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When news first circulated on the Fourth of July that the Charlotte Bobcats had agreed to terms with free-agent center Al Jefferson on a three-year contract worth more than $40 million , this is the joke I made: Big Al wanted 4 @ $15M, got 3 @ $13.7M with an opt-out; Bobcats can still be bad enough on D to be bad enough for high picks. Win-win! — Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) July 4, 2013 I made this joke because, for all his left-block dominance and silky post moves, the 28-year-old big man has always been a problematic defender, steps-slow, unsure and without a sophisticated awareness of how to help (or even just not hurt quite so much) defensively. That's especially true when it comes to bottling up opposing guards in the screen game. Jefferson joined the Jazz in a trade before the 2010-11 season and averaged about 34 1/2 minutes a game over the past three seasons; the Jazz ranked 29th, 29th and 26th in points allowed per possession on plays finished by the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll during that stretch, according to Synergy Sports Technology 's play-charting data. That inability to consistently stifle the league's bread-and-butter offensive set led to Utah finishing among the NBA's 10 worst teams in terms of points allowed per possession overall during his time in Salt Lake City (24th, 20th and 21st). On top of that, the Jazz were a significantly better defensive team with him off the floor than on it, allowing an eye-popping 9.2 more points per 100 possessions with Big Al in the middle than when he sat last season, according to NBA.com's stat tool. Combine it all with how awful the Bobcats have been defensively without a center who can't guard the pick-and-roll — dead last in defensive efficiency two years running — and you can see why my goof about paying Al eight figures to improve offensively could still keep Charlotte high in the lottery was so hilarious. Apparently, though, that joke is a real opinion held by some honest-to-goodness NBA folks. In a predictably high-quality column considering the Bobcats' offseason moves and future prospects, Grantland's Zach Lowe writes that "skeptics around the league will tell you the Jefferson signing might represent the perfect 'best of both worlds' endgame for Charlotte" based on his offensive talents elevating the 'Cats from laughing-stock status while his defensive deficiencies keep them squarely in the lottery. And while new Charlotte coach Steve Clifford and the Bobcats' brass bristle at the notion, to his credit, Jefferson was more than willing to acknowledge his shortcomings in a candid chat with Lowe:
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