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Preseason Game 1: Utah @ Portland, Monday Dec 19th, 8pm MST

If all you see is Kanter Getting A Rebound, or Kanter Fighting Inside, then you're not seeing anything. Yeah, he can do those things. And he shows a lot of potential being a good inside player. But he's so bad defensively that right now he isn't worth having on the court.
The same can be said for both Memo and Big Al, if we're going on just last night's game. I would have been thrilled if either of those players did anything positive last night (like, say, Kanter with his rebounding).
 
Some people still insists to not get it, but both Kanter and Favors will be much better players than Jefferson, Memo or Boozer , and i am not talking about stats, i am talking about real contribution and being team players.
 
Wow, that's some impressive optimism.
I think it's worth pointing out that Devin Harris had only 2 assists and Al Jefferson had only 3 rebounds. Something isn't right here.
Raja Bell was invisