Meet
Al Jefferson The Beast!
Posted by: Jazz Fan on June 21st, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.It’s funny how so many people are throwing Al Jefferson under the bus when he has done nothing but put in a solid effort every time he stepped out on the court, put yourself in his shoes! being thrown into a new system and trying to adjust, losing your Star PG that promised to make you an All-Star, losing a Hall Of Fame Coach in Jerry Sloan that he looked up to and admired, and coming off a huge injury and in his first year back was still able to play all 82 games! Al Jefferson has heart! Something you can’t find in the majority of players in the NBA! Al Jefferson left it all out there on the court every time he played and put up great numbers, and pretty much carried the team on his back all by himself in his first year while still trying to adjust to a whole different system. Give the guy a break! I can’t even imagine what he’ll be like next year after all the weight training/summer camp and being able to fully adjust to the system with Devin Harris and Paul Millsap (PEOPLE THIS IS OUR CORE) Al Jefferson is a rare breed and people should be ashamed for even considering trading Al Jefferson! If your one of those individuals who have sour feelings towards Jefferson you’re either really ignorant or just flat out blind! Makes me sick! Also if people think trading Millsap should even be considered as an option should just quit watching Basketball all together! Yes he has good trade value, but seriously who would you possibly want more than Millsap?? ”THE WORKER” Get real! We will build through this Draft! Expendable players should only include Raja Bell, Big Fes, Earl Watson, Mehmet Okur, Francisco Elson.. I don’t care what you all say about Ronnie Price! I love this guy, another intelligent Rare Breed type player! Price stays if I’m the GM! Feel free to comment below & thank you for reading 
Replies: 19
Views: 703
19 Responses
P.S. Draft Jimmer
I agree with most of what youre saying, but, your opinions on keeping RP lose you alot of cred, I am starting to move toward the pro Jimmer camp, but in the case of Millsap we need to know if he is happy being backup PF. That decides his fate.
I got it. Trade Al Jefferson to Indiana for Granger. Then trade Millsap to the Cavs for the 4th pick and Sessions. Then we can trade Harris to Portland for Mathews, Batum, and Babbitt. We then draft Kanter, Knight, and Marcus Morris. Wow, what an awesome young core, Granger comes in and adds leadership. Lineup;
Knight/Sessions/Watson
Mathews/Hayward/Singleton
Singleton/Batum/Babbitt/Evans
Favors/Kanter/Okur
Kanter/Okur
What do ya think. LOL just teasing….
Just a correction: Al Jefferson played a full year with the Twolves after the injury. Last year wasn’t his first year back from the ACL injury.
Hey Patrick.. You really wanted to have a new team. That’s what I’ve noticed everytime your making a post. If you wanted to see our team back in the playoffs, we have to keep those guys who will help the team. Not those unproven rookies that just wanted to play first in the league then find another team that will make them more popular.
Double correction- First year of feeling 100% In a new city, out of his comfort zone etc… Guess I could have worded that better. Thank You
Disco thanks for taking the time to comment brotha! If Millsap wants to excel & maximize his full potential he needs to except whatever role he is given wouldn’t you agree? That’s what makes Championship teams! Players that know and accept their role, witch translates to being more loose & relaxed on the court.. Instead of a crybaby match that causes players to feel uncomfortable and pissed off witch clearly trickles down into their game kinda like Raja when C.J. was assigned the starting role. Raja Bell almost ran to the locker room and grabbed his ba ba
Ian, I was just kidding. There really are only 5 players that are solid, and 6 that I like, Al, Millsap, Favors, Hayward, Evans, and Harris. The rookies could do better than the rest of them and have more upside.
Jazzfan, Millsap has earned a role that he should get to play. If not, he deserves the right to be upset. He should be beat out for his current position, then I dont see him having any issues. The thing is, he has always done what he was told, no questions aske, no cry baby stuff. Millsap is the man, I hope the best for him. If that means he is traded to a team that will start him, then so be it. He got the rank of 9th best PF in the league last yr, I feel he should be treated that way..
I think that Milsap, Al and Harris are part of our core now but I dont see all of them being here forever. The new up and coming core is centered around FAvors and Hayward. That means that everyone else could be expendable. Harris is 28, not old but compared to Favors and Hayward he is a grandpa. You dont want to build for the future with a player that has maybe 2 years left of being able to play at a high level. So Harris might not be part of the core after the next few seasons, especially if they draft Knight.
The Jazz would probably want Milsap to be part of the core but in the next year or two he will become the 3rd best big so why not trade him while he is a hot commodity?
The same case could be made for Al if Kanter is our guy at 3 and after a season it is clear that Kanter will be better then Al, then Al is no longer needed.
So I think that you are right, right now that is our core, but who knows that might not be the case at the end of this week.
Woody, I agree to some extent. Harris could have a few more yrs than you think, Stockton played 19yrs at a high lvl. But I understand where your going with all this. There are certain situations that would require a move.
Millsap could be moved if we got a bigger PF, or combo PF/Center in here who could successfully back up Al and Favors in the future. Unless Millsap moved to the 3 successfully, it would make no sense to keep him, being he probably would not be happy, and second because he would be a valuable trade piece, while we could manage without him in that case.
Al could be moved if we got a solid Center who would challenge him for minutes. You may put too much stock in Kanters ability to do that. I am High on Kanter because I think he would be a solid backup for two positions, and start in times of injury, but I doubt he will ever beat out Al or Favors. But if we landed a Marc Gasol, who may not be as polished offensively, but is solid defensively, while Millsap, Favors, or even a Kanter could run in and score, well then Al could be moved. You would need a very solid defensive center and a solid backup to do that though.
Harris again could be moved for two reasons. To free up money would be the first thing. But if Knight or Walker or Fredette was your up and coming starter, then there are two reasons to dump him.
Any which way you look at it, you dont dump players for nothing, except maybe Okurs heavy contract. You have to replace these guys with better peices if your moving them. Money comes into account when deciding what to do.. Overall it must be whats best for the team, not always what we want.
I agree with most of this post. It has been bugging me how everyone has been saying “trade Al” like he didn’t produce this season. He was one of our best players on the court, not to mention he played all 82 games! I would be pissed if they traded him. Switch out Watson for Price on your list of expendable players (and get rid of your post script) and it almost sounds like this post could have come from me! Completely agree.
I agree with the fact that we should definetly not trade Big Al, and that we should trade for the first pick just to make sure we score Jimmer. But Millsap is short… case closed. If he can play the 3 great, but he cant be a starting PF on a championship team.
I agree 100% with you on Jefferson. He was one of the top 10 possible top 5 scorers at the end of the season last year. He did this carrying the team on his back with a new coach and new point guard. He’s one if not the best low post scorer in the league. And everyone is talking about him working hard this summer already. Give him time to gel with the new players and coach and he can be even more dominant and thats scary. He was even blocking shots at the end of the season. People are nuts if he is even discussed for anything other then Dwight Howard or that type of caliber player. Should be an all-star next year.
By the way I really like Earl Watson especially when he throws that Alleyoop to Jeremy Evans, but I would rather have Ronnie Price. He has Supreme Athleticism & can handle the ball well and has a good head on his shoulders! I think because Sloan at the time was experimenting with the roster trying to figure out witch rotations to roll with because of how many new faces there were, dudes couldn’t get playing time,plus Ronnie was injured with that lingering toe issue so I think there is a lot of things last year that just got in his way & prevented him from shining & in the process it took some of the belief out of a lot of people witch sucks.. You all know when Price comes out he hustles like a Champ with all that quickness, get’s in the lanes, attacks the Basket! Get’s back on Defense, plus he has a nice outside stroke, Price just needs more playing time Period!
http://youtu.be/yTBj81ZDv3Q
http://youtu.be/IwvHJ5b6N38
Agree about big Al. But a core of Millsap, Harris, and Jefferson can only get you swept in the first round at best. People have to leave for us to return to contending every year. I will vote Millsap off of the island first and harris after he has a chance to really prove his worth the first half of the season. Al is easily the best and most solid of the 3. He will have to go also if this year we are terrible and need to enter full on rebuild mode.
Its almost like traveling a road. Its currantly all full of pot holes and bumps. Instead of fixing the road, people just want to shut it down and make a new one. Why not fill in the holes and see if the road is servicable before we start a whole new path.
In other words, AL has only been here a yr. Harris for months. Neither tanked it. So lets put some solid peices around them and see what can happen. If it doesnt work, then you scrap things and start over, salvaging Hayward and Favors. I think you may find that the road can be rebuilt if you just fill in those pot holes properly..
Everyone realizes Al was our #1 scorer, right? He took 25% of all our shots and made them at a 51% clip. On the other hand, CJ miles took 16% of our total shots and made 42% of them in wins and 32% in losses. Big Al not only shot more efficiently, but also had no noticeable drop in shooting percentages between wins and losses. Raja’s numbers were slightly better than, but similar to CJs.
Our problem last year was wing play. If we get Kanter I could see trading a surplus big for a wing, but I like the rotation we have now.
I don’t think we would be talking about a trade at all if Harrison Barnes would have declared for the draft. Then we could have drafted our new starting SF and we would have Millsap as the 6th man of the year and hopefully Jimmer would be the backup PG. (I wish Ronnie Price was a better shooter but he is just plain a terrible shooter. I love everything else about his game but 35% from the field and 29% from 3 is even worse than CJ! I have even less faith in Watson’s shot, having him on the floor hurt us offensively because it was like it was 4 on 5 because he was not a threat to score at all.)
Because Williams is the only starting SF in this draft I think we’ll either have to make a trade or start Knight or Jimmer at SG (that’s if we traded down and drafted Jimmer at 6 or 7. Harris has the length to guard opposing SG’s while Jimmer would play SG on the offensive end)