Bummin' On Behalf of Big Al
by Steve Weinman on Dec 9, 2007 1:21 AM EST
in NBA Articles
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PrintAl Jefferson had what might have been the best game of his career last night. And I can't help but feel bad for him.
Jefferson went for 32 points and 20 boards as the Wolves upset the Suns. These are both very encouraging facts. What isn't so encouraging is the fact that last night was the eighth day of December, and Al's team very likely secured its biggest win of the season.
Of course, as a Celtics fan, my concern for the well-being of the fellows employed by the league's other 29 teams tends to be fairly minimal. But as the Celtics nabbed another win and improved to 17-2 last night, seeing Jefferson's statline at the bottom of the screen made an already fairly evident message all the more clear: He is, sadly, the one who got left behind.
A lot of people did a lot wrong in Boston last season.
By and large, Al Jefferson wasn't one of them. If you're reading this page, you probably know this already. Or at least you knew it, and that is exactly the point. Sometimes a little refresher course never hurts, especially for those of us who have moved on to greener pastures.
Jefferson spent the better part of two seasons battling injuries, weight and the belief that he would never amount to much more than unused potential. Last year, he was the embodiment of what made this team worth watching. After returning from injury early in the season, he was the rock we could count on. Especially throughout the prolonged absence of Paul Pierce, Big Al was the one guy who would show up to play -- and in his eyes to win, for those out there less comfortable with the business of tanking -- every night. He was the developing low-post scorer. He was the already capable rebounder. He was growing defensively.
But most of all, he was learning, and he was learning willingly. Yes, there was a lot of likable potential on last year's squad, but Jefferson wasn't just the team's face because he had made the most physical progress. He was the team's face largely for that but also very much for the fact that he had made that progress the right way. He had gotten in shape, and he had worked hard to learn the nuances of the game. There wasn't a more overused word around Big Al last season than "herky-jerky." As in, "He is finally getting those herky-jerky moves down around the basket. That can make all the difference." Except that the term wasn't that overused, since Al really had begun to get it. He played hard every night, and he took his lumps as well as the lumps that came with playing on a 24-win team, but he did it with the smile and the poise of a young man who knew he had earned the right to be the centerpiece of future glory for his franchise. At the rate he was developing, hey, that future might not even be so distant anymore. Because we had Al, we had hope.
In some senses, that future wasn't so distant after all. The Celts of 2007-08 certainly don't have any real glory to their names yet, but the 17-2 start has certainly been promising. Meanwhile, Jefferson is still the centerpiece of a franchise, only it's a different franchise, a franchise in even deeper trouble than the one he began to lead last year. Big Al is taking his lumps again, only this team he is taking them for a team that might not even win the 24 games his team did last year.
He is averaging 19.4 points and 10.9 rebounds per game. He has broken 20 points nine times in his first 18 games this season and put together three 30-plus-point efforts to boot. He is once again a leader. But he is a leader for a team with a general manager and owner who are catching far more enmity than the ones back in Boston are. Playoff games aren't anywhere on the horizon.
Those who have followed the Celts have managed to lose Al while certainly keeping the hope he engendered. One would be hard-pressed to say that he has been so fortunate.
So, while we're certainly not pushing for too many wins for any of those other 29 teams across the Association, here's to a few more for Big Al every now and then. Because he has done nothing not to deserve them.
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Roy,
Absolutely. I would hate to pine for more Timberwolves telecasts (especially since I got my share of the Minny Celts last season), but in some regards I almost feel like Celtics fans are responsible as anyone else for watching over Big Al, if that makes any sense.
And, yes, to some degree the same goes for Gomes. Probably my favorite player over the last two seasons. I had the pleasure of seeing his 22-14 game at MSG last year and just loved his work ethic all over the floor. It has been easier to rationalize his being gone with the “let’s face it; he’s never more than a seventh or eighth man in a good rotation” line, but I’ll never be able to convince myself that this is the way I felt when he was playing for us every night.
Thanks for the comment.
-sw
Who,
Thanks for the thoughts. There are plenty of coaches in this league whose performance merits questioning; what is it about Wittman that gets him your vote?
Regarding what he could do with some real teammates and a coaching staff…that’s the truly sad part, because who knows when he’ll get one? A recent graphic in SI listed the five players with the worst career winning percentages (although all these guys had played 400 career games, which Al hasn’t). In no particular order (because I don’t remember it off my head): Jamal Crawford, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Eric Piatkowski, Adonal Foyle, Eddy Curry.
It would be nothing short of a travesty for AJ to make that list in the years to come.
-sw
-sw
Green17,
Very well put. I would simply add to your wishes a new home for Gomes. He deserves the chance to be “that guy who does all the little things and every fan loves” on a good team instead of being “that guy whose great little-things efforts don’t mean much because nobody does the big things” as he has been for the entirety of his short career. When the trade went down, I remember there originally being rumors of Gomes getting immediately cut and returning to Beantown, which would have been perfect for all parties involved. In lieu of that scenario, here’s hoping he gets moved somewhere where he’ll get a chance to play some meaningful basketball.
-sw
Well, one thing is for sure – all of the talk about the Celts gtting K.G. simply because Danny and Kevin are buddies is going to fade away. Al is a stud, we just needed Garnett more at this point. It wasn’t as if we were giving away trash. Incidentally, Bassy has actually played quite well for Minny, and I’m happy for him.
by MikeDfromNP on Dec 9, 2007 12:07 PM EST reply actions
Mike,
Thanks for writing in. I’m impressed with your ability to be happy for Telfair in Minnesota. I’ll be a fan for life of Big Al and Gomes, and I would be happy to see GG mature into a real player. That said, it’s hard to think of anybody who it has hurt more to watch over these past few years on this team than Orien Greene and Sebastian Telfair. That grudge is still dying hard for me. Ultimately, however, we’re off in greener pastures now, and it probably isn’t worth the wasted energy on how bad Telfair’s time here was, so I guess a little success for him wouldn’t kill anybody either.
-sw
good to see that some of us are not so fickle as to say “al who”.
he is a unique talent and my favorite player in the league, i’ll be following him long after this incarnation of the c’s retires to the rafters.
sometimes i actually miss rooting for those terrible teams of the last few years. so much so that i find myself tuning in to the wolves broadcasts through nba.com just to get my fill of loosing.
all that said, KG has had more of an impact then i thought was possible and i am loving this season for the ages.
Here’s an interesting one for players and losing records. Take the starting lineup for NY.
Crawford – 7 years, never played in the playoffs
Steph – 12th season, 3 times in the playoffs, never out of the first round
Q – 7 years, 1 year in the playoffs with Phoenix to the conference finals. Most games played in the postseason.
Zach – 6 years, twice in the playoffs (although only 1 minute played the first year in the playoffs)
Curry – 6 years never in the playoffs. Chicago held him out the one season his team made it.
5 guys on the same team with barely any idea of how to win or the mental fortitude to stick together when times go bad. Huge factor on why NY spend so much time down 10-20 points. Just to used to losing.
I can’t stand Randy Wittman. He gets my vote for worst coach in the league and nobody is close to challenging him. I take solace in the fact that this will likely be his last head coaching job.
Firstly I hated his tenure in Cleveland. He repeatedly misused the rookies. He berates his players constantly. He ran a horrible offense that had so few options on who could score during many of his plays. His whole team gave up on him, then told the GM to fire him. His whole team! Not one or two guys. He lost everyone. He repeatedly misused players like Jim Jackson and Lamond Murray among many others.
His start in Minnesota was equally horrific. He lost the team in about two weeks. He couldn’t figure out how to use Randy Foye (a SG who is a phenomenal penetrator) and put his team’s offense in the a huge hole every night by playing him out of position. He then broke any hope of having a positive relationship with Mike James with Mike’s inconsistent role – which saw of the NBA’s great sparkplugs, a great pressure defender and a good scorer – James lost complete faith in Wittman.
Casey was threading the line about as well as he could, Wittman came in and shook everything up and upset everybody. He’s a controlling coach, that was a horrific fit for a midseason change. But Wittman didn’t recognize this, he just tried to change everything in one go. Everything fell apart. He’s the type that needs a pre-season.
So he got a pre-season. Now Al is battling for post position and repeatedly goes unnoticed. Wittman looks happy enough about this because he keeps playing the same guys that miss Al (including Gomes which is shocking to me). This has been happening since pre-season. I don’t know how Wittman doesn’t run this offense through the post. The threat of Al will get everyone shots.
So I don’t like how he did in Cleveland. I didn’t like his mid-season effort last year. And I’ve hated his start this year. He’s lost the only two locker rooms he’s ever had. He’s a bad tactical coach. His defensive strategies are always limited (despite having KG who let’s you do about anything on D). His offense’s have always been slow, failed to recognize mistmatches and haven’t had enough counters on them.
Take Jerry Sloan. He has one of the smallest playbooks in the NBA. But he has about 20-40 counters depending on whatever the defense does. Wittman has option A and B and then nothing else – very similar to Brian Hill.
Wittman is a fiery character who gets on his player’s nerves. I’ve haven’t seen any ability from him that struck me as being above average …. at least with Doc and the doubts you knew he had the locker room, good relationships with the players, could motivate, players always played hard for him. Wittman has nothing going for him.
He was only hired because he got on well with Glen Taylor. Those two reportedly used to go out and have drinks together and talk about the team while Casey was in charge. I don’t like that about him either.
I haven’t a good word to say about him as a coach. I’d like him out of the league. I don’t know how McHale is handling Al being ignored so much, I really have no idea.
I’m happy for Big Al and think he’s got a good chance to leaf a great young team. I hope the Wolves can draft Derrick Rose, trade McCants, and use some of the Ratliff money they’ll be saving to sign a decent, solid defensive center.
Rose would be a great point guard for that team and is supposed to have pretty great character. Foye could move over to a Wade-type scoring guard/basket crashing/distributor out of the 2. Corey Brewer is going to be a solid do everything type player at small forward. Big Al will be a star Power Forward. And a defensively solid center than is adequate at scoring in the post would take pressure off of Al on both ends.
That would leave you with Foye and Al as the main outside/inside scoring threats, one of the top young point guard prospects in Rose, a great athletic small forward that loves to play defense, a stud power forward, and a solid center. Also, Rose, Brewer, and Al are all known to have great heads on their shoulders.
Big Al is probably my favourite player this year. He didn’t sign the max money deal nor do you ever hear him whining about his situation. He has the best post moves of any big man playing these days and his hands are softer than a baby’s bottom. I wish I could watch him more often than random youtube highlights. He will be huge once the wolves finish rebuilding. They need a point guard and couple of better talents. I just feel bad for him cause he has to go through another losing season :( it’s like deja vu for him
by ra1337 on Dec 13, 2007 5:07 AM EST reply actions
Al Jefferson was the price the Cs paid for “relevance”. As a
rookie Indy doubled him in the playoffs. That is all we need to
know about AL. He will be the centerpiece of that Minny team
when the Cs are trying to rebuild…again.
by Greg37 on Dec 20, 2007 8:09 AM EST reply actions
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