Love/Hate series: Al Jefferson

The plan was Al Jefferson would be the Indiana Pacers biggest threat off the bench, but things fell apart quickly.

Al Jefferson supposedly was going to stabilize the Indiana Pacers bench last season, a constant sore spot for the team for who knows how long. Larry Bird believed the team was very close to making a run in the Eastern Conference and Jefferson was going to make sure the Pacers didn’t piss away leads when the starters were resting.

Neither of those things happened.

There was a shimmer of hope in January when Jefferson put up back-to-back 20 point games, but more often than not he failed to score in double-digits. An injury along with the fact Kevin Pritchard claims Al wasn’t in great physical condition led to him resting on the bench for the Pacers last 13 games of the season, including the playoffs.

Jefferson wasn’t expected to start, but the fact he failed as a reserve is a cause for concern as long as he is on the Indiana Pacers roster.

Love: Al Jefferson can still score

Al Jefferson only averaged 8.1 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, but that in 14 minutes a game. Efficiency wise, it was one of his better seasons as far as points and offensive rating is concerned, ranking fifth in his career.

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It may seem much too generous to frame it that way for Jefferson, but the fact is he put the ball in the basket as well as he always has.

The same is true for his rebounding as it was a bit of a bounce back year for Jefferson. He made the most of the minutes he played, posting his highest rebounding percentage since 2011. If you look at his per a 36 minutes stats, he set a pace that would average a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds a game.

And if nothing else, Big Al is still a beast in the post.

Al Jefferson can still score, but basketball isn’t played on paper and Indiana could only keep him on the court for so many minutes. The sport is also played on both ends of the floor, which was Jefferson’s biggest issue.

Hate: Al Jefferson can’t play defense

As well as Al Jefferson can score, his defense wasn’t just inversely proportional, it was slightly worse.

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• 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
• 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
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In 39 of his 66 games this season, Jefferson failed to break even or post a positive +/-. The Pacers hemorrhaged points when he was on the floor. Only Monta Ellis, Rodney Stuckey, and Aaron Brooks were worse for the Pacers defensively. There were few scenarios where the Pacers weren’t better off with Jefferson on the bench.

When they paired him with fellow reserve Kevin Seraphin, the results were disastrous. Having one plodding big on the floor was bad enough for the Pacers, but having two was downright irresponsible of coach Nate McMillan.

Jefferson’s defense was never great, but he was getting exposed again and again this season especially with any other of Indiana’s less athletic bigs. Opponents were scoring at an elite level when he was on the floor.

Fit was a very big issue for the Pacers last season, but it got harder and harder to find one for Jefferson. He is a dinosaur in today’s pace-and-space NBA, even if he can still score as well as he ever did.

What’s next for Al Jefferson?

That is a good question.

If the rumors about his conditioning are true, optimism is hard to find with Jefferson being a year older. Even if conditioning isn’t an issue, there were only a handful of games last season where Jefferson did enough to justify his presence on the court.

His $10 million a year contract isn’t a big issue for the Pacers right now as they rebuild, but that’s still $10 million for someone who was a benchwarmer at the end of the season.

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Offense isn’t a problem at all for Jefferson, but unless he starts scoring even more or the Pacers find a better defense to put around him, then it is hard to see a role for Big Al this season.