Bobcats sign Al Jefferson (3-yr/$40.5M)

[NovU]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/nba ... -deal.html

They are a better team with Al Jefferson. That's for sure. But I'm not sure what their plan is.

[Axel The Great]

Great pickup by the now Hornets (consider changing the thread title? ). A shame really, I was hoping the Rockets would be able to snag him if they miss out on Dwight Howard.

[stereoxide]

Tyrus Thomas is about to get amnestied. Great signing for the Bobcats I hope he can make them win more games now.

[Jackal]

The heck? Michael spent money to get a player? First the Clippers get good & now this? I used to be able to say Clippers suck & Bobpussies are supposed to be perennial losers, come on MJ. Don't be spending money you can gamble away at poker or golf, shiiiiiit.

[shadowgrin]

Damn. Rich Cho doin work. Probably with some wining and dining from Jordan too and maybe a card game or two.

[Andrew]

Kelly Dwyer doesn't like it and feels everyone else should dislike it too, but it seems like a reasonably good move to me. $13-14 million a year is fairly reasonable for a player like Al Jefferson and with a three year deal, they're not stuck with him for too long. It's still a long road to respectability, but it has to make them a little better.

[shadowgrin]

I stopped reading Kelly Dwyer after realizing he wants to be like Wojnarowski and Simmons but ends up terrible at being both.


Despite the Thunder's success, building through the lottery by hoping for a higher pick is huge hit or miss. People, like Dwyer, should stop obsessing about the lottery and wanting teams to endure seasons of losing and tanking just for the chance to get that high pick when teams should instead focus on developing players like what the Spurs does.

Having Al Jefferson won't disrupt the progression of Charlotte's young bigs and in any case their bigs aren't even franchise or 2nd option players anyway. Mullens, Biyombo, Zeller?

[BrotherJRB]

I think this is a great signing. WIth Al they have something in the half court. When the Bobcats played tough D and ran they were around an average team. However when teams didn't turn the ball over and they had to play in the half court they struggled mightily.

I agree with shadowgrin. This doesn't stop growth from the young bigs they have. Biyombo might be a 20 minute a guy this year. Zeller 15 and Mullins 10-20.

[NovU]

I tend to agree with Kelly. Al Jefferson is a ball stopper, and a bad defender. I think they should have passed on this one and waited for the better chance.

[shadowgrin]

Who is he going to pass the ball to anyway and he's a better scorer than anyone in that roster maybe except Ben Gordon.

He's getting paid not because of his defense but because of his ability to be unstoppable in the low post and he's one of the few bigs that's good at it like Zach Randolph, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and Andre Drummond.

Granted Jefferson is no Joel Anthony on defense but Jefferson is no David Lee either to be that bad on D.
Expecting Jefferson to be good on defense is like wanting Pau Gasol to shoot jumpers, it's not their strength.

[NovU]

I beg to differ.

The question is how much do the Bobcats want to get better as a team. Jefferson is a scorer, but is not a prolific offensive player. He's been known as a blackhole because offense stagnates with his one dimensional post up game. Even if he doesn't hinder young players' development, his game doesn't complement them either.

I think the Bobcats' goal is to build a mediocre team first, in order to build a winning culture from a loser. In that sense, this move makes a lot of sense because Al Jefferson could get you there as shown in Jazz. This much is about all there is to this move. Not something to applaud about because it comes with sacrifice in picks, flexibility, and possibly messing w/ young players' development.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Still don't really see them in the playoffs.

[Jackal]

[SoF'nAwesome]

damn it's that bitch again

[shadowgrin]

How can Jefferson be a prolific offensive player when he was sharing the post or his preferred scoring spots with another bigman that Jefferson ended up taking more jumpshots than inside attempts.
See also Pau and Dwight or Amar'e and Carmelo.

Yeah Jefferson has the reputation of being a blackhole and can't change that reputation in the last 4 years same way LeBron is forever a choker... http://bkref.com/tiny/a7mdn
The Bobcats offense without him on the roster is already stagnant enough, adding someone like Jefferson who can score in the post wouldn't make the Bobcats offense worse than it is.

What's there to complement? Kemba Walker can't benefit from a low post scoring threat that will attract double teams off him? Kidd-Gilchrist has an offense to complement to? Having Al Jefferson will reduce Biyombo's 5 ppg? If the Bobcats are relying on the offense of Mullens and Zeller, then they're in bigger trouble.

[Andrew]

It seems like the Bobcats' current plan is to avoid settling for mediocrity and actually build properly, by signing a few good veterans in their prime to put alongside a few up and coming young players. It's going to take patience, several more good moves and the right coach (who'll actually receive more than one season to work with the roster), but it's a good approach.

[rise]

As a Cats fan, I'm not thrilled with this move. Jefferson isn't someone who's going to propel us into the playoffs, but he is good enough to keep us out of the top 5 in the draft next year. We really should be tanking for Wiggins/Randle/Parker/etc, all of whom would help us a lot more in the long run than Jefferson. This is the exact kind of move that puts us in mediocrity in a year where mediocrity is the absolute worst.

Plus this means much less playing time to develop Zeller and likely the end of Mullens and/or McRoberts in a Charlotte uniform.

[hova-]

Given the draft history of the Bobcats maybe its more clever to sign any player who likes to be with the team.

Jefferson is an underrated player who actually was playing out of his mind by the end of last season, but could not get the Jazz into the Playoffs. He's a good fit imho and with a three year contract (last year being a player option iirc) you don't do much wrong.

The start from scratch does not seem to work with the Bobcats so far and I think it's important for this franchise to show some progress instead of tanking.

[NovU]

Fair enough.

Another problem I had with the Bobcats was them being such a natural tanker, they probably had a big big chance at being the bottom of the league in the year with possibly the strongest draft depth of decade.

[shadowgrin]

Thing is I think his stats are going to be similar to his ballhogging days.
Like I said there aren't enough good offensive players on the Bobcats, similar to his time with the Wolves before Love got some minutes from Rambis.

[NovU]

Al Jefferson kinda reminds me of Shareef Abdur-Rahim who is one of my alltime favorites(and I always had special place for him in my basketball heart). Both are sorta known as blackholes but you eveidently can see their skills and stats are pretty respectable.

[BobcatsThunderBulls]

With all these eastern conference intentionally tanking this year, I could see my Cats get into the playoffs.