I don't understand all the Big Al hate lately. It seems everyone and their dog wants him traded. I can understand wanting Millsap traded, but why Big Al? It's not like we have any better options at C. Favors should be starting PF, where he'll play once Kanter develops. If we trade Big Al, we would have to trade for another starting C, because Kanter is not physically or mentally ready to have starting minutes.

Also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWm3foYmIGA&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

(I especially like the part around the 3:38 mark)

But on synergy sports, this is how Big Al compares to some players on offense. (I'm using just the most relevant stats, so I don't have to sit here typing this chart all day)

PPP

Big Al: 0.98

Kevin Durant: 1.05

Kobe Bryant: 0.93

Kevin Love: 1.01

Dwight Howard: 0.96

Paul Millsap: 0.96

FG%

Big al: 49.1%

Kevin Durant: 50%

Kobe Bryant: 43%

Kevin Love: 44.5%

Dwight Howard: 57.7%

Paul Millsap: 48.5%

%TO

Big Al: 5.1%

Kevin Durant: 13.5%

Kobe Bryant: 11.2%

Kevin Love: 9.2%

Dwight Howard: 15.3%

Paul Millsap: 10%

% Score

Big Al: 49.4%

Kevin Durant: 49.1%

Kobe Bryant: 44.1%

Kevin Love: 47.8%

Dwight Howard: 52.1%

Paul Millsap: 48.5%

Of course numbers are a little skewed because of player roles and what kind of shots the player takes. Kevin Love shoots 3's fairly well, so his PPS is a little bit higher, while everthing else is slightly worse, Dwight Howard's PPS isn't as high (I'd assume because of his Free throw shooting, which isn't on Synergy or I would've added it in). Kobe shoots A LOT (Though Kevin Durant shot more and was more efficient than Kobe). But both Millsap and Jefferson seem to be up there in this group. I don't have the time to compare them to every player. Jefferson seems to be slightly better on offense than Millsap. Also, look at Jefferson's TO%, it's better than everyone in the group, and better than a few other people I looked up just for fun but didn't write down (CP3, D-Will, and Andrew Bynum, just for a more diversified perspective on that specific stat). And it's not like Big Al never passed the ball, he averaged around 2 assists per game.

So basically, my arguements for not trading Big Al is because, 1) It makes no sense to trade an allstar-caliber player for a role player, 2) Kanter is not ready to start, and Favors should imo be playing at PF, 3) Kanter seems to be developing fine with 5 less minutes than maybe would be optimal, so again, it doesn't make sense to trade a mentor and a fringe allstar for 5 extra minutes per game. I'd say that Jefferson's mentorship is worth that much, if not more.

Conclusion, we should not trade Jefferson, or at least not for the next 3-4 years (until Kanter develops). And who knows, maybe by then he will be ready to accept a 6th man role.

I might do a followup with the defensive stats later, but I don't have the time right now, but if your arguement is "he's bad at defense, so let's trade him!", he's actually not horribly bad, just by the eye-test, he seems to struggle on PnR defense, but is fine in most other situations, and is actually pretty good 1on1. I'll have to do research on this, but my theory is that we had a "perfect storm" last year, where our PG couldn't defend the pick n' roll (if our PG could defend it, this could potentially cover up Big Al's weaknesses), and our C couldn't defend the pick n' roll, so it was a double whammy. But I'll make comparisons to other players some other time.