Al Jefferson explains defensive transformation with Charlotte Bobcats: Former Boston Celtics big man all grown up, leading a franchise's revival
Jay King
Former Celtics big man Al Jefferson is maturing in Charlotte and leading a Bobcats revival.
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Boston Celtics' Phil Pressey (26) and Jared Sullinger (7) defend against Charlotte Bobcats' Al Jefferson (25) in the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game in Boston, Friday, April 11, 2014. The Celtics won 106-103.

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

BOSTON – Al Jefferson kept telling himself his time would arrive. The right situation would not avoid him throughout his entire career.

The big man hit free agency this past summer, and in all honesty he had not yet fulfilled his potential. He could score – oh, he could always score, sometimes with a post move so creative that he would remember it and believe he might injure himself if he ever tried it again. But even he admitted that his ability to impede opponents from scoring, maybe the most important trait for a center like himself, lagged behind his skilled and polished offensive repertoire.

Jefferson desired deep playoff runs but chose to sign with the Charlotte Bobcats, a franchise that sometimes seemed cursed by bad luck or worse decisions and had qualified for the postseason just once. From afar, I noticed the contract and felt Jefferson might have forever doomed his chances of playing on a competitive squad. I felt that he had probably chosen money over circumstance.

But Jefferson said when he sat down with new Charlotte coach Steve Clifford during free agency, he felt a sense of direction nobody would have formerly associated with the Bobcats.

“Sitting down, talking to Coach Clifford and his amazing coaching staff, you could just hear the way the man was talking that he was coming to turn things around here,” Jefferson said. “And I just wanted to be a part of that.”

For the partnership to work, though, Jefferson would need to change. He could not compete on just one side of the court forever.

The beginnings of a redesign

What does a coach do when his team signs a high-profile big man known as a defensive sieve?

Clifford began by focusing on film of the last 10 games of Jefferson’s tenure with the Utah Jazz. He noticed what everyone else does: parts of basketball just come naturally to Jefferson. It gave the coach comfort to see his new big man’s intelligence.

“To me, if you have a feel for the game, and then you work at it, you have a chance to be good defensively,” Clifford said Friday night before falling 106-103 to the Celtics.

But Jefferson’s teams had always hemorrhaged points with him on the court. Even the big man did not shy away from admitting it. During one interview with Grantland, he said, “It ain’t no secret around the league that I struggle with my defense. My pick-and-roll defense is my weakness.”

Reflecting on that lack of confidence, Jefferson said, “I think I used to say that stuff because I let the things people say about it sink in my head.”

Plus, the 29-year-old is honest.

“He’ll tell you that when he was young, he wouldn’t pass,” Clifford smiled. “There’s a lot of good about him, but his level of accountability to himself and his teammates is very high.”

The admirable nature of accountability aside, Clifford still needed to communicate to Jefferson that he could improve. Nobody gets better while considering a situation hopeless.

“When I talked to Coach Clifford, he told me I’m not as bad a defensive player as I try to make myself to be. On the defensive end it’s just effort and having the energy to do the things you’re supposed to do. Here I am in my 10th year,” Jefferson said, starting to grin, “and all of a sudden I’m on a team that’s been top 10 in defense this whole year – number six if I’m not mistaken now.

"I think it was just more mind over matter. I guess I have to admit that I was lazy and I wanted to save my energy on the offensive end. But as I got older and (began) understanding what it takes to win, I’ve got to have that energy on both ends.”

Jefferson anchoring one of the league’s top defenses has qualified as one of the NBA season’s biggest surprises. As a measurement of just how far the Bobcats have advanced on that end, head coach Brad Stevens compared the team to the Bulls and Pacers. “They don’t take any play for granted, they don’t take any detail for granted,” Stevens said. While preparing for Friday night’s game he saved a few clips of Charlotte’s pick-and-roll execution to use as an example for his Celtics.

Competing in the lowly Eastern Conference has helped, but there’s nothing fluky about the Bobcats defense. Getting stops so consistently took a complete transformation both from the organization and its star player. NBA people I've spoken to all believe the Bobcats have succeeded in spite of Jefferson, not because of him. But such team success would not have been possible if he remained such a negative defender.

Clifford told Jefferson over the summer that he would need to commit himself to defense, and the stakes were high. If the big man had not, his contract threatened to become the latest major mistake for a franchise that has no shortage of them. Jefferson laughed that he has not once talked offense with assistant Patrick Ewing, the former New York Knicks star who averaged 21 points per game over a Hall of Fame career and could presumably offer at least a thousand helpful pointers on the offensive end.

“Basically just defense,” Jefferson said. “We watch film all the time. If I have a bad defensive game, if I’m late on a rotation or not blocking out, I’m in his office the next day. I get a text from him the night before: ‘I need to watch film with you.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, God.’ The next day I’m in his office watching film.

“But he really helps me to motivate me to become a defensive player because I know that’s what I’m going to have to do for this team to have success. We’re not going to be able to outscore everybody every night. We’re going to have to get stops.”

Clifford admits he designed his defensive schemes with Jefferson’s inherent weaknesses in mind.

“We spent a lot of time on it. There’s no question about it,” he said. “But I do think that his willingness to work on it, and his feel for the game, have allowed him to play better than I would have thought.”

Mission accomplished, but more to come

Jefferson finally seems to have found it, the home he's been looking for, a place where he can succeed and lead and reach his potential, all while helping a formerly woebegone franchise blossom as one of the NBA’s grittiest teams.

For just the second time in team history, the Bobcats have qualified for the playoffs, exceeding even Jefferson’s expectations during his initial season with the team. The big man is averaging 21.8 points and 10.7 rebounds per game and he has finally become something greater than poison on the other end.

He can still remember so much about his first trip to the playoffs as a Celtics rookie in 2005 – the vibe in the arena, the way each game’s significance magnified the importance of mistakes, even the amount of points he scored against the Indiana Pacers in Game 1.

“I remember the regular season (ended), I think we played New Jersey (in Boston). I remember the next day we were just getting ready for the playoffs. It was a different film session, it was a different practice,” he said. “Everything was just different. I was like, ‘What have I done got myself into?’ Because I was a rookie and I didn’t know what was going on.”

That year, Jefferson leaned on his veteran teammates. Now he’s a go-to guy carrying his franchise to a place it has hardly ever been.

“To be honest with you, it really hasn’t set in yet,” he said. “I think it’s going to really hit me when it’s all said and done. Because to be honest with you, we’re doing great right now. I’m happy compared to where we’ve been the last two years, (going from) where this team was to now. But I just feel like it’s just only the beginning.

“We have a chance to – if you go back to Oklahoma City when they were not a playoff team, then they made the eighth seed (and) lost in that first round, then the next year they went to the Western Conference Finals, then the following year they went to the Finals. They just kept going until they became a team that everybody had to respect. To me, that’s where we’re at right now. We’re at the beginning stage.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done so far, but I believe in my heart we can accomplish so much more.”