Al Jefferson refuses to let the NBA run past him
Adi Joseph
The Hornets center is out to prove that his style of basketball — on offense and defense — still can work.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Al Jefferson leans forward in his seat, scratching his ankle. This seems to be his thinking pose, his broad shoulders covering his knees as he considers a response.

The hunched back, the syrupy Mississippi accent, the sweat still glistening — Jefferson is playing his part well. They call him a dinosaur in today’s NBA, and the 30-year-old Hornets big man’s words offer a hard-earned wisdom.

“I think teams now — and it's funny because I watched this happen right before my eyes — when I first got in the league, man, I was a power forward. There was a 7-footer and a power forward on every team,” he says. “Then when I went to Minnesota, you could just see the Dirk Nowitzki era was coming in. Now it's like, you look at me, DeMarcus Cousins, Zach Randolph — Tim Duncan, of course, the man — there's still a handful of back-to-the-basket guys.”

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I had asked about post defense, about how he’s guarded and how he used to be guarded and how he guards other post players. But that’s a complicated question, he knows, and it requires that kind of unpacking of history.

“To answer to your question,” he continues, “I think the post defense is not as good as it was because you don't see it now. … And I think when teams play against me or DeMarcus or Zach, they struggle in that area because you don't see guys post up 30 times a game no more.”

All the signs again point to Al Jefferson, Last of a Dying Breed. And that narrative has followed Jefferson, through this season more than any other, after the pains and struggles of last year for Charlotte as a whole and the big man individually.

Jefferson fits a prototype about as squarely as anyone in the NBA. He’s the big ol’ post-up center whose feet are too slow on defense and whose style is too plodding on offense to keep up. We’re in the pace-and-space era, the 3-pointers-and-defense era, the pick-and-roll-on-every-play era. And Al Jefferson doesn’t make sense in that era. Except …

"I think people don't realize, 3-point shooting is what makes me who I am,” Jefferson says in that same training camp interview. “Last year, we didn't have 3-point shooting. That's why guys were able to sit down on me. I didn't have it. Now we have guys who can spread the floor and make shots. Teams have to pick and choose their spots. You double me, bang — we've got an open shot. So having shooters around is music to my ears. That's what lets me do what I do best."

The Hornets launched perhaps the boldest modernization initiative in the NBA this offseason. After posting the worst 3-point percentage (31.8) in the league and losing 10 more games than the year before, Charlotte entered this summer looking for offensive weapons. It found them; nearly every addition, from Nicolas Batum to Jeremy Lin to Frank Kaminsky, was made with shooting in mind. The roster is upgraded, even with the devastating, likely season-ending injury to promising small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. This Hornets team will be different. There’s no other choice.

Yet Jefferson remains the heart of the roster. Coach Steve Clifford repeatedly calls him the best offensive player on the team. The philosophy is to go “four-out,” putting four shooters on the court. That fifth guy, that’s Jefferson. But that doesn’t mean it’s the same Jefferson who grounded himself in the post last season. The difference is obvious.

“I told him this morning, I don't know if I can call him 'Big Al' anymore, man,” veteran forward Marvin Williams says, pointing to a 20-pounds-lighter Jefferson taking free throws at another basket. “Check him out now — he's got his shirt off, tank top on, shooting. I told him I'm going to start calling him 'Slim Al.' He's done a hell of a job this summer, really getting focused on his body and coming into camp in great shape, and he's been leading us ever since.”

The fried chicken had to go first, yes, but Jefferson is committed to a greater change this season. A successful season by the big man is essential to the Hornets franchise taking a necessary leap forward.

Sporting News spoke with Jefferson, his teammates past and present and his coaches at length about those expectations and everything that needs to change on offense and defense as a supposed dinosaur adapts to the modern era.

Picking his spots

The Hornets brought in three big men this offseason and brought back three others. Put them all on a court together, and a trend emerges.

“One-on-one, there's nobody here that can put up much of a fight with him in the post,” Clifford says of Jefferson. “Really, there's not many guys in this league who can. So the first two days, he was 18 for 23. He can kind of get what he wants."

Cody Zeller drew a lot of those assignments. Zeller is 23 years old and one of the fastest 7-footers in the NBA and jumped 37.5 inches at the 2013 NBA Draft Combine. Put him on Jefferson, though, and that’s a whole lot of athleticism spinning in circles.

“He loves the guys that are more athletic than him — which is most guys,” Zeller says. “He loves the guys, even Anthony Davis, (Andre) Drummond. He loves going against them. The guys that play low to the ground, the stronger guys, give him more problems because they don't go for any of his shot fakes. But you'll be telling yourself, 'Here comes the shot fake, here comes the shot fake.' And then you'll still go for it.”

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This is the Jefferson the NBA knows well. It’s what makes him a special player, what no coach could want to lose.

