Its good that you aren't, but there have been other threads where posters blame our collapse on the addition of such a slack-defending center, even though hes arguably just as good if not better than Memo. Do I think hes currently a #3 Center? No, in fact in if you check this thread
https://jazzfanz.com/showthread.php?6868-Big-Al-Working-Hard/page5 you will see that I think he at this point could only slightly crack the top ten if you argue enough about it. What my point with these posts is that people who rip on Al, and the fact that we dont need him due to his lack of wins in his past teams seems like a ridiculous criticism to me, along with the whole "black-hole" terminology and the lack of foresight to see how much he has improved over a season alone. To me, it seems very possible that Al Jefferson will not only up his assist totals (Imagine having the ball in your hands, looking away from the basket and seeing Watson, Bell, and Kirilenko on the perimeter; no surprise that Al decided going ISO instead usually) after having players like Burks Hayward Harris and Favors emerging. Also, His blocking capabilities coupled with Favors' stellar defense makes for quite the decent PF/C combo on both sides of the court. Does he have what it takes to become a top 5 Center? Absolutely.
Yes, and all it takes is effort--and perhaps the coaching staff enforcing the effort. And that's why Fes (and Elson, too, and maybe Kanter next year) should be/have been used as short-term subs when AJ was dogging it, so that he knows that his playing time isn't guaranteed.
. . .
You're right, were better off signing players who dont exhibit loyalty. Im not even goint to start on your Sloan criticism.
Compared to on-court effectiveness (or on-bench effectiveness, in the case of coaches), loyalty is overrated. What did loyalty to AK get us? A bloated contract probably costing 2x its true value. Loyalty to Karl Malone? Maybe a few million savings here and then, and then a one-way ticket to the Lakers. Loyalty to John Stockton? Significant savings. But there's only one John Stockton. Loyalty to Jerry Sloan? 20+ years of playoff appearances, but unfortunately the Jazz's potential was higher than that when they carried two of the top 50 players of all time for many of those years.
Sinking ship Dalamon said:
I remember reading that Al Jefferson was one of the better On-Ball Defending centers of the NBA. Perhaps having Favors next to him to help with Defense would mean he would have to worry less about switching, and more to sticking to his man. His blocking prowess would prove to be an effective last line of defense if Favors is beaten. So quite frankly, his blocing prowess coupled with our rising future PF could prove beneficial. And in all honesty if Kanter does develop to become better than Al Jefferson, we just spent 1-2 years raising his stock so we can trade him for enough bench players to make a deep playoff run. It makes most sense to develop Al Jefferson this upcoming season as our rookies ease into their roles. Let them fight for a roster spot; losers get traded for other pieces, or delegated to the bench.
Let Al Jefferson "develop"? Isn't nearly 3,000 minutes this year alone (nearly thrice the playing time of Fesenko for his entire career) enough time to "develop"?
Develop, schmevelop. Jefferson is 26 years old and a 7-year veteran. With a player of such experience, it's time to enforce effectiveness, not just develop it. Dogging it on D is not a developmental issue; it's an effort issue, enforceable (possibly) by benching for one whistle (and maybe a good tongue-lashing to boot, in honor of what Jerry Sloan should've done to Carlos Boozer a few times).
If you remember reading that Al Jefferson was a good on-ball defender, it didn't come from here:
Tim Kawakami (beat writer for the Golden State Warriors) said:
No-Defense Player of the Year: Al Jefferson, Utah. Congratulations, Al! You’ve been headed towards this award for most of your up/down career and you’ve finally gotten it.
Sure, it looks like a tough selection when the stats say that Jefferson was one of the more productive shot-blockers in the league this season (153 blks). But there’s more to defense than blocking shots, and Al didn’t do ANY of them…
Can’t tell you how many times I was watching a Utah game,
saw the Jazz give up an easy bucket in the half-court, and figured out
it was Jefferson who turned his head at the wrong time or just decided to leave the weak side totally unprotected.
Raw stat:
He had the worst defensive differential per 100 possessions than any player in the league (among regulars, that I could find)–Utah gave up 6.8 more points per 100 possessions when Jefferson was on the court than when he was off. 113.3 when he was ON, 106.5 when he was off.
https://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawak...l-jefferson-monta-ellis-kobe-bryant-and-more/
This professional sportswriter combined data and game film to form an opinion--what a concept!
In response to your claim, I just found this article now; I wasn't expecting to find a source that put Jefferson at dead worst in D. Congrats on beating out Amare Stoudemire for the honors, Big Al; that's not an easy thing to do.
If any coach would be thought to bench a player for giving up an easy basket, it's Jerry Sloan (and hopefully his trained successor). But behind the hard-nosed image, Ol' Jer was an unsophisticated leader and strategist who couldn't even put his own mantra into motion. And Utah held onto him for 3 to 5 years too long.
