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Al Jefferson (2nd best defensive bigman in the NBA?)

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BYE

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JJAS said:
This guy put together a chart using synergy of the best defensive bigmen in the league. I was a bit surprised myself to see our friend Big Al listed #2. Obviously this doesn't take into consideration team defense etc. What do you think of it?

https://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/other-sports/153463-best-defensive-big-men-nba-synergy-sports/
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Just don't know what to say. I like Al ... he deserves some praise and he certainly can score the ball .. but 2nd best defensive big man in the NBA? I would think a 20 and 10 guy that is also the 2nd best defensive guy should be good for overall 2nd best center in the world, at least. Maybe we can get Chris Paul and Granger for him?
 
Big Al's problem is that he has tunnel vision on both ends of the court. On the defensive end, he sees only his man. On offense he sees only the basket. He also happens to be terrible in transition (the oft forgotten element of team basketball). Nothing to see here IMO.
 
So the two of you that have replied apparently think that Al is a beyond crappy defender. With Al, like GVC pointed out, it's apparently team/transition defense. He looks stupendous overall on paper in the categories that you can actually measure according to synergy. So Al must improve on things you can't measure, right? And I don't necessarily buy the amorphous +/- since if that were the only important stat, team starters would look quite different. So if you were a coach, what would you tell Al to do so that the non-measurable aspects matched up with the measurable ones. How far away is Al from becoming a great defender if it's not his measurable stats, and how can you measure his improvement? Is Al hopeless?

1. Team Defense (what does this mean?; does he blow every assignment; would his teammates defensive stats bear this out?)
2. Transition defense (is it just fitness or lack of speed?)
 
Nobody called Al a crappy defender. I said he's not the 2nd best defensive center in the league. Does that equate to crappiness? Depends .. but I didn't say it.
 
JJAS said:
So the two of you that have replied apparently think that Al is a beyond crappy defender. With Al, like GVC pointed out, it's apparently team/transition defense. He looks stupendous overall on paper in the categories that you can actually measure according to synergy. So Al must improve on things you can't measure, right? And I don't necessarily buy the amorphous +/- since if that were the only important stat, team starters would look quite different. So if you were a coach, what would you tell Al to do so that the non-measurable aspects matched up with the measurable ones. How far away is Al from becoming a great defender if it's not his measurable stats, and how can you measure his improvement? Is Al hopeless?

1. Team Defense (what does this mean?; does he blow every assignment; would his teammates defensive stats bear this out?)
2. Transition defense (is it just fitness or lack of speed?)
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One word: rotate. The end.
 
GVC said:
Big Al's problem is that he has tunnel vision on both ends of the court. On the defensive end, he sees only his man. On offense he sees only the basket. He also happens to be terrible in transition (the oft forgotten element of team basketball). Nothing to see here IMO.
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That's the refrain about Al, i.e., that he has tunnel vision. How does one measure "tunnel vision" particularly offensively? Is it his assists? He was tied for 13 in assists among centers above many of the best centers in the league (Howard, Bynum, Monroe etc.). He was only .9 assists behind Duncan/Hayes at #2 for centers. Is it his lower shooting percentage at 49.6% (right at about the same as Noah, B. and R. Lopez, Bogut, Stoudemire, Duncan)? Or is it something that you can't measure? I'm not being smart--genuinely interested because once a player gets a reputation, he always seems to carry that reputation with him. He can never shed it unless he luckily gets on a good team that does well, as Tyson Chandler did. He is being over praised beyond belief right now https://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/08/09/top-100-nba-players-nos-31-40/; he's ranked as the #35 best player in the league. No one even remembers him from 2009-2010, but he's a champion and a hot commodity now. Will Al always have "tunnel vision"?
 
PKM said:
Nobody called Al a crappy defender. I said he's not the 2nd best defensive center in the league. Does that equate to crappiness? Depends .. but I didn't say it.
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True, you didn't say that. Sarcasm is always difficult to interpret. Do you think he is a crappy defender?
 
JJAS said:
True, you didn't say that. Sarcasm is always difficult to interpret. Do you think he is a crappy defender?
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As others have said, I think he's a good man defender. I think his transition D is poor and his help D is below average. Overall, I think he just lacks a high bb IQ .. but what do I know? Wait, don't answer that.
 
JJAS said:
That's the refrain about Al, i.e., that he has tunnel vision. How does one measure "tunnel vision" particularly offensively? Is it his assists? He was tied for 13 in assists among centers
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His usage rate is also quite high. I haven't crunched the numbers, but if you're interested, head on over to basketball-reference.com and compute AST%/USG% (advanced stats). It won't be a perfect stat, obviously, since each player is operating in a different system and with different teammates, but it will be a lot better than looking at straight assists.

As far as measuring transition defense, it's difficult right now. 82games.com has some data on offensive shot clock usage (for teams and players, I think), but not for player-specific defensive shot clock usage. It would be interesting to see Big Al's on-court/off-court offensive and defensive numbers for early offense. I may at some point write an email to 82games, asking for some raw data.
 
And it doesn't make much sense criticizing Dwight Howard for his low assist rate relative to Big Al's. Howard's TS% was .616 last season, Al's was .528. One is highly efficient when he chooses to shoot, the other is not. If Al isn't creating offense for others when he's on the court, he's nowhere near as effective as Dwight Howard is.
 
JJAS said:
Is it his lower shooting percentage at 49.6% (right at about the same as Noah, B. and R. Lopez, Bogut, Stoudemire, Duncan)?
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Unfortunately, I'm away from home at present, don't have my collected data with me, and will be back in the woods with company later tonight, so I can do little to show why fg% is a poor measure. You have access to basketball-reference.com and mysynergy sports, so you can see Big Al's PPP (which takes into account shooting attempts, including shooting fouls, and turnovers but not assists) and TS%. Drawing fouls is awfully important in today's NBA.
 
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