Horncats interested in Al Jefferson

[GotSwag?]

I cant believe some of these posts. I understand everyone has a right to an opinion, but who cares if jefferson is bad at defense? How much longer are we going to settle for mcroberts and haywoods of the world?

Jefferson is an all star talent. People in Memphis said Randolph was a waste of money bc hes a black hole and plays no defense. Hows that working for them?

We arent going to have many, if any, chances to sign all star players until we improve or come up with a way to trade for one. Take advantage.

Defense might suffer with him and zeller but they will be very tough to stop on offense.

[carpanfan96]

Everyone should care about them signing him. Especially if they are serious about Charlotte ever being more then an 8th seed and a quick out in the playoffs. He limits the teams options in FA next off season. He affects the team's chances of a top 9 pick in the 2014 draft. He doesn't fit with the players on the team at all and needs a specific type of PF to succeed. That limits the amount of moves that the team can pull off effectively with the starting lineup. It removes Zeller from the starting lineup (You absolutely want to limit the amount of time they are on the court at the same time). 

 

Think about it from the perspective of actually building a team that can win in Charlotte and you won't like the Jefferson move at all. The only way Charlotte stands a chance to be anything more then an 8 seed is by going as much through the draft as possible and signing Jefferson hurts those odds even if the team only wins 5 more games with him playing. 

[CatMan72]

Signing Jefferson would be HUGE, every player has warts... he also has a skill set we desperately need. 

[Murph]

Antawn Jamison can give us 75% the offense that Al Jeff can; 125% the defense and 200% of the other intangibles. I say bring Jamison in for a year instead of giving Al tens of millions of dollars over 4 years.

[Zaximus]

Only Bobcats fans would call career 16ppg 9rbpg 1.4bpg player (higher if you take out his first couple years when he wasn't a starter) a bum.  I really don't see our defense getting worse with him, and I would absolutely pair him with Biz down low, I think it would be a good combo and let Biz float around and be a pain in the side for offenses.  Zeller can come off the bench for now and fill in at PF with Biz/Haywood backing up/moving to center when needed.   Al isn't even that old, he'll still be in his prime mostly at the end of the contract.

 

Even if we don't sign him, and suck and get a good pick, who is going to play center for us?  We need a center, and it's hard to bring in people, so if Al will play for us, you do it.  People act like making the playoffs, even low seed, for some years in a row is bad.  It's NOT.  It's how you build a fanbase.  You always have the chance once in there and you aren't an embarrassment.  You're also selling some tickets.    But you never know how a team will gel, or when you're young players will step up, this could be the piece we need to get going.  You can't pass on the chance.  Jefferson opens things up for every other player on the floor.   This team has always been terrible at offense, time for a change.

 

And Jamison isn't a center, and isn't capable of playing the minutes that Jefferson can play.

[Chaos]

Sign Al, start him with Zeller, fug the defense, let's score some points in the paint and free up the shooters.  Do you realize how much better a wing that Henderson would be if we had some respectable offense in the post for the opponent to worry about?

 

Bring Biz off the bench for some energy and defense, cause you know he won't score if he starts or subs.  This would get me excited, and we would still be a lottery team next year, just my guess.

[yasuhara2241]

P

Personally don't want Al. I think he would be a great pick up don't get me wrong but I think it would push us in the 35 win column at least and out of the top 5 in next years draft. 

 

Now, if we do pick him up I feel like its because the front office feels like we aren't a top5 pick team anyway. They feel like with the addition of Zeller and our young guys getting older we have little chance to get one of the top 5 picks. So they are saying lets get the guarantee instead of gambling. 

 

So do you all feel the better line-up is: 

 

A. Walker, Hendo, MKG, Zeller, Al (biz off the bench)

B. Walker, Hendo, MKG, Al, Biz (Zeller off the bench)

 

I would prefer A. Imagine the uproar if we just got Zeller number 4 to come off the bench. 

 

[Zaximus]

Not sure it would be a big surprise if Zeller comes off bench, especially since we didn't know if Jefferson would want to even come here.  He would just look like an insurance policy and a smart move at worst.  Besides, we can rotate Zeller/Biz depending on opponent, or Biz/Zeller out there while Jefferson is resting, etc.  Not to mention some depth.  Can't have enough good big men.

[GotSwag?]

I guess im thinking that a Jefferson/Zeller combo down low would be a very good one.  Teams will really have to focus on the inside game for the Hornets, because those 2 will score a lot of points.  Biyombo brings the defense and hustle.

 

Then throw in Kemba - potential All-Star, with Henderson, MKG, Taylor, 3 1st rd picks next season and still enough cap space to get a star.

 

Yeah..no brainer for me.  What FA out there next year are better than Jefferson and would be willing to come play in Charlotte? 

 

Im tired of playing for the lottery.  We will get screwed.  I understand that some want to hold off one more season, but what if all those guys that are supposed to be stars in the 2014 draft dont pan out ala Shabazz, and we end up getting the 4th pick again and would miss out.

 

Our philosophy is clear now.  We hired a coach who knows how to use its bigs.  We hired Ewing to coach them.  Sign Jefferson to go along with Zeller and Biyombo and get the ball inside and make teams stop us.  Then next year, add a wing or 2, with depth, and 8th spot in the playoffs would be worst case.

 

 

[Jakob]

Twitter is never official but from what I keep hearing from semi-official people is Al Jefferson is ours unless we screw this up somehow.

[Jakob]

poo poo poo poo poo please don't drop a huge amount of money MJ no nonononono

 

Sports Whispers ‏@SportsWhispers1m

#Bobcats are preparing a huge offer for Al Jefferson which they hope he signs tomorrow. #Jazz

 

[teeray]

I'm not going to buy into the "we shouldn't get Al Jefferson because he makes us too much better" camp.

Let's say he does bump us into that 35 win range. We still may have three first round picks next season to try and move up in the draft. We also have Gordon's 12 million going off the books and we still have an amnesty we could use for even more cap space.

Point being, there is a chance next year's draft is loaded but a lot of those guys we think will be so great are really unknowns at this point. Get back to me after I see them.play some college ball. But even if they are what we think they are we can possibly have enough assets to trade up to get one of these guys, or we will have cap room to get a proven high quality player or players to fill in the roster around these guys.

If we have a chance to sign a good player we need to do it.

[carolina-chuck]

MAX the man!

There's no way we're getting Monroe or Cousins next year. Forget about them. You either take a player in his prime now in Al, or go for a player toward then end of his career, Gasol next year. Don't be dumb. Sign the man!

[GotSwag?]

I'm not going to buy into the "we shouldn't get Al Jefferson because he makes us too much better" camp.

Let's say he does bump us into that 35 win range. We still may have three first round picks next season to try and move up in the draft. We also have Gordon's 12 million going off the books and we still have an amnesty we could use for even more cap space.

Point being, there is a chance next year's draft is loaded but a lot of those guys we think will be so great are really unknowns at this point. Get back to me after I see them.play some college ball. But even if they are what we think they are we can possibly have enough assets to trade up to get one of these guys, or we will have cap room to get a proven high quality player or players to follow in around these guys.

If we have a chance to sign a good player we need to do it.

 

You are getting it.  Everyone thinks we will build some super team like the Heat.  Its not going to happen. 

 

Our inside game is going to be lethal, and if we get a go-to-guy on the wing not this coming season but the one after, we are going to have a very very good team.