When he played in Utah with power forward Paul Millsap, they were perhaps the toughest post tandem in the league. Upon leaving Utah in the same 2013 offseason as Jefferson, Millsap became one of the best “stretch-fours” in the NBA for the Hawks, extending his shooting range to the 3-point line as part of a modernist offense.

“Me personally, I wanted to move out, I wanted to expand my game. I've always wanted to shoot the 3-point shot,” Millsap says. “Our offense in Utah didn't allow me to shoot it, so I was kind of stuck in the paint. With Al, that's his comfort zone. That's his bread and butter. He's one of the few dominant low-post scorers we have in this league.”

The NBA is going away from low-post scoring, though. How do you take away a player’s bread and butter? Well, the weight loss helps.

“More running and jumping. More pick-and-rolls instead of just sitting on the box, waiting for the ball to come to me,” Jefferson says of how his game may change. “This year, I'm really looking forward to setting the action. That's something I really want to do because last year, when I was hurt and the team was playing so well together, that's what we were doing. We were moving the ball, setting picks. I want to be a part of that, along with throwing the ball down to the block.”

He’s referring to a stretch in early January when the Hornets went 6-3 while he was sidelined. Point guard Kemba Walker played his best basketball of the season during that stretch, freed up because Clifford was forced to loosen up the offense without Jefferson in the post.

The Hornets flashed what they could do in a pick-and-roll-heavy offense, a modern offense, even without the shooting they now have. When Jefferson came back, the gears clogged up again.

That can’t happen this season. Clifford knows that, and his Hornets fired more than 20 3-point attempts in each of their first four preseason games — all wins. (They only took 16 in their most recent game, a victory Saturday against the Knicks, but they were coming off jet lag from a trip to China.)

If the Hornets are going to use Jefferson in a spread offense, he must first and foremost improve his passing. The foot speed issues either will or won’t be resolved by the weight loss, but Jefferson knows he has more weapons around him.

“If I've got the ball one-on-one on the block, I don't think coach or anyone wants me to pass the ball,” he says. “But how often do you ever see me go one-on-one? So if I've got the ball on the block and somebody is double-teaming me, the right thing to do is swing to somebody open.

“And another thing is, this year I really want to be able to score a lot of points on play calls. Being able to just roll to the basket, doing stuff like that to get easy shots.”

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The offensive blueprint, then, isn’t what needs to change. Jefferson simply must show up with the mentality of finding the best shot — and quickly. He averaged 25.9 passes per game last season, a far cry from Cousins’ 42.0 and Randolph’s 35.7 among his post peers.

Jefferson can’t avoid the low post entirely. Clifford stresses that the biggest value in modern offenses is forcing a double-team, and Jefferson is the only player on the Hornets who can command that kind of defensive attention. What the other Hornets must do is create space for him to operate, be it up top in pick-and-roll sets or down low in his old home. That’s where the “four-out” ideology comes from and why even Zeller, who has attempted two 3-pointers in his entire NBA career, plans to be more of a perimeter presence this season.

"You don't have to shoot 42 percent from 3,” Zeller says. “Just the fact that they have to respect you from out there, that spreads the court. And that's more post-ups for Al, that's more space for pick-and-rolls and Kemba. That opens up the whole floor for our offense."

Scoring should come easier for Charlotte this season. Lance Stephenson and his historically bad 2014-15 are gone, and a glut of new shooters has arrived. The other side of the ball could be trickier.

Getting defensive

“It ain't been no secret,” Jefferson says. “I have not been a great defensive player.”

Some might argue he’s understating it. Jefferson’s slow feet were long viewed as an ultimate limitation on his teams. For the same reasons that he proved a liability in a spaced out offense, he struggled on defense with players who pushed him to the edges of the offensive zone.

Ask him who he likes defending the least, and there’s zero hesitation.

“Chris Bosh,” he says. “That's the thing, I hate guys like — not personally hate, but — I hate guys like Chris Bosh. Spencer Hawes, like f—, I remember when Spencer Hawes got in the league and couldn't even shoot 3s. Then he worked on his game, and I had to guard him at the 3-point line. I used to hate that. Them types of guys bothered me. ... It should be a lot easier (with the weight loss), but I hate being around there. I feel like I'm out of place.”

Hawes was one of the offensive-minded additions the Hornets made this offseason. He, Zeller and rookie Kaminsky have been taking Jefferson to the corner all of camp.

It’s practice. It’s conditioning. It’s embracing reality.

“He's tried hard defensively,” Clifford says of Jefferson's work in camp. “His effort is really good. He looks a lot more like he did two years ago.”

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That’s a crucial turn of phrase. Two years ago, Jefferson had the best season of his career. The Hornets went 43-39, seizing the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and he was named to the All-NBA third team.

