The Downbeat

The Downbeat - 27 January 2011 - #413 - The Everyone Hates Al Edition

By Kris Loertscher@5kl Jan 27, 2011, 10:07am MST

John Hollinger offesr a scathing review (free) on Jefferson and Millsap (but mostly Jefferson) in today's Daily Dime,

"We did a poor job trying to help each other," said Utah coach Jerry Sloan, and the result was a layup drill by San Antonio guards Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili (49 points combined).

"We showed too long or too flat, [and] they got way too many easy baskets coming down the lane."

In other words, the big men couldn't stop anybody. With undersized Millsap playing next to the slow-moving Jefferson, the Jazz offer little resistance against opposing pick-and-rolls; this is particularly true early in games, when Sloan thinks his frontcourt tries too hard to avoid foul trouble.

There's no question that our PnR defense has been awful though I don't know how describing Millsap as undersized has to do with it. Why it's plagued Utah for so long is anybody's guess but it's just not this season.

He also goes on to state that Jefferson doesn't fit and that the Jazz should trade AK to the Nets for Troy Murphy's expiring contract.

The truth is that the Jazz have not had a center like Jefferson ever. If you start with the Sloan era, Mark Eaton was roaming the paint. His primary use was on defense. On offense, his job was to stand outside the arc to keep is guy out of the paint.

Then there came the transition to Ostertag who was utilized the same way. And before Al, there was Memo, who is still here actually. Memo can do some work in the post, but he's lived outside for the most part.

Al is the first center we have had that works the post like he does. Maybe he's just playing out of position. I watched last night on every touch he got and rarely did anyone move when he got the ball. He was most effective working off the pick and roll with Deron.

We may have to come to the realization that the offense the Jazz run most of the time is the flex and the other plan is to get Jefferson the ball and let him work.

Deron is going to keep getting killed on picks if his man isn't slowed some.

Bonus link: ProBasketballTalk also lays into Al.

Forbes released its annual list of NBA team valuations. The Jazz rank 16th with a value of $343 million (no change from 2009). The biggest thing that sticks out is that the Jazz lost money for the first time in a long time:

via images.forbes.com

This was because they were luxury tax payers for the first time in the franchise's history. Not only did they have to pay the tax ($3.1M), but they missed out on the $3.7M payout for non-luxury teams. That's almost a $7M swing that would have put them in the black.

Revenue though was at a franchise-high of $121M. The players' salaries were also at an all-time high of $76M.

I love Fess, but how are he and Demtris Nichols the face of the Utah Jazz? Almost every other team has their marquee player used as the picture. We have a guy that isn't even with the team and never made the team used. It's stuff like this...

Simmons loves to play with the trade machine. Here's his latest (click for bigger or click through)

I'll give him credit for creating one that I hadn't heard of yet.

Pruiti breaks down the dagger three from Richard Jefferson last night. AK goes to help on Duncan after he gets the ball in the lane on (what else) a pick and roll. However, CJ is coming down from his spot to pick up Duncan. My question to the basketball minds here, should AK have left his man? Or was it a pick your poison moment? Would Duncan have kicked out to Hill (I believe) there? It seems the easier pass was to Jefferson.