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Grantland Article about how chuckers are valuable to their respective teams, mentions Al Jefferson

bovice

Well-Known Member
Al Jefferson

A fascinating case of searching for balance. Utah last season sported a great offense and a porous defense, mirroring the game of its highest-paid player. Utah's defense was off-the-charts better when Jefferson sat, but the bench-heavy units that held opponents down scored at laughably low rates; low-usage players such as Derrick Favors, Earl Watson, Enes Kanter, and others were stretched too far.

But Jefferson's post game is literally the hub of Utah's offense. He shoots a decent percentage and never turns over the ball, and many of Utah's pet sets involve sending cutters around Jefferson post-ups on the left side.

What would happen to Utah's offense if the Jazz let him walk in free agency this summer, re-signed Paul Millsap as their new hub, and built around a Favors-Millsap starting front line? Millsap has generally performed quite well without Jefferson, per NBA.com, but would that hold up? What if Gordon Hayward or Alec Burks, the latter on the fringes of Ty Corbin's rotation, made a leap? What if Favors developed a more controlled post game?

For now, Corbin is working with what he has, and that means mixing and matching his big men — including starting all three of Millsap, Favors, and Jefferson in recent games — to find the ideal two-way synergy.

more here: https://www.grantland.com/story/_/i...-ellis-jordan-crawford-nba-all-chuckers-squad
 
Not surprised this article gets virtually zero play on JF.

I thought this was a particularly relevant article to the future of our team. But, there cannot be a future until Al Jefferson is destroyed, right?
 
a jefferson loss could be nullified on offense by instituting a offensive system.

i still think "defensive gain" >>> "potential offensive loss"

al Jefferson is a nice guy of the court.
problem is he also takes the niceness with him once the game starts.

i wish him al the best although i dont have to cus he is a multi millionaire.
i wish him all the best.
but i love the jazz and he needs to go.
 
What I took from that as far as our team is concerned is that we need another alpha dog to pair with Al, or possibly pull him off the bench to maximize his talents. Obviously packaging him with other assets for a better player would be good too.
 
I would LOVE to have Al resign with the Jazz...






For 8 million a year and a role coming off the bench. Other than that, I say, "no thanks."
 
Remember last season when Al Jefferson missed a few games and we won just about every one of them, with little drop off offensively?

Al Jefferson is a great individual offensive player, but he does not make his teammates better offensively (which seems to be the premise of this topic). Hell, look at what happened to Hayward when he got to come off the bench.
 
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