Good words to hear from Derrick Favors via Brian T. Smith,
I take pride in defense. Offense is cool but I take pride in keeping my man from scoring.
Couple that with Enes Kanter's comment from a day ago about not worrying about scoring and focusing on rebounding and defense and that's music to ever Jazz fans' ears. Kanter, not surprisingly, leads all rookies in rebounds right now. If he had enough qualifying minutes, Kanter would be 6th in the league in rebounding percentage.
With last night's 27 minutes of playing time, Alec Burks qualifies now for John Hollinger's rookie rankingswhere he jumps to #4 in PER with 23.26 behind Isaiah Thomas, MarShon Brooks, and Kyrie Irving. To qualify for the rookie rankings, players have to be playing at least 6 minutes a game. Hopefully he's earned at least that by now. He's high score has been helped by his free throw attempts and assists. His six assists against the Bucks last night may have been the second-most impressive part of his performance.
By making it on the list, he pushed Enes Kanter out of the top 10 to #11 who comes in with a PER of 17.17.
One of the biggest reasons for the poor defense from the Jazz last season was their poor defensive rebounding where they ranked 27th in the league. Only Phoenix, Washington, and Golden State were worse.
This season? They're ranked 6th in total rebounds and 13th in total rebounding percentage. Their biggest flaw continues to be their high foul rate, sending opponents to the line almost 26 times a game. That may not come down for a bit given the team's youth and overall style of play.
Is the heavy schedule already taking a toll on players? Devin Harris (strained left quad) and Josh Howard (strained left calf) both had to leave the game last night. Al Jefferson has been fighting cramps and has had to sit a game out already. I thought Paul Millsap was a goner after hyper-extending his knee last night (the replay made me cringe).
The two days off couldn't come at a better time. I'm worried that if we're seeing this already, what's it going to be like late in March when the Jazz have an unholy amount of games?
Combining two of my favorite things, basketball and Calvin and Hobbes. I'm not sure though what the strip associated with the Jazz implies though.
0 recs | 29 comments
I think the Jazz's attitude is obvious when Kanter and Favors come in.
Sharing the ball on offense, solid defense and rebounding on the other end.
Burks has the potential to become a ball hog, but he’s shared the ball more than a lot of other rookies we’ve seen pass through like Morris Almond. Needs to learn to play under control though. Had 2 or 3 charge calls against him this game, and another 1 or 2 the other night.
If mostly young guys aren’t starting by the end of the year, there’s something wrong. My favorite lineup is Watson, Burks, Hayward, Favors, Kanter. I think they’d struggle quite a bit on the road at the beginning of games, but our current starters already do too. Hard to fathom how there’s a difference between a double digit deficit from starting the young guys and a double digit deficit from starting the vets.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
I was actually impressed with the rotations
It is pretty clear at this point that Bell’s time is being limited. It is only a matter of time before he is out of the starting line up.
Burks is going to be fantastic. Hayward is being too unselfish. There were a number of time he should have taken the ball up strong, instead of dumping it or kicking it. He would have had 20+ points.
AJ still needs to improve on passing out of the post. A lot of our poor 3pt shooting is happening because they aren’t getting the ball correctly, and ate being taken out of their natural shooting motion.
Daniel Smith - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app
To Al's credit, he is improving
Even his shot selection is getting better. He said last night something to the effect “there were a couple times I shot outta double team- man, gotta do better.” Al is at least trying.
Stockton2Malone - January 4, 2012
I agree you can tell he is thinking about it now
One of the plays I remember Hayward’s man double teamed him. He recognized the double team, but then double clutched pump faked and finally through it out to Hayward about two feet to the right of where he was standing, which took Hayward out of his stroke, and allowed his man to close out on him and challenge what should have been a completely open look.
You could tell AJ recognized the correct play to kick it quickly but the pump fakes were so ingrained into his habits he didn’t hit Hayward on time.
It is just a bad habit, you can tell he is thinking about doing it correctly though.
Daniel Smith - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app
Good, glad to hear he's cognizant of the problem.
But it’s not just double teams. At least 3 times last night, he was quadrupled and looked out with his back to the basket at a wide open shooter and still tried to make the turn and shoot. He made it once, but it’s a really really bad habit.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
Culpability
AJ’s aware of his critics here. I wonder how it was back in Minnesota. Sure, everybody knew him as a black hole, but maybe T-wolves fans were cool with that as long as he was putting up 20 and 10. Like the younger guys, Big Al still has room for improvement, and it seems that he knows what is needed from him at least. 9 FT’s last night was great.
CJ's Smokehouse - January 4, 2012
It's true, the FTs were a bright spot.
