Center Fridays: Can Al Jefferson still have impact?

Al Jefferson doesn’t get a ton of minutes thanks to two emerging young centers in Indiana. Can he still have a positive impact when he gets a chance to play?

It isn’t Al Jefferson‘s fault that the Indiana Pacers front office extended him a three year, $30 million contracts last summer, but fans still loathe the big man for being wasted salary on the team’s salary cap ledger.

Jefferson had been a solid player for most of his career in other cities, so there was a reason to believe that he could be good in Indiana. It’s hard for him to get playing time since he is stuck behind Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis in the rotation.

Despite this, he still gets an occasional stint against slower centers, and he often makes good on his opportunities.

An old-fashioned center, where Jefferson excels is with his back to the basket. When he was drafted out of high school in 2004, that was a valuable skill that guys like Shaquille O’Neal and Ben Wallace were making their offensive living off of. Now, that skill is less effective as teams have adapted and learned how to stop it, and Jefferson’s lack of talent doing much else on offense really hinders him.

To Jefferson’s credit, after 13 seasons he is still solid at this particular skill. He has the timing of his post moves down pat, and his touch around the basket allows him to finish backdowns with defenders draped all over him:

Unfortunately, many of his offensive talents do not extend beyond 10 feet from the rim. He can snag an offensive rebound, he averages 2.7 of them per 36 minutes, but he can’t pass, dribble, or dictate movement at any sort of competitive level anymore. At one point, Jefferson possessed many of these skills, but father time has been rude to him.

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He does deserve some recognition, medium-sized Al (I will never forget you, Big Al) has attempted to adapt to the modern game and stretch his shooting range out a little bit.

In his full season with Indiana last year, he shot 21.4 of his shots from mid-range, per basketball-reference, one of the highest rates of his career.

This year, he’s taking a bit less from there, but his adaptation to those shots have allowed him to make a lot more; he’s shooting 58.3 percent from that distance.

He doesn’t hesitate anymore from the mid-range. Once he gets the space, he lets it fly if he thinks he can hit it, and his release is fairly quick compared to the rest of his game:

Hopping into his jumper, a display of great shooting fundamentals shows that Al has been working on that shot. A decent mid-range shot and deft touch around the rim push Jefferson’s overall field goal percentage to 54.9 percent, his best number since, well, ever. That is a career high for him. Unfortunately, we have hit the apex of Jefferson’s talents on the court; he can’t do much beyond what we have already discussed.

If he could pass the ball effectively in the lane, the pick-and-roll would be a solid option for the big man. Unfortunately, he can’t pass at all:

He hardly dribbles unless he has his back to the basket, and his lack of outside shooting clogs up the lane for other players who share the court with him. All of his weaknesses accumulate to make him a slight negative on the defensive end despite his decent scoring, and that is shown in his ghastly 103.4 offensive rating, the third-worst figure on the team.

On the defensive under, Jefferson does absolutely nothing well but rebound. He is a sieve, the opposing team intentionally goes right at him in a pick and roll the second Jefferson subs into the game, and he can’t stop it thanks to his slow feet:

Out in space, Jefferson can’t stop anybody. The Pacers try to keep him planted under the basket at all times, but in pick and roll situations that just isn’t feasible.

Jefferson could make up for his porous defense with his awesome rebounding, his 17.3 rebound rate is third on the team and an excellent figure overall, but the problem is that there are fewer rebounds to get when he is on the court. This is because the team can’t stop anybody when he plays and the ball just keeps going in the basket, his 109.3 defensive rating is the fourth-worst for any Pacer.

Next: Ben Moore gets two-way contract from the Indiana Pacers

It’s not hard to see that Jefferson does some things well, especially on offense. However, he doesn’t do nearly enough to have a positive impact on the court, and that is why it is so hard for the team to play him. Thankfully, Al has more than a decade of experience in the league and can teach some of his seasoned tricks to Sabonis and Turner. Jefferson is a valuable veteran to have around, but his on-court play is nothing to write home about.