Al Jefferson's record

[Newguy]

This is random, but I was just looking at ESPN's power rankings and saw that the Wolves are dead last this week.  That got me thinking about Al Jefferson and what his career winning pct. must be with games that he's played in.  He (and Ryan Gomes) must have the worst career record ever! Anyone know what Jefferson's W-L record is? If he ever wants to become a superstar in the NBA, he has to learn how to WIN!

[lon3lytoaster]

162-322 so far, including games he didn't play in.

[BballTim]

  He's been to the playoffs twice. I think some players were late in their careers before going for the first time.

[lon3lytoaster]

  He's been to the playoffs twice. I think some players were late in their careers before going for the first time.

He's only been there once, in his rookie year. But yea, at least he has that going for him.

[Chris]

Its tough to say whether he has just had bad luck, or if he just is not good enough to lift a team to be a winner.  But regardless, I think it is hardly debatable that if he doesn't start winning soon, he is going to have a tough time shaking the loser label, much like Shareef Abdur-Rahim. 

Maybe the losing rubs off on him, maybe he is contributing to the losing, but for whatever reason, it is not working, and I would not want to build a team around him because of that.

[wdleehi]

It doesn't help that he hasn't had a really good perimeter player since the last year Pierce was healthy before he was traded. 


Since then, the best player he has had is a guy that plays the same position (Love).

[Who]

Its tough to say whether he has just had bad luck, or if he just is not good enough to lift a team to be a winner. 

I think it's both. I think he's a third best player on a good team type of talent and he needs to be one of his team's main focuses offensively to be a high quality player.

Also, his inability to defend either big man position at serviceable level makes him a difficult guy to build around. Puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the lineup.

[Donoghus]

Its tough to say whether he has just had bad luck, or if he just is not good enough to lift a team to be a winner. 

I think it's both. I think he's a third best player on a good team type of talent and he needs to be one of his team's main focuses offensively to be a high quality player.

Also, his inability to defend either big man position at serviceable level makes him a difficult guy to build around. Puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the lineup.

I agree with this.  I think its becoming apparent that he can't be "the guy" on a squad but can be very important complementary piece (2nd or 3rd guy). 

He's also just been on some of the lousiest teams of the past decade too. 

[pearljammer10]

Cant really fault the guy for suffering from good play on bad teams syndrome... Really though, how good is he? He can put up good numbers but just hypothetically say you switch KG with Jefferson... He becomes the third player on a really good team but I dont think he even puts them in the top 4 teams in the East. He is a stat guy, he isnt going to be the one to make his teamates better, especially if he doesnt learn how to play defense.

[Boris Badenov]

Not directly on topic, but there was a brief mention of the other end of the spectrum in a Simmons mailbag not too long ago:

Q: The NBA should start keeping track of players' winning percentages. Wouldn't this give us at least a decent idea for who are the biggest "winners" in not just basketball but in all sports?
-- Stephen, Baltimore

SG: Very cool idea. I brought out the heavy hitters for this one (Steve Hirdt and the Elias Sports Bureau) and asked them to check the following 14 guys. Here's what they found.

ALL-TIME PLAYER WINNING PERCENTAGES
PLAYER            Reg. season          PLAYOFFS
Larry Bird             .736           .604
Manu Ginobili          .724           .654
Sam Jones              .718           .649
Bill Russell           .717           .648
Tony Parker            .716           .615
Tim Duncan             .712           .631
Scottie Pippen         .688           .654
Kareem                 .688           .650
Magic Johnson          .674           .740
Shaq                   .672           .601
Robert Horry           .671           .635
Michael Jordan         .659           .665
Bob Cousy              .655           .578
Jerry West             .638           .569

[Who]

Not directly on topic, but there was a brief mention of the other end of the spectrum in a Simmons mailbag not too long ago:

Q: The NBA should start keeping track of players' winning percentages. Wouldn't this give us at least a decent idea for who are the biggest "winners" in not just basketball but in all sports?
-- Stephen, Baltimore

SG: Very cool idea. I brought out the heavy hitters for this one (Steve Hirdt and the Elias Sports Bureau) and asked them to check the following 14 guys. Here's what they found.

ALL-TIME PLAYER WINNING PERCENTAGES
PLAYER            Reg. season          PLAYOFFS
Larry Bird             .736           .604
Manu Ginobili          .724           .654
Sam Jones              .718           .649
Bill Russell           .717           .648
Tony Parker            .716           .615
Tim Duncan             .712           .631
Scottie Pippen         .688           .654
Kareem                 .688           .650
Magic Johnson          .674           .740
Shaq                   .672           .601
Robert Horry           .671           .635
Michael Jordan         .659           .665
Bob Cousy              .655           .578
Jerry West             .638           .569

Where is Dennis Rodman? I'm surprised he is not at or near the top of that list. His teams in Detroit, San Antonio and Chicago were hugely successful.

[PosImpos]

So Big Al isn't an MVP type player who can win games by himself.  So?  Is this anything new?

Hopefully at some point Big Al will end up on a team where he can be a great 2nd or 3rd option, anchoring the team in the post.

Heck, if the T-Wolves get a high lottery pick this year, they might get Evan Turner or John Wall and then suddenly Big Al would be in a pretty great situation.

[slamtheking]

Not directly on topic, but there was a brief mention of the other end of the spectrum in a Simmons mailbag not too long ago:

Q: The NBA should start keeping track of players' winning percentages. Wouldn't this give us at least a decent idea for who are the biggest "winners" in not just basketball but in all sports?
-- Stephen, Baltimore

SG: Very cool idea. I brought out the heavy hitters for this one (Steve Hirdt and the Elias Sports Bureau) and asked them to check the following 14 guys. Here's what they found.

ALL-TIME PLAYER WINNING PERCENTAGES
PLAYER            Reg. season          PLAYOFFS
Larry Bird             .736           .604
Manu Ginobili          .724           .654
Sam Jones              .718           .649
Bill Russell           .717           .648
Tony Parker            .716           .615
Tim Duncan             .712           .631
Scottie Pippen         .688           .654
Kareem                 .688           .650
Magic Johnson          .674           .740
Shaq                   .672           .601
Robert Horry           .671           .635
Michael Jordan         .659           .665
Bob Cousy              .655           .578
Jerry West             .638           .569

Where is Dennis Rodman? I'm surprised he is not at or near the top of that list. His teams in Detroit, San Antonio and Chicago were hugely successful.

Other than his time in Detroit, Rodman tended to gravitate towards teams that were already winners so I wouldn't put much stock in his stats, high or low.  I think Robert Horry would also have inflated figures I imagine.

What stood out for me in this list is how Magic's stats climbed up almost 100 percentage points in the playoffs.  I had always felt he had a cushier ride in the Western conference back in those days but this seems to back that up to an extent.  

Regarding Al, I hope he gets the chance to play with some decent talent to show if he's the type of player we hoped he would become when he was here.  Perhaps with the high draft pick this year, he'll get that support.

[nickagneta]

Part of this is Big Al's own fault. He could have seen that Minnesota was going to be real bad for a while and just taken a qualifying offer and played cheap for a year to become a restricted free agent and move to a team that looked to have a winning future. He instead took that long contract and now he is finishing up his third year on a woeful Timberpuppy team with no chance of being good for years to come.

[ToppersBsktball10]

If he ever wants to become a superstar in the NBA, he has to learn how to WIN!

Tell Paul Pierce he wasn't a superstar before he won a ring...Same with KG and Ray...