None of that was possible without defensive strides and a defensive system. None of that was possible without Kidd-Gilchrist, either.

Kidd-Gilchrist is easy to ignore. The 22-year-old doesn’t produce much on a stat sheet, as quiet on the court as he is off it. That’s a rare trait in a No. 2 overall pick, and many have mistaken it as a sign that he’s a bust. But he’s been the most important player on the Hornets the past two seasons — reflected in their 61-53 record when he starts vs. 15-35 when he doesn’t, as well as numerous defensive metrics.

A few weeks after signing a four-year contract extension, Kidd-Gilchrist tore a muscle in his shoulder. He needs surgery and will miss six months, likely meaning the entire season. And Jefferson suddenly has lost his best safety curtain, the shut-down defender who halted the best opposing perimeter players.

Many defenses in the NBA focus their efforts on sending ballhandlers into crowds. Most of the best defenses hinge on a shot-blocking big man, a rim protector whose job it is to cut off penetration without leaving open perimeter shooters. The Hornets don’t have that luxury.

“You never want to give people drives straight to the basket. You always want to protect the paint, first and foremost,” says Williams, the veteran power forward. “But it does make your life a little bit easier, you know, for the Clippers when they have DeAndre Jordan to clean up their mistakes. I played with Josh Smith, who cleaned up a ton of our mistakes down in Atlanta when we got beat. So it's a little bit different when you do have a true shot blocker back there, like a DeAndre Jordan or a Tyson Chandler. But Al's been great for us over the years, protecting the paint.”

Here's what Jefferson excels at: defensive rebounding and post defense. The latter, as he admits, doesn’t mean as much in today’s era with so few post scorers to face. Rebounding’s value is more debatable because it seems like such a replaceable skill — someone has to grab the board, after all. But Jefferson does it exceptionally; he ranked fifth in the NBA in defensive rebound rate in 2013-14, when he was healthy and at his best.

Here's what he struggles with: help defense and pick-and-roll switching.

"When we play, a lot of teams try to put him in pick-and-rolls because in years past, he didn't move his feet,” Hornets assistant Patrick Ewing says. “We're challenging him to move his feet and try to stay in front of the ball. And then, depending on who he's playing, he needs to do a better job of keeping his man out of the paint.”

Ewing is one of the greatest defensive big men in NBA history, an ideal mentor. He’s focused on building out Jefferson’s instincts but also keeping him motivated. “In years past, they let him get away with (not caring about defense),” Ewing says.

The Hornets have the advantage of a scheme that works. Clifford came from the Van Gundy coaching tree, having served under Jeff in Houston and Stan in Orlando, and their defensive minds clearly are aligned. The Hornets’ system is unique. They finished last in steals and 27th in turnovers forced last season, and they probably allowed opponents more 3-pointers at a higher make percentage than is ideal. But they ranked ninth in points allowed per possession, a formula based on those defensive rebounds as well as preventing penetration and keeping ballhandlers in front.

“On paper, we don't look like a great defensive team or rebounding team, but we make it work because it's more of our principles and team defense staying together,” Zeller says. “We're always in the right spots. We have to make up for it just because we can't save ourselves just for a good shot blocker."

Jefferson says the weight loss is going to help him push that defense forward. Every player says he wants to improve his defense, though.

“When you've been in the league as long as I have, you know what to do. It's just all about doing it. It's all about being able to do it,” Jefferson says. “I’ve been in this thing too long to know not to play defense. I've just got to do it. This team, our focus, our game plan is defense.”

The results were evident in the Hornets’ fourth exhibition, their second on a weeklong trip to China. They held the Clippers to 71 points, even with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Jordan playing extended minutes. Jefferson chipped in two blocks and a steal to go along with his game-high 17 points.

The next giant step

The Hornets have postseason aspirations this year. The race for the final two playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference could get ugly, as it did last season, and Charlotte has enough talent to throw its hat in that ring.

Jefferson knows he’s the key. He embraces that responsibility. It means even more for him given his upcoming free agency. He opted into the final year of his contract this offseason; he'll make more than $12 million this year and will enter next year’s free-agent madness, when more teams than ever will have spending money.

But 31 is a dangerous age for a big man to become a free agent, especially given his health issues last season. His knees, calves and feet will be helped but not healed by this lighter load. The Hornets certainly will be watching him with close interest. The biggest question is that same one that has stuck with him in recent years: Does anyone want a throwback center in a modern era? Is he a dinosaur nearing extinction?

Jefferson swings out of his as the interview comes to a close. But he can’t leave this question hanging. He can’t leave the future uncertain.

"I really believe,” he says, “I might be long gone and retired one day, but I think it's going to get back to the old-school, back-to-the-basket game. One day — it may be 20 years from now, but one day — it's going to come back."