But part of that was the Bucks’ lack of a center or really even legit PF. Everyone who played him was much smaller than he was, or at least seemed it. Gooden looked like their biggest guy, and he was getting pushed around by Al.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
And then the zone came
At the start of the 3rd quarter, the Bucks were packing it in big time, doubling Al in the post when he didn’t even have the ball. Other than Raja finally hitting a 3, the zone worked quite well to shut the Jazz down, and that’s when things really got ugly. I remember the Jazz having trouble against zone defenses in the past also.
CJ's Smokehouse - January 4, 2012
4.
I am impressed with the depth so far of the Jazz. So Harris and Howard both went down, kind of but not totally evening the playing field considering no Bogut for the Bucks. Both teams were on back-to-backs and missing players, but it seemed to show much less with the Jazz. The drop-off from Harris to Watson is negligible (maybe even the other way around). And the trio of Burks, Hayward and C.J. picked up for what was lost with Howard.
CJ's Smokehouse - January 4, 2012
Bogut is much more important to the Bucks. i.e. the Bucks' big man depth is awful.
And most on the board think the Jazz’s young bench guys are better than the starters, so like you were saying with Watson & Harris, I think maybe it’s forcing the better bench players onto the floor. That will certainly not hurt the team much for the better players to get the higher number of minutes.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
Injuries are going to happen
In any season, but especially one like this with a jam-packed schedule, all teams are hit at some point by injuries. Two Jazz players who have played significant minutes this year went down last night, but not much was missed from either. Big Al has missed a game, but his production was equalled by Favors. If others go down with injury, the Jazz have capable back-ups. Unless the Jazz are hit harder than usual, a normal amount of player injuries shouldn’t hurt them so much as a team like Milwaukee with Bogut, although I guess we’re not even sure why Bogut missed last night’s game.
CJ's Smokehouse - January 4, 2012
It was "personal reasons". He's not injured.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
Dunleavy and Udrih
were both also out. This was a pretty depleted Bucks squad. We should have beet them by 20+, even without Harris and Howard
Daniel Smith - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app
Agree that they were depleted, disagree about the 20+.
I don’t see this Jazz team winning by 20+ very often. That requires really solid team D, and that’s something the Jazz just don’t have right now. The Bucks only shot like 31% or something, but they had plenty of open looks. They just weren’t falling, especially for Jennings and Jackson. Gooden was making his, but he was about the only one.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
Jennings and Jackson
It may not have been by 20 points last night, but the game seemed to be in hand for the most part. I bet Skiles was pretty pissed watching all those horrible shots Jennings and Jackson were taking. Dunleavy and Udrih usually take smarter shots, and their injuries don’t seem serious. They still are thin up front, but once those two are ready to play again, I think it will be interesting to see how their rotation plays out.
CJ's Smokehouse - January 4, 2012
I loved seeing Jackson flopping all over the court.
He probably got half the calls still, but didn’t get a few critical calls. The 3ptr where he fell like he got stabbed stands out in my mind.
Still have no idea how Steven Jackson ends up on a team coached by Scott Skiles.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
A very slight improvement
In 3pt% and FT% which were both horrible would have made this a 20pt+ game.
Daniel Smith - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app
And a very slight improvement on 31% shooting on 85 shots for the Bucks
Would make it a 9-10pt game.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
Coach Ty
I do not envy his position. He has a bunch of new faces trying to learn a system that can be complex. I have been impressed with his sideline coaching during games. He calls over a player and instructs them during a dead ball it is great to see the interaction.
neds - January 4, 2012
I agree. He has won me over.
SurlyMae - January 4, 2012
I’m not sold just impressed with his interaction with the young guys. I wonder how he would do as a college coach.
neds - January 4, 2012
Random Tidbit
I was listening to the Jan. 4th NBA Today podcast and Tim Legler was asked who was the smartest basketball player he ever played with. He said John Stockton.
Rog. - January 4, 2012
Nice. Thanks for sharing.
JazzHype - January 4, 2012
We've got a bona fide win streak!
Who saw that coming? I don’t remember injuries piling up quite this early in ‘99. With the Jazz’ depth, we could catch more teams coming into the ESA outgunned. As for the road, well, has an NBA team ever gone winless on the road?
tyrantking - January 4, 2012
Courtesy of Wikipedia
P-Will - January 4, 2012
Whoops
P-Will - January 4, 2012
Thankfully there's never been a 66 game schedule before
that 0-33 mark is there for the taking!
Not that I think, or hope, it happens. It’s just crazy how different the Jazz play at home vs. on the road.
tyrantking - January 4, 2012
I have 7 road wins predicted
2/22 @Min
2/28 @Sac
3/5 @Cle
3/7 @Cha
3/22 @Sac
4/11 @Hou
4/13 @NO
But we all know that the Jazz can’t sweep Sacramento. It’s just not in their DNA. One of those @Sac is probably going to be a loss.
JazzHype - January 5, 2012
If the playoffs started today
The Jazz would be tied with Memphis for the 7th spot. Enjoy it while it lasts!
tyrantking - January 4, 2012 via mobile
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