Whiteside Is Going to Be Good

[KqWIN]

I think will be better than Favors on defense. Whiteside is far from perfect as a defender, but he is legitimately a force at the rim when he’s in position. Favors was providing zero resistance there and opposing teams knew it. You can get Whiteside out of position more often, but he’s still very much an upgrade over Favors/Bradley defensively.

I don’t know about offense. I think a lot of people are getting excited about his more versatile game. He has a little bit of a jumper and can score further away from the basket. OTOH, he simply doesn’t go to the basket as much as he should. Setting good screens and rolling hard to the basket is what we need from him but he has had a tendency to get too cute with it in the past and has never been enthusiastic about setting good screens.

He had a really good year in POR and last year hasn’t shaken my confidence in him that he can do it again. I agree with Locke on his point about Whiteside being the biggest regular season addition. I tend to agree with the optimism about him that’s in thread. I also think that he probably won’t be much of a factor in the playoffs and that’s where we’ll be leaning on Gay/Paschall.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Here is my bold prediction for the year...

Locke has been really talking this up. I think Whiteside is going to end up being really good for us. So good in fact I think some morons will say we should play Whiteside over Rudy... I feel like its almost a certainty and may even be able to predict the posters that will do it.

Anyway... the system is set up for someone that can do some Rudy stuff... Whiteside is not Rudy... but he can do some Rudy stuff. In limited minutes he will look good and put up numbers. We likely won't be anywhere near as good on defense as he's much more limited than Rudy there but he will cover the rim up and we will be better than we were with Favs.

I did not expect to be a Whiteside Guy.... but here I am. I hope yall are ready for the multiple threads about how we should start Whiteside and how are we going to clear space to retain him in the offseason.

Locke also talked up how good Favors was all year.... until we traded him and got Whiteside. Now Locke talks about how bad we were last year with Rudy off the floor and how Whiteside is going to help that.

Of course Whiteside is very talented and he's going to look at times. The whole book on him is that he has a lot of low IQ moments/plays. It's not like he's had bad coaches either. He played for two of the best coaches in the game, Stotts and Spoelstra.

My bold prediction is that Whiteside is not going to be good and Udoka will eventually replace him and be much better.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I'm not so sure. I think his defensive impact could be better than Fave, but I worry his offensive usage will be higher and less efficient, causing issues.

I did have some concerns about his personality clashing in the locker room, but I'm not really concerned about that at all anymore.

The only things Whiteside is going to have on Favors is that opposing teams wont go at him as much as they went at Favors near the rim and rebounding. He's Whiteside though and he's easily exploitable if you know what you're doing on offense.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

The thing about Whiteside is that we are going to get super frustrated at his shot selection. Utah isnt going to post him up so he's going to throw some wild **** up on short roll attempts, floaters/push shots that have absolutely no chance. The dude is a horrendous passer so he's going to miss the pass to the open 3pt shooter off the short roll more times than he hits it. Quin will get very frustrated at him when he isn't getting the easy baskets.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

The only things Whiteside is going to have on Favors is that opposing teams wont go at him as much as they went at Favors near the rim and rebounding. He's Whiteside though and he's easily exploitable if you know what you're doing on offense.

I agree with this actually. I said "could" based on him watching Rudy everyday and being coached by the same guys who helped Rudy to be a 3x dpoy. I thought Fave was solid for the most part on his man to man defense. He just couldn't erase our horrible perimeter defense like Rudy. Probably nobody can. Maybe Whiteside with his length could do better.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I agree with this actually. I said "could" based on him watching Rudy everyday and being coached by the same guys who helped Rudy to be a 3x dpoy. I thought Fave was solid for the most part on his man to man defense. He just couldn't erase our horrible perimeter defense like Rudy. Probably nobody can. Maybe Whiteside with his length could do better.

The coaching thing kind of falls apart when you remember Whiteside has had some great coaches.

 

[KqWIN]

The only things Whiteside is going to have on Favors is that opposing teams wont go at him as much as they went at Favors near the rim and rebounding. He's Whiteside though and he's easily exploitable if you know what you're doing on offense.

It’s a fair criticism of Whiteside, but I don’t think it’s possible he is worse than Favs was last year. He couldn’t do anything at the rim so it didn’t matter if he was in position or not. Protecting the rim and rebounding are the most important skills to have so despite HA’s flaws I think we’ll see improvement there.

We won’t know until he gets PT, but Doke is probably going to be exploited in the same ways that Whiteside is on defense. I do think Doke might be better (more effective at least) than Whiteside on offense though. He sets better screens and runs harder to the basket. Whiteside can really cripple an offense if he sets lazy screens, doesn’t roll hard to the rim, and calls his own number on post ups.

I’m with you on your last post. I think a lot of people saw the floaters and push shots in the scrimmage and got excited, but I don’t actually think thats good offense for us.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

It’s a fair criticism of Whiteside, but I don’t think it’s possible he is worse than Favs was last year. He couldn’t do anything at the rim so it didn’t matter if he was in position or not. Protecting the rim and rebounding are the most important skills to have so despite HA’s flaws I think we’ll see improvement there.

We won’t know until he gets PT, but Doke is probably going to be exploited in the same ways that Whiteside is on defense. I do think Doke might be better (more effective at least) than Whiteside on offense though. He sets better screens and runs harder to the basket. Whiteside can really cripple an offense if he sets lazy screens, doesn’t roll hard to the rim, and calls his own number on post ups.

I’m with you on your last post. I think a lot of people saw the floaters and push shots in the scrimmage and got excited, but I don’t actually think thats good offense for us.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Also Favors wasnt that bad last year.

People dont realize how much of a **** show this team is on defense collectively outside of Gobert. When Whiteside was at his peak with Miami, he was on a team of committed defenders. Now he's on the Utah Jazz. Maybe something changes on Utah and dudes like Oni/Butler get legit minutes and are legit good on defense, but I think it's going to the same issues as last year regarding perimeter defense.

 

[KqWIN]

Also Favors wasnt that bad last year.

People dont realize how much of a **** show this team is on defense collectively outside of Gobert. When Whiteside was at his peak with Miami, he was on a team of committed defenders. Now he's on the Utah Jazz. Maybe something changes on Utah and dudes like Oni/Butler get legit minutes and are legit good on defense, but I think it's going to the same issues as last year regarding perimeter defense.

Meh…I think Favors was legitimately awful on defense. I don’t disagree that our defense made him look worse…but he looked completely cooked whenever someone challenged him at the rim. He looked terrible physically. Could barely get off the ground or move side to side.

 

[NUMBERICA]

I’m hoping for the following:
-Whitesides is very productive in limited minutes with some highlight reel moments
-Quin and/or the org see through it and trade him for a 2nd rounder or two
-All the while, Gay and Paschall are playing 5 in practice and prepping for when it will finally get a look while Udoka does his best to make a case for getting minutes.

If this team quintuples down on this Rudy-or-die scheme on both sides of the ball, the Jazz are going to be one bad matchup (a near-certainty with having to play four playoff teams) away from calamity.

The Jazz needing some flexibility/pivot-potential is not hype. It’s glaringly obvious because Rudy (not to mention Whitesides: HA!) has some glaring limitations.

 

[KqWIN]

The unfortunate thing about this Whiteside-Favors convo is that when it comes to the playoffs it’s all the same. Neither is playable and I’m not sure small ball 5 is a playable defensive unit either. I would be worried about our small lineups if we had Draymond Green at C because of how bad everyone else is. Gay and Paschall are not Draymond Green and going small isn’t a magic bullet.