Jefferson on the left block. Jefferson should be the anchor, used when the ship is going awry, and not the engine, rarely sending the ship to the right place.
 
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