al jefferson vs. carlos boozer

Anybody else think that they are comparable? I hate boozer, and really like Al Jefferson. However, both are good offensively and both are awful defensively.

Offensively, I think Boozer is better in about every respect. Jefferson is trying to improve passing, and he did, but boozer is a good passer. Boozer shoots with a better efficiency.

Boozer is a great rebounder. Jefferson is good but has a limited rebounding range.

Defensively both are bad. I think Boozer is a better player overall, but i still want jefferson over him. Example is I cannot think of another player who had such great footwork offensively, but could not move on the other end. Jefferson is just slow period. Jefferson wants to win. You see it in his effort, interviews, etc. Boozer is all about me, myself, and I. He is the definition of a fraud.

What do you guys think? Comparable skill wise, or am i just making stuff up.

Al's just better. I don't think this roster would have made postseason with Boozer instead of Jefferson. It seems to me Big Al got really pushed/coached for the first time when he arrived in Utah. He's got room for improvement and he's still a willing learner.

Oh.... I almost forgot to tell the main argument: Boozer's an idiot clown!

Al wants to be in Utah. Plus, he is just a likable guy.
Boozer seems to only care about his stats & his paycheck.

I wish Al could have Boozer's passing skills, and his left hand...

outerspacefan wrote:

Al's just better. I don't think this roster would have made postseason with Boozer instead of Jefferson. It seems to me Big Al got really pushed/coached for the first time when he arrived in Utah. He's got room for improvement and he's still a willing learner.

Oh.... I almost forgot to tell the main argument: Boozer's an idiot clown!

Pure basketball ability, I still say boozer is better. Include attitude and everything else, i like jefferson. I would take jefferson 10 out of 10 times when choosing between the two who id want.

Good thread TheRawns. And, the responses have been pretty good. But, I have to say back when Boozer played for the Jazz the TribTalk forum was filled with a lot of misguided Boozer-hatred. There were tons of posters who loved AK47 and continually seemed bent (and I do mean bent) on attacking Boozer's productivity when he was playing and attacking Boozer's injury recovery (hamstring). There were (seriously) people complaining that Boozer's rebound stats were hurting the team because he was taking away rebounds from other Jazz players. Even in the year where Boozer was the most important Jazz player on the team, and may have led us to a National Championship if the ***** hadn't pulled off the Pao Gasol trade, the TribTalk was full of people claiming Boozer sucked. That year, the Jazz relied tremendously on Boozer, and it wasn't until the ***** triple-teamed Boozer in the playoffs that anyone stopped him. At the same time there were tons of TribTalkers promoting AK47, attacking Jerry Sloan, and, attacking Boozer. All I can say is that Sloan and Boozer brought us back into serious contention more quickly than anyone would have imagined possible-- and the main hinderence to our success was the max contract we gave to AK47 without any rewards.

Now, it's post-Jazz-season 2012 and we have Jefferson. Jefferson hasn't faced the mad attacks that Booze faced as a Jazz player, and hasn't had to make poorly-phrased responses like Boozer made. Jefferson has come out and said he wants to play for the Jazz, and wants to be around when Favors blossoms as an all-star. What's not to like about Jefferson (the correct answer, if you're a Jazz fan, is: Nothing). However, no one's mentioned the biggest problem in comparing Boozer to Jefferson: Boozer is almost exclusively a Power Forward that used to get pushed into the Center position, whereas Jefferson plays mainly as a Center even though on some teams he may fit better as a power forward.

The criticisms of Boozer's defense while he played with the Jazz were mostly about "ole" defense where he wouldn't commit the foul while guarding the other teams big or penetrating opponents. And, the criticism of Jefferson is the same. However, Boozer received 10 times the criticism, even though he was a PF, that Jefferson is getting-- even though Jefferson is playing at Center. It seems our criticism of Boozer and Jefferson has a lot more to do with off the court activities than on the court play for the Jazz. Boozer seemed to have a way of rubbing the fans the wrong way with everything he said, while Jefferson says a whole lot less, and seems to say the right things when pressed. I don't mind it, but, it might be a good strategy for Jazz players to follow this advice: shut up and play. (However, since the Jazz are a small market team, the better financial advice might be: speak up and get on a team that will make you lots more money!)

Solid analysis Saint. Completely agree.

Jazz fans are a fikle lot, but it's telling that Bullzz fans are reacting to Boozer in a similar fashion and openly calling for him to be Amnestied in spite of the fact that with Rose out he was the most productive player on the team for most of the season. Clearly there is something about the way Boozer conducts himself that makes him difficult for fans to relate to and support.

