What Pop Sees in Richard Jefferson (I think)

To be completely honest, I was rather confused by Greg Popovich's decision to declare Richard Jefferson as his defensive ace. While Jefferson might be effective, no one has declared him a stalwart of any sort, and he definitely hasn't proven anyone wrong on that end. One line of argument would be that with the Big 3 Jefferson can concentrate on defense and be better and more effective in that means, since he's not called on to score as much. That line of thinking might hold some merit. Another might be that his offensive prowess will offset any defensive shortcomings he has on the defensive end. I mean, he's an overall major upgrade from Michael Finley at the wing from last season.

So where am I going with all this? Well, I recently picked up the Spurs championship DVD collection, with all their Finals wins ever. That's 16 games of Spurs victories in the finals, starting with the lockout year 1999 record setting 15 playoff win streak, closing the season with a Finals rout over the injury-plagued New York Knicks. Maybe it's just me, but I see Richard Jefferson as a throwback not to Bruce Bowen, obviously, but rather, a key part of the 1999 victory; Sean Elliot. Maybe that's what Popovich sees in him as well, an underrated defender who has the offensive skillset to be able to dominate, but is never really called to. While I'm not going to go out calling the 2010 San Antonio Spurs a throwback of the 1999 championship Spurs, with the idea of Sean Elliot in mind, I can better appreciate the direction that Popovich might take with this team.

Bob Costas and Doug Collins, the commentators on the 1999 Finals did add this, that perimeter players like Mario Elie and Sean Elliot could play more aggresive defense on the perimeter players because they knew that David Robinson and Tim Duncan were behind them, and would alter or flat out swat any shots in the lane. Duncan is now 10 years older and the shot-blocking presence of David Robinson is long gone, replaced with the serviceable defense of Antonio McDyess. McDyess isn't going to block any shots, but I can definitely see Jefferson chasing around wing players like Elliot did way back when. Elliot also wasn't known as a premier defender, but he did do a serviceable job against the likes of Latrell Sprewell. If you look at the numbers, I like the comparison, and I can't help but like the Spurs more.

Per 36

Rk	Player	From	To	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Sean Elliott	1990	2001	742	712	24502	5.7	12.2	.465	0.9	2.3	.375	3.3	4.1	.800	1.2	3.5	4.7	2.8	0.8	0.4	2.0	2.4	15.5
2	Richard Jefferson	2002	2009	571	499	20438	6.1	13.0	.469	0.7	2.0	.353	4.9	6.2	.781	1.2	4.1	5.3	3.0	0.9	0.3	2.2	2.7	17.8

Advnaced Statistics

Rk	Player	From	To	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg	OWS	DWS	WS
1	Sean Elliott	1990	2001	742	24502	13.9	.553	.500	3.9	10.6	7.3	12.0	1.2	0.8	12.2	19.5	110	107	31.5	24.2	55.8
2	Richard Jefferson	2002	2009	571	20438	16.6	.564	.496	3.9	13.4	8.6	14.9	1.3	0.7	12.3	23.0	110	105	34.1	23.0	57.1

Think about it.