Do Not Trade For Al Jefferson

Don't do it, Warriors... just don't do it. Here are six good reasons why not.

1) His contract is friggin' enormous. Al's owed a total of $42 million in the three years after this one, more than all but six other NBA players in that timespan; several more players will of course jump ahead of him this summer, but he'll remain in the top fifteen, making huge, earth-shattering, alpha-and-omega big-dog type money. If you trade for his contract, you're saying that you can craft a good team with this guy as your very best player, because he'll be taking up about a quarter of your payroll through 2013. Trading for Al Jefferson means you think he's a superstar...

2) ...which means you don't care if your superstar plays defense. Because Al Jefferson doesn't play defense; the Wolves' D has completely fallen apart with Al on the floor in two of the last three seasons. He was becoming a decent defender for last year's Wolves, but then...

3) ...he tore his ACL. And while his scoring numbers are slowly edging back up to par month by month, his defensive and rebounding numbers remain far below what they were, especially when you adjust for the Wolves' faster pace this year. Right now, if you trade for Al Jefferson, the only skills you know you're getting are on offense. And while Al Jefferson's a good offensive player...

4) ...he ain't that good. His post moves are gorgeous, but his field-goal percentage is middling, and he neither gets to the line much nor converts well once there. Al Jefferson has never scored with more than average efficiency, and this year his TS% is 51.3, well below average, and well below six of our rotation players. In fact, of the sixteen players who've taken the floor for us this year, the only guys to score less efficiently than Al Jefferson are Vlad, Hunter, Ronny and Jack; Ronny will catch Jefferson in the next week or two, health permitting. So it's hard to see how we'd profit from his presence on offense, especially since...

5) ...he never passes. For his career, Al Jefferson averages 1.4 assists per 36 minutes, barely half as many as Corey Maggette. And the whole point of our getting a post player, after all, is to open up looks for our shooters. If the post player can't find the shooters, and can't score as efficiently as most of our guys, and can't defend, how's he going to help us win?

6) He's not. Al Jefferson, Post Player Extraordinaire, has never helped anybody win. Since becoming the Celtic's primary post option in the fall of 2006, Al Jefferson has played in 242 NBA games. In those games, his teams have gone 67-175, for an aggregate winning percentage of .277. You know how many NBA teams have had a record that bad over the last three-and-a-half years? Zero. No actual team, not even the Timberwolves, has been as bad as the Travelin' Jeffersons.

Warriors, I'm hoping that you wouldn't even consider trading for Al Jefferson. I'm hoping that you're smarter than this. I'm hoping that you see Al Jefferson for the fool's gold that he is. I'm hoping you realize that Andris Biedrins is the better player, even setting contracts aside. And I'm hoping you realize that when your team sucks, the path to improvement is not trading for the centerpiece of a team that's even worse.

But you Warriors have not earned much trust of late. So I'm shouting it from the e-rooftops, as hard and as often as my feeble, Blogspotted lungs will allow. Do not ruin our future. Do not make a mistake that will plague us for years to come. Do not fall in love with pretty moves and empty stats. Do not trade for Al Jefferson.