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Jazz at Trailblazers 4/11 @8 PM Mountain Time

KD's Framily said:
The 2008 Jazz team was the best record-wise in the last 15 years. They went 17-24 on the road.

This year's Jazz team is now 17-23 on the road.
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Good stat. In the end, I think it's fair to say that those jazz teams were never very focused.
 
mhindy said:
So if he'd had to start because they didn't have another real sf on the team he probably would have put up bad numbers too. It's rare that you have the combo of raw-ness and nobody in front of you that the Jazz have this year.
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Last year too, with Trey and nobody behind him. Well, unless you count JLIII as a real basketball player. Unfortunately, Trey didn't take a leap his 2nd year. So no guarantee Exum suddenly becomes magically delicious, either. What concerns me is his lack of aggressiveness and lack of BBIQ. He has two "go-to" moves: 1) he dribbles baseline and sometimes finds an open big. More often, he's either forced out of bounds or has to throw a terrible pass to avoid going out; 2) drives into the lane, usually left side, turns tail and dribbles back out. More than a few times, he's taken the ball in with 5 seconds left on the shot clock and then turns and passes out, resulting in a shot-clock violation or a wild shot by someone else. And his shot is OPEN! I'm very skeptical Dante will ever develop into a top-10 PG. He just doesn't have the mentality.
 
Stoked said:
Yea you Aldridge, Afflalo and Matthews.

But no Hayward, Favors, Burks and Burke for the Jazz. Portland can spin it how they want but the got beat by rookies and D leaguers on their home court when they needed a win badly. And tried to win.

Jazz are all in on Gobert, Hood and Exum right now.
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No Burke is a plus, although Cotton was trying to do his best Trey impersonation by going 3-12.
Portland doesn't have much beyond their main rotation. Utah could find themselves in a similar situation once all the rookies come off their contracts and Utah has to pay big money to keep the 7-8 guys they really want.
 
I'm only worried about exum, because he hasn't shown many glimpses of what he can be, no crazy good games, etc. The only one I can think of is him getting 12 assists. Wiggins and Lavine are 19 as well, but they've shown impressive games every now and again...
 
The Fresh Prince said:
Well I said might.

Ok ok. TMac was legit, maybe Joe Johnson? Kevin Martin. I'm just saying I can see him being a 24 ppt scorer.
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He reminds me of Michael Redd, but more athletic. Redd put up six seasons if 21+ ppg (high of 26 ppg in one season) on 45% FGs. Those are lofty numbers and I'm not saying Hood will get there, but I agree with you that the potential is there.
 
KD's Framily said:
Actually, Kobe and Dirk's rookie years were lightyears ahead of Exum's. Sheldon Williams, Kwame Brown, and Joe Alexander were all terrible and are no longer in the league. Anthony Bennett and Austin Rivers are both currently terrible.

I'm not arguing against having hope, and there's a case to be had for Exum being different than others who were terrible at 19, but the cold fact is, you're going to come up dry if you try to find 19 year olds that had worse rookie seasons than Exum and ended up becoming stars.

For the record I think Exum will end up becoming decent. But I am not holding out hope on him becoming a star.
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Yeah, the players I mentioned were busts. Guys who performed poorly and were out of the league a few years later. I can also come up with rookies who had a better statistical season than Exum and ended up out of the league (Adam Morrison, Jonny Flynn). There also guys who couldn't get off the bench because they were really bad but became stars (Jimmy Butler). My point? You can't go with the numbers to judge future success of rookies. You need some patience.

Kobe showed promise and tenacity but he wasn't ready (remember the 4 airballs?). Dirk rookie season was underwhelming, to the point that he felt he didn't belong in the league and considered returning to Europe. Awful 19year old rookies who became stars? Better yet, I'll come up with a 22year old rookie who become one of the best pg ever: Gary Payton. He could defend and run an offense but couldn't shoot to save his life. He had no offensive game until he was almost 25. He was so frustrated with coaching and his game that also considered retiring.

The problem with Exum is the hype and expectations when he was drafted. Chad Ford called him the next Kobe. C'mon. Let's give the kid at least two years to figure things out.
 
Stifle Tower said:
He has two "go-to" moves: 1) he dribbles baseline and sometimes finds an open big. More often, he's either forced out of bounds or has to throw a terrible pass to avoid going out;
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Oh contrary on that point. That is one of his best moves, and he often frees up a big and gets him a very sweet pass for an easy dunk. It is one for the few things he does regularly to give me hope.
 
Lets also not forget he didn't play for a year before going to the NBA. He was looking to go to college then saw he was being mocked in the high lottery so he ended up not going. T
 
The Blue Elephant said:
You realize that there have been guards that have come out of high school and were younger than Dante that put up much better stats than him? A lot of these guys didn't amount to much. Shaun Livingston, DeShawn Stevenson, J. R. Smith, Louis Williams.

Dante's defense is decent but not anything near elite. For example espn recently ranked every starting PG in the NBA and ranked Dante's defense as the 23rd best, or the 7th worst. People on these forums act like he is a Gary Payton, Andre Roberson, or a Rajon Rondo on defense.

People have the misconception on these forums that Dante is a super athletic freak. His agility numbers and vertical jump was actually lower than Trey Burkes at the combine. Dante is no John Wall, Bledsoe, RW, or Derrick Rose. Not even close.

I hope Dante does great in the future but I don't know how anyone can call his rookie season anything but disappointing.
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Those guys were playing NAU ball against the best high school competition in maybe the entire world. His defense for a 19 year old is far better than "decent". Dante really isn't our "starter" this year. He is starting but Burke is playing more minutes. I had no expectations going into this season for him. Therefore I'm not in the slightest disappointed. I've actually become more excited about his potential as the year has gone on.
 
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