What's new

Big Al ranked 3rd best NBA center- ESPN

Ha ha I agree with Scorpjazz lets keep Big Al and send Millsap packing! And to InGameStrategy who is the heck is Tim Kawakami (beat writer for the Golden State Warriors), on May 15, 2011. That material is just about as good as BleacherReports.com! Did he not watch any G.S. games? Did he not see David Lee?

And it's stupid to agrue about Big Al right now anyways. The dude makes 14 Million and who really are you going to trade Big Al for? That what I thought...Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin for Big AL? But then you would create a bigger problem having another lottery player sitting on the bench, Alex B. The best thing I think that will happen, Utah will trade Millsap for a backup pg, something like Dragic, Budinger for Millsap and then resign AK

Harris, Dragic
Burk, Miles
Hayward, Budinger
Favors, AK
Jefferson, Kanter
 
Ha ha I agree with Scorpjazz lets keep Big Al and send Millsap packing! And to InGameStrategy who is the heck is Tim Kawakami (beat writer for the Golden State Warriors), on May 15, 2011. That material is just about as good as BleacherReports.com! Did he not watch any G.S. games? Did he not see David Lee?
Yes, he did. And he put David Lee on the second NBA all-worst defense team last year.
https://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawak...am-starring-turkoglu-maggette-and-jeff-green/

Kawakami says the same types of thing about David Lee that has been said about Boozer: you gotta pair him with a defensive big.
https://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawak...reg-monroe-and-avoided-david-lee-last-summer/
But Millsap shouldn't be Jefferson's defensive big; PM's too short. Okur isn't a defensive big, either. Fesenko could've been, but he wasn't given enough court time. Kanter might be--three years from now. Jefferson, like Boozer, has the ability to defend, but his focus on defense must be enforced.

And it's stupid to agrue about Big Al right now anyways. The dude makes 14 Million and who really are you going to trade Big Al for? That what I thought...Kyle Lowry, Kevin Martin for Big AL? But then you would create a bigger problem having another lottery player sitting on the bench, Alex B.
I for one am not talking about trading Jefferson. He can be a cornerstone. It sounds like he's working out during the lockout. But I just want to see a Jazz coach enforce effectiveness. And the best way to do that is often to bench a player--briefly first, longer if it doesn't work. Coaches rarely do that--not even Sloan did, and I'm not sure if he was consciously giving players a free pass or was oblivious to their defensive liabilities. Quite possibly it was a combination of the two, after Stockton & Malone required no butt-kicking whatsoever.

The best thing I think that will happen, Utah will trade Millsap for a backup pg, something like Dragic, Budinger for Millsap and then resign AK.
Unload Millsap just in order to re-sign an aging Kirilenko? I'm not so sure. Let Millsap continue to get more comfortable as a small forward and continue to give him 20+ MPG as a 3/4 player. Depending on matchups.

Harris, Dragic
Burk, Miles
Hayward, Budinger
Favors, AK
Jefferson, Kanter
Haven't we tried the AK-at-the-4 experiment enough? Do you really think that Kiri would be more effective as a backup 4 than Millsap?
 
I really have no reason to explain anything. You already know all that he brings to the team. You choose to dwell on the negatives, which there are some. Others agree with you. I dont. Pretty simple.
When I mentioned earlier to trade Sap, I dont mean for a back up PG. I think at this time, his value is a bit higher than that. If he gets put on the bench with all the bigs we have, is value slips. He is a very good player, but most of what he brings we can get from others who are BIGGER.
 
5999288235_de5a79bd0c_z.jpg
 
I really have no reason to explain anything. You already know all that he brings to the team. You choose to dwell on the negatives, which there are some. Others agree with you. I dont. Pretty simple.
When I mentioned earlier to trade Sap, I dont mean for a back up PG. I think at this time, his value is a bit higher than that. If he gets put on the bench with all the bigs we have, is value slips. He is a very good player, but most of what he brings we can get from others who are BIGGER.
We THINK we can get from others who are bigger. Right now, Kanter hasn't played a minute. Favors has played well in flashes, but not consistently. We KNOW Millsap (and Jefferson) are each capable of averaging nearly 20/10 across an entire season.

Kanter and Favors certainly have a ton of potential, but any trades would be premature. Besides, you need at least 3 to form a good rotation at the 4/5 and 4 is preferable in case of injuries, foul trouble and even matchups. Imagine trading Millsap, having Favors go down and then having to rely on a scrub like Elson to play 30 mins/per. I'm not counting on Okur. It's doubtful he comes back at even 75% of what he was. And even at that, he's only under contract for another year. There's room on the team for 4 bigs. Sure, if they're all healthy for all 82 games, PT will be a bit of an issue. You can work around that, though, keeping a couple of them fresher for the second night of back-to-backs, etc.
 
Good points for sure.
I am not saying trade Sap for the sake of it. IF we can get something else we need more than what he brings, then do it. I love Sap and he is a great part of the team. Just saying, IMO, out of the bigs, if they gotta move someone I think it should be him.
 
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.

. . .

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.

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:

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.

Instead of choosing to respond to every piece of pseudo-intellegent jargon you spew forth, Ill just leave you with the link of the thread that I did, in fact. read HERE at Jazzfanz:

https://jazzfanz.com/showthread.php?5586-Al-Jefferson-second-best-big-defender-in-NBA

(link to website that did the rating: https://jazzfanz.com/showthread.php?5586-Al-Jefferson-second-best-big-defender-in-NBA)

Note: Earlier in my previous post, I talked about Al Jefferson being a above-par ON-BALL defender. Don't try and ding me by saying that it doesnt account for team defense, one step ahead of ya.
 
You would take Bynum? Really? The same Andrew Bynum that got ejected out of the playoffs game for a disgusting cheap shot and when escorted off the court, took off his jersey acting like a hard ***? (When really it appeared he was pouting like a 4 year old child?) You want him on the Jazz over Jefferson? Do you even watch basketball????
 
Back
Top