Jefferson doesn't fit. Not with this motion offense, not with equally limited defensive big men like Paul Millsap and Mehmet Okur surrounding him, and not with a roster that is otherwise much more effective in transition. Jefferson is a fine player, in a vacuum, and he's been decent enough in Utah...They needed Jefferson to be a star, and in this program he's not...Utah has been outscored by more than ten points per 100 possessions with Jefferson on the court, a whopping figure that defies explanation when looking at his stats, until one flips on the TV and notes all the easy finishes at the basket every opponent gets against the Jazz. Despite adding several defensive-minded role players in the offseason, the Jazz were 20th in Defensive Efficiency entering this game and 27th in Defensive Rebound Rate.
"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. "You really hamper your team [playing not to foul]," Sloan said. "It's hard to score, you try to play catch-up, and we don't get the kind of activity defensively you'd like to have."
Jefferson has the worst first-quarter plus-minus of any player in basketball, something that won't surprise Jazz fans who customarily see the team trail by double figures before trying to rally at the end...