I think it's fairly simple with Boozer, and easy to tell between Al and Booz. Booz just doesn't really care. Fans can easily pick up on passion, and a player actually caring about winning/teammates etc. Booz is obviously a buy who will say all the cliche correct things, but doesn't really care all that much. He'll get fired up from time to time, but..... This was a good move professionally and financially to be an NBA player. But the dude really doesn't care, and it comes across all the time.
Al for his faults, has that passion for all things Jazz/NBA and really seems to give his 110% all the time.
Boozer's street name should be Lackadaisical.

TheMagnus wrote:

... it's telling that Bullzz fans are reacting to Boozer in a similar fashion and openly calling for him to be Amnestied in spite of the fact that with Rose out he was the most productive player on the team...

There's a clear explanation for such a reaction: Boozer's an idiot clown!
Oh... and there'a a fairly amount of fans in Chicago that actually know something about basketball... they know Gibson can make them better than Boozer... hey we're not talking LaLa fans here...

Apparently some coach gave Boozer a vote for first or second all defensive team. Jeff Van Gundy mentioned it during tonight's game seven between Boston and Philly. Van Gundy went on to say, in so many words, that whoever voted for Boozer needs to be outed and exposed for the idiot he is. Van Gundy has been pretty outspoken lately. He also publicly ripped in to the Orlando CEO concerning the firing of his brother.

Jeff Van Gundy rips Magic top executive
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jeff-van-gundy-rips-magic-024045259--nba.html

Crunchtime1 wrote:

Apparently some coach gave Boozer a vote for first or second all defensive team. Jeff Van Gundy mentioned it during tonight's game seven between Boston and Philly. Van Gundy went on to say, in so many words, that whoever voted for Boozer needs to be outed and exposed for the idiot he is. Van Gundy has been pretty outspoken lately. He also publicly ripped in to the Orlando CEO concerning the firing of his brother.

Jeff Van Gundy rips Magic top executive
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jeff-van-gundy-rips-magic-024045259--nba.html

That's funny! Not only for the part about Boozer getting a vote for the all-defensive team (I didn't see anything about it in the link you provided, but that's funny enough). But, anything by the Van Gundy brothers seems a little funny-- both of them are out-spoken advocates of a "call no fouls" officiating style and "allow the owners to run their teams" extravaganza. And now they're complaining about how a GM is running their team because the GM fires a coach! You know, if someone fired my brother, I'd probably come to his defense-- but, I probably wouldn't be tremendously over-paid for the priveledge.

Oops, that had nothing to do with the Boozer/Jefferson conversation. I'll try to do better in my next post.

Back to the Boozer/Jefferson talk. I think Boozer is already on the downside of his career, while Jefferson is peaking just about (I hope) next year. So, bottom line, I like Jefferson more.

And, although I don't think Boozer is or ever was a slacker, I think he was/is a complete idiot as to how he handles his interviews. His defensive play sometimes leads fans to say he doesn't care, but, actually he's pretty good about not getting into foul touble while providing a fundamentally sound position defense enabling him to get defensive rebounds. Even though (I think) his blocks per game increased this year, he still kept out of foul trouble. Staying out of foul trouble was an integral part of the Jazz' offense for Boozer (it was less important for his Chicago game until Rose went down). A few people have touched on a Boozer/Gibson analysis. I'd say Gibson absolutely plays with an all-out defensive style that has no inhibitions as to how many fouls he gets. But, if Gibson were asked to play 35 minutes per game and be an important aspect of Chicago's offensive gameplan, I think he would be much less effective than Boozer has been.

And, I think, for the Jazz, Big Al at Center is under some of the same prohibitions that Boozer is under. He can't go all out like Taj Gibson, or even Serge Ibaka-- because he is a vital part of the Jazz offense. We can't risk having Al get two fouls in the first two minutes of any game. If Al has no fouls going into the last five minutes of a game, we should expect him to go crazy defensively, get some Gibson-like blocks and fouls, and still provide tremendous offense. If Al goes into the last five minutes of a game with 4 or 5 fouls, he's going to have to scale down his aggressive defense, because the Jazz can't afford for him to foul out. This is true for any great offensive player. MJ wannabe used to get away with ridiculously agressive defensive play, because the refs were hesitant to call a foul on instant entertainment-- then, Raja Bell clotheslined MJ wannabe in a playoff game and the league started trying to reduce the fans' disgruntlement at "superstar treatment."