According to Yahoo! Al Jefferson is 3rd best Center in NBA

Nope, he's a PF.

Doesn't have the strength to play C, at least not yet.

Spoiler

 

nevermind...not worth arguing.

 

This. And by talent, I'd say it's mainly Z-Bo's toughness.

Z-Bo perception changed for 3 main reasons:

1. Lower maintenance. Focus on hustle points, offensive rebounds. No longer invisible when his team's offense isn't focused on him. And of course better shot selection.
2. More toughness on D.
3. And that team is built pretty close to perfectly around him.
If you look at it, in a sense it's a lot like the Iverson 76ers when he got to the Finals. A lot of solid defenders. Gasol and Allen are All Defense contenders. Mike Conley is very solid. Rudy Gay is probably the weakest link, and yet he's still a solid defender. Sam Young was bad defensively when Gay was injured, but everyone else was so good that it didn't matter.
That's not the same as Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury.

You'd have to build a team around Jefferson in a similar way if you want to contend with Jefferson as one of the main pieces.
It's a lot of headache for someone like Al Jefferson, but possible. Ibaka would be a great start.

Like Z-Bo, he's also an extremely high maintenance guy. Unlike "good" Z-Bo, Jefferson is one of the worst offensive rebounders and hustle point scorers among centers. He relies far more on post ups and occasional spot ups compared to Z-Bo. Which makes him far less useful when the offense doesn't run through him.
And on top of it, he seems to only be getting worse in this aspect every year.

The problem with Jefferson is that he's much more finesse. He's not like Z-Bo or Wolves' Pekovic, who will be happy to bang the crap out of you all night fighting for position. Instead, Jefferson uses footwork and great talent for knowing where the ball may fall. He finds the spot, he moves to it and just stands and stares as the ball flies, preparing to jump.
On defense, it works well enough. He really one of the best at anticipating where the ball will go.
On offense, this gives the opposing center a huge advantage on rebounding.
Therefore, few offensive boards and few hustle points.

Can he change? I doubt it.
Z-Bo was always physical. It's just that his priorities were bad and so he didn't focus on offensive boards consistently - not so strange if you are a very immature guy and you are playing next to leaders such as Eddy Curry and Marbury.
Al Jefferson on the other hand just seems to dislike contact. His priorities are right, he just looks to do it without banging people. And if you don't change that under Jerry Sloan, you probably aren't going to change.

And the same goes for defense. His not an athletic shot blocker. His best option to improve would seem the Pekovic/Z-Bo way of brutalizing people and playing with great toughness.
But I don't think that's in Al Jefferson's nature.

So basically, I wouldn't put much hope into a Z-Bo like improvement. Jefferson is still a better player than the Knicks Z-Bo.
And you can still get a lot of value out of him, especially if you put good defensive players around him.
But I don't think he could ever be as valuable as the Memphis Z-Bo.

 

well i even saw him listed as guard somewhere. he probably has enough talent to play guard a la Paul George who's above 6'10 now with shoes (according to him).

i agree re strength. but he's very talented. he basically has the same body as Tyson Chandler or Camby when they entered the league.

There are plenty of brutes out there who will out muscle him.
And that goes for PF position too, Humphries, Randolph, Griffin etc.
But he will still protect the rim very well, help defense will be great.

He'll play center next year, that's what they have obviously planned, judging by that roster.

Will he be dominant or top 3 center like someone said here, no. At least I would bet big money on 'no'.
The center spot isn't that bad in the NBA, and he's still a rookie.
But I'd expect him to be fairly good.

 

big Al is a beast on 2k.

 

He does seem more like a fit at the PF position, but as has been recently discussed in the media, having him play guard opposing PFs and play further from the basket would not take as much advantage of his shot-blocking ability. He'll fill into his frame with time, and considering NBA centers are smaller than they used to be (KG was playing center for the Celtics a lot toward the end of last year, and he's not a traditional center), Davis can play Center.

 

.....maybe


....maybe not



....maybe Ibaka

 

Al Jefferson is pretty underrated to be honest.

 

I agree. People forget he was the centerpiece of the Garnett deal. I've been enamored by him for awhile. If we didn't have Asik I'd go for him.

 

he's not underrated. if anything, he seems overrated.
you are in a thread "Al Jefferson is 3rd best Center in NBA".

 

he is the highest scoring center in the game, currently. take that how you want.

 

Meh, bleacher report article.

 

after Dwight, you mean.

 

and of course Bargnani, who missed most of the season.

 

Anthony Davis is a center

 

How about this ... he has the capability to play both center and power forward.

I agree with Rolyat for most part, because Davis is a little small for an NBA center ... 6,9-6,10 220, while his skill sets are probably best utilized as a power forward (who can play out on the wing). You can't really do that with Drummond, Zeller, or more traditional type centers.

If the Hornets held onto Kaman or Okafor, then Davis would be at power forward easily. Most power forwards tend to have perimeter skills combined with low post skills on both offense and defense, sometimes, while some power forwards simply are not a good option to have at center, maybe size or a lack of shot blocking/shot altering presences.

We could use Al Horford as an example in comparison, because there are many fans and critics who often feel that he's too small to play center and his skills are best utilized at the 4. Mainly, because he's not a mediocre shot blocker and a decent rebounder. Hawks are sort of lucky, since Smith sort of makes up for those deficiency and most teams are quite gifted these days with great guys or even big guys at center.

Heypartner and QazQay are also right, because Davis is the most capable option for the Hornets at center, while he did in fact play center in college. He does possess the skills to play center, and does provide shot-blocking presence and great rebounding skills. Much better than Horford, most likely in those areas. Though, he is undersized, both in height and weight categories. The skills are there, and he does have a freakish wingspan.


PF/C the Tim Duncan effect (tweener), as a power forward ... best player at the position with a center's body and skills. At center, he's just another all time great center who is not better than #4 or #5 on any day. No comparisons to Chamberlain, Jabbar, or Olajuwon.

 

yep, much like Bill Russell

Did you really call Tim Duncan a tweener.

So was Ralph Samson a tweener, too?

But there are many comparisons to Bill Russell, who many put #1 on that list.

the bottomline to me is that teams will try to pull Davis away from the basket on defense. He will play whatever position is required to keep him in the lane and maximize his defensive presence. Do we honestly believe he won't guard Howard and Bynum? But yes, he might guard Nowitzki, too.

 

Bingo. Davis is too good of a rim protector to be dragged too far from the paint.

 

Duncan played power forward and center... hence tweener, that's what I meant in that idea. He actually started alot of games or played alot of minutes at both positions.

Same size as Bill Russell who played in the 60s against fairly smaller players.


I'm not sure, but he's too small to guard Bynum and Howard at this point. Maybe, once he bulks up a bit, the problem is he will have to guard Bynum and Howard, because New Orleans is very thin at center.

 

Just wanted to say I really enjoyed this post, DonatasFanBoy. Good analysis.

I like Jefferson on the Rockets. I'd put him at Power Forward to give us that offense we need next to Asik. They would complement each other well. And I'd use D-Mo as the third big off the bench. I'd just use 3 bigs. That's a good frontcourt IMO.