Post by Rog on Mar 8, 2017 23:50:45 GMT
The 68th nominee of the NBN Hall of Fame was a bit of an under-the-radar type of guy for most of his career despite his high draft status, damn solid play, and name value. He was one of the better scoring and rebounding bigs in the history of the league, though you could argue he was never actually great. Does he have enough here to be a Hall of Famer or is he just short? Lets take a look.
Career Stats
33.7 MPG, 16.9 PPG, 12.3 RPG, 2.5 APG, 2.1 BPG, 0.8 SPG, 1.8 TOPG on 44.3% from the field 79.7% from the line
Best Season
Trailblazers(2014) - 18.5 PPG, 13.4 RPG, 2.4 APG, 2.3 BPG, 1.1 SPG, 1.9 TOPG on 42% from the field and 81.8% from the line
Career Highs
Points: 41
Rebounds: 28
Assists: 9
Steals: 5
Blocks: 9
Achievements
Championships: 0
Player of the Game: 104
Player of the Week: 2
Player of the Month: 0
Double Doubles: 695
Triple Doubles: 0
Accolades
2006 - All-Star Rookie Game Participant
2006 - All-Rookie Team
2007 - All-Star Rookie Game Participant
2007 - Rookie Game MVP
2008 - All-Star Game Participant
2008 - All-League Second Team
2009 - All-Star Game Participant
2009 - All-League Third Team
2011 - All-Star Game Participant
2011 - All-League Third Team
2012 - All-Star Game Participant
2014 - All-Star Game Participant
Arguments For Induction
- Big Al was named to five All-Star games, and before that even won a Rookie Game MVP while playing for the Sophomores. He also was named to two All-League Third teams and an All-League Second team as well. For a guy who didn't quite have the defense to be a total stud, these are pretty darn impressive.
- Al Jefferson was an impressive scorer in this league where bigs are expected at most to do 15 points a game, while being defensive and rebounding forces to be considered good. Al Jefferson did more than 17 seven seasons of his career and career worst season was 12.5 in his last year, which isn't bad at all. You knew you could depend on 15+ points a game from Jefferson year in and year out, just plug it i and move on. And while he wasn't the pillar of efficiency, he did shoot 44% for his career, a solid number for scoring bigs in this league, as well as shoot 80% from he line. Oh and wasn't turnover prone at all, averaging 1.8 in his career. Solid numbers here, really, really solid.
- Maybe even better than his scoring, Al Jefferson was a near elite rebounder who finished his career 11th All-Time in rebounds. He averaged 12.3 in his career, but in his prime he was a 13 rebound guy, which is borderline top 10 year in and year out, those are solid numbers. In fact, he played in 1065 games, and recorded 695 double doubles. He was a machine.
- Jefferson wasn't exactly a model defender, but did averaged nearly 3 stocks(2.1 blocks, 0.8 steals), pushing those numbers to nearly 3.5 in his prime. Also carried at least a B+, and mostly an A-, defensive rating his entire prime, that is damn solid.
- Overall, Jefferson has a decent number of awards to back up his good to great stats and solid consistently double double post play. He was a good scorer, near great rebounder, and a adequate defender who was probably actually above average there. It wasn't his fault he got stuck on some mediocre(at best) teams in his career never really challenging for a title. He was a perfectly good big for any team in any situation. You can't ask for much more honestly.
Arguments Against Induction
- You can ask for more, specifically you can ask for more award, which Al Jefferson has the bare minimum to be CONSIDERED for a Hall of Fame spot. The center position isn't exactly stacked with superstars in this league, asking for a few more awards isn't exactly asking for a lot now is it? I don't think so.
- As said before, he wasn't great at anything. Seriously. Sure for 14 seasons you could relatively count on 15 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.3 blocks. 1 steal and count on him on to shoot you out of games or turn it over at crazy rates, but you also couldn't really expect him to take games over in the way you'd expect Hall of Fame level guys to be able to do.
- He was actually somewhat injury prone, which explains the lack of awards in some seasons but also isn't really an excuse here. He missed around 100 games in his career, about 7 a year. You have to be able to count on your best players to be on the court during every part of the year, and you knew that Al Jefferson was missing a good stretch of time every year.
- The entire picture paints something that is really good, but falls inches away from Hall of Fame nomination. Never won a title, never competed really, not enough awards, no elite statistics, ect, ect. In fact, he favors really bad against the typical bigs in this league, and Scott Pollard and his huge impact defensively isn't a Hall of Famer, and Jefferson doesn't have anything near as good as Pollard's defense to fall on, he can't be a Hall of Famer now can he?
Vote carefully, and remember to throw out arguments regardless of which side you're on. This should be a discussion that eventually gets the league to the proper decision on him. Your vote can also be retracted after it's been cast if you feel like switching to the other side based on the arguments that have been made. To be inducted, a player needs 70% and to be considered in a later class they need 50%. Vote carefully.
***BONUS - Don't forget that everyone who votes gets $25 and the person that makes the best argument or contributes to the discussion the best will be awarded an extra $25***
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