Al Jefferson supposedly was going to stabilize the Indiana Pacers bench last season, a constant sore spot for the team for who knows how long. Larry Bird believed the team was very close to making a run in the Eastern Conference and Jefferson was going to make sure the Pacers didn’t piss away leads when the starters were resting.
Neither of those things happened.
There was a shimmer of hope in January when Jefferson put up back-to-back 20 point games, but more often than not he failed to score in double-digits. An injury along with the fact Kevin Pritchard claims Al wasn’t in great physical condition led to him resting on the bench for the Pacers last 13 games of the season, including the playoffs.