Watch Williams hit a beautiful little floater to beat the Bobcats on the road.
The Jazz are riding a five-game winning streak that includes road wins against four Eastern Conference playoff teams from last season: Miami, Orlando, Charlotte and Atlanta. Williams is playing at an All-NBA level (21.3 points, 10.1 assists, 4.7 rebounds) and the Jazz are getting great play from Paul Millsap (21.9 points, 9.3 rebounds) and Al Jefferson (16.7 points, 9.0 rebounds). With Jerry Sloan leading the way, the Jazz are going to out-execute their opponent just about every night which will usually put them in position to win. Maybe this will be the year that Sloan finally wins Coach of the Year.
Nobody wants to beat down the guy who was here before, while propping up the newcomer, but the former cared much more about his personal investment in himself than his personal investment in his team. Jefferson is a whole other thing.
Here’s why that matters: Teammates pick up on that stuff. They know about concerns regarding financial security, about taking care of No. 1, and that certainly has an important place. But, at some point, a pillar of a team has to have strong, authentic feelings — convictions, really — about winning and sacrificing and paying the competitive price for the guys who are on the court and in the locker room with him.
Jefferson is that.
Assuming his knees are okay, Jefferson should be a nice addition to the Jazz and an overall ‘better deal’ than Boozer. Deron Williams is said to be very happy with the acquisition, and that’s important for the franchise.
Jefferson has played for losing teams for much of his career, so it will be interesting to see how he fares in Utah’s winning environment.
The Utah Jazz have quickly moved into the lead to acquire Al Jefferson and were actively working Monday night to complete a deal with Minnesota, according to NBA front-office sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that the Jazz and Timberwolves are on the verge of completing a trade that would slot Jefferson’s contract into the $14 million trade exception that Utah created earlier this week in its sign-and-trade deal with Chicago for Carlos Boozer.
But because its trade exception is large enough to absorb Jefferson’s $13 million salary next season, Utah can complete a trade for Jefferson without sending back any players to the Wolves. Sources with knowledge of Minnesota’s thinking said Monday that the Wolves’ main aim in shopping Jefferson in recent weeks has been securing multiple future first-round picks and taking back as little salary if possible.
Via his Twitter account Monday night, Utah CEO Greg Miller wrote: “I just approved a Jazz roster move that I’m very excited about. Planning to share details tomorrow.
Playing in the NBA’s version of purgatory, Jefferson posted 21-and-11 in 2007-08 and 23-and-11 in 2008-09 before suffering a knee injury that required surgery. He finished with 17-and-9 playing alongside Kevin Love in his post-injury 2009-10.
He’s just 25 and one of the league’s true back-to-the-basket big men. Assuming his knees are okay, he will serve as a nice replacement for Carlos Boozer.
There’s an old adage — when one door closes, another opens. Congrats to the Jazz if they can swing this trade. The Mavericks were also very interested in Jefferson.
Kahn said a staff member spoke up in a draft meeting last week and expressed the same doubt.
They pulled out a list and went through the possibilities one by one. They crossed off free agents deemed too old to fit the Wolves’ rebuilding plans and came up with a short list of players the team’s staff collectively considered out of their reach.
“We counted three players we didn’t think we could get,” Kahn said. “By the way, I think you could put us in 92, 93 percent of the league.”
Three players?
Really?
That excluded short list — presumably James, Wade and Bosh — would leave the likes of Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, David Lee and Rudy Gay possible.
“I don’t want anybody here to feel like we’re some poor stepchildren,” Kahn said. “We’re not. We’re building something of great value that will be sustainable. I think we have a chance to have some serious discussions with free agents after July 1.”
If nothing else, Minnesota’s David Kahn is one of the more entertaining general managers in the NBA. Last year, he drafted three point guards in the first round — passing on Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings in the process — and traded the one that was most NBA-ready (Ty Lawson) away. He’s still waiting on the promise of Ricky Rubio to run his club.
This year, he drafted for need (Wes Johnson) and passed on arguably the best player in the draft (DeMarcus Cousins), even though he’s trying to trade away his best player (Al Jefferson). Passing on Cousins may ultimately be the right move, but centers who can score and rebound like he can don’t come around very often. There’s also a school of thought that his best chance to thrive is in a smaller city where there aren’t as many ‘distractions.’
It sounds like Jefferson is being dangled in order to acquire a top-notch center or power forward, even though the T-Wolves already have the promising Kevin Love playing that position.
The T-Wolves do have a chance to sign a quality free agent, but chances are that they’re going to have to overpay. That means a max contract for a second-tier free agent like Carlos Boozer or Rudy Gay, who may have to decide if they want to take near-max money to play in New York, New Jersey or Miami, or max money from Minnesota.
“In a way I’m glad it happened, because now I know and I know I’ll never do it again,” he said. “I could have hurt myself. I could have hurt someone else. I’m so upset with myself. I’m sorry for the embarrassment I caused my family, my teammates, myself, my fans. I’m a good person. I just made a mistake. I promise it’ll never happen again.
“I didn’t realize the danger that I put myself in, put other people — innocent people — in. I’m ready to put it behind me. I keep telling myself how stupid I was and I wish I could turn back the hands of time. But I can’t. Like I said, it will never happen again. I don’t care if I have to walk home. I would never get behind the wheel when I had something to drink again in my life.”
Asked what he will do differently next time, he said, “Honestly, I was so close to home, I would have walked. I’ll call a cab. I’ll never be by myself again. The crazy thing about it, I was in the process of dialing somebody to come and pick me up and I said, ‘Oh, it’s right down the road from home.’ I’m just kicking myself. There are so many different ways I could have handled it. I wasn’t raised like that.”
Every few months one athlete or another gets dinged with a DUI and I’m always left wondering — why not hire a personal driver or simply call a cab? Al Jefferson makes $12 million a season and he feels the need to drive home after spending a night at the bars.
This is something that athletes have to plan for every time they go out, because once the drinks start flowing, it’s tough to make sound decisions. The best way to do it is to take a cab there and back — that way there isn’t the temptation of getting behind the wheel when the night is over.
Al Jefferson was arrested and booked into jail early this morning for allegedly driving drunk, according to jail records, and the Wolves immediately responded by suspending him.
Jefferson was arrested by the State Patrol at 1:08 a.m., a little more than three hours after the Wolves’ 110-91 loss to Portland at Target Center, and was brought to the Hennepin County Jail shorty after 2 a.m., according to the State Patrol and jail records. He was released at 3:19 a.m.
Tyrus Thomas not happy about coming off the bench. “I don’t think it should even be questionable from what I contributed to this team last season and what I did throughout camp, but like I said, he [Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro] is the guy that makes the decisions.” Del Negro gave the start to rookie Taj Gibson, who has started much of the preseason and has played pretty well, averaging 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds. Del Negro said not to read too much into it, so keep Thomas on your list of breakout candidates.
Al Jefferson is out indefinitely with Achilles tendinitis.Coupled with Kevin Love’s hand surgery and the T-Wolves’ front line is not off to a very good start. Jefferson has been going in the second round of fantasy drafts, but expect him to fall into the fourth or fifth depending on what kind of news comes out of Minnesota. It’s starting to look like Big Al is injury-prone.
LaMarcus Aldridge pledges to get an extension signed by Oct. 31. Aldridge’s camp seems to think he’s a max contract player, but the Blazers don’t agree and aren’t willing to do a deal just to get him signed. It’s going to be interesting to see what he eventually signs for. I pegged his value at $13-$14 million per season, but with the projected drop in next year’s salary cap, I wouldn’t be surprised if he signed a deal that averaged a bit less. Stephen Jackson plans to keep his cool tonight against Kobe. “I’m going to be me, but I guarantee I won’t feed into the nonsense. If it came down to a real fight, I know what would happen. I’m just going to leave that alone, go out and play basketball and try to help my team win.”
The team made the announcement Monday after a somber practice. Coach Kevin McHale said Jefferson will likely have surgery to repair the injury in the next week to 10 days.
“Al’s played at such a high level for this team and been such a big part of our team,” McHale said. “Everybody around here today is a little bit down in the dumps.”
It was devastating news for a young Timberwolves team that has been playing better in 2009 after getting off to a 4-23 start to the season. With Jefferson the focal point, the Wolves went 10-4 in January, and the 24-year-old center was playing even better early in this month.
“I feel terrible for Al. Al’s really, right now, devastated by it,” McHale said. “It all happens for a reason. It’s hard for me to figure out what this reason is. Somehow he’s just going to have to make the best of it and rehab and get better and move on from here.”
The T-Wolves made news back in early December when they fired Randy Wittman and replaced him with then-GM Kevin McHale. At that point, the team was 4-15, and they went on to lose their next eight games to fall to 4-23. Then something strange happened: they started winning. They actually went 12-4 over the next 30 days, a run that included wins at Phoenix and at home against the Hornets. During that span, Jefferson averaged 23.0 points and 11.4 rebounds (numbers that are about the same as his season aveages), and was even getting some love as a possible All-Star (albeit as a long shot).
So Jefferson has to undergo surgery and start rehab, but what do the T-Wolves do now? The team finally started to show some life under McHale — does he get another full season at the helm?
The NBA All-Star Game is part meritocracy and part popularity contest. First, the fans vote, and the top five vote getters – two guards, two forwards and a center – from each conference are the starters. Then the coaches vote on the remaining seven reserves for each team.
The current vote count can be seen here, but I thought I’d put together my own list – five starters and seven reserves – for each team. To me, when it comes to naming All-Stars a winning record is just as important as great stats, so given two players with similar numbers, I’m probably going to give the nod to the guy on the better team. I’ll list the player’s Player Efficiency Rating, which gives a nice overview of the guy’s per-minute statistical production this season.
And off we go…
EASTERN CONFERENCE STARTERS
Dwyane Wade, Heat PER: 29.14
D-Wade is back with a vengeance. He’s averaging 29.0 points, 7.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds, and is (almost) single-handedly keeping the Heat in the playoff hunt. With 24% accuracy, I don’t know why he’s shooting so many threes (3.0 per game), but that’s just nitpicking. He’s third in the league in steals (2.25).
Joe Johnson, Hawks PER: 19.84
JJ is averaging 22.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.6 rebounds, and has the Hawks in a battle for the #4 spot in the East. His three-point shooting is down two points, but his overall FG% is up a point. Remember when everyone laughed at the Hawks for giving up future MIP Boris Diaw and two first round picks for him?
LeBron James, Cavs PER: 32.04
LeBron is the front-runner for the MVP thus far. He’s posting 27.7 points, 6.6 assists and 6.6 rebounds a game. His numbers are down, but that’s because the Cavs can afford to rest him an additional four minutes per game. It’s great to see his FG% over 50% (50.8%) and FT% approaching 80% (78.8%). LeBron has always been a statistical stud, but it’s the Cavs’ stellar record that has him leading the MVP race.
The Timberwolves relieved Randy Wittman of his job, though he should feel relieved after dealing with rumors of his imminent demise all season.
Wittman hasn’t lived up to the “goals and expectations” considering the “talent” he had to work with, according to Wolves owner Glen Taylor. Those are curious claims considering what Wittman had to run out there every night courtesy of Kevin McHale and Taylor.
Wittman could have coached Brandon Roy and O.J. Mayo. Instead, he had Randy Foye and Kevin Love. Those draft-day moves go on McHale’s ledger and perhaps it’s time for Minnesota’s favorite basketball son to answer for them. McHale stepped down from his post as VP of basketball operations to coach the Wolves once again.
Since McHale put this team together, he ought to be the one dealing with this 4-15 mess. Other than power forward Al Jefferson, the rest of the roster is either unrealized potential or veterans, such as Mike Miller, who aren’t part of the future. Taylor sounds as if he’s not letting McHale off the hook lightly.
“It is my expectation that Kevin will be able to get the most out of our team and our players,” Taylor said in a statement released by the team.
The Wolves could have as many as four first-round picks next summer. Minnesota needs to hit big in the Draft and/or put together a package to ease the pressure off Jefferson, while helping the development of Foye, Love and Corey Brewer, who recently suffered a season-ending knee injury.
“I truly believe that we have a talented group of players in our locker room who have a great amount of potential,” McHale stated. “I’m confident that we can get this turned around and get back to playing a brand of basketball that our fans can be proud of.”
McHale has a close relationship with Taylor which is why he’s lasted this long given his performance as the team’s GM. This smells like Taylor might be getting a little tired of the losing (and/or of McHale blaming the coach for the team’s performance) so he wants McHale to step in and put up or shut up.
What are the odds that there is a new GM and head coach in Minnesota next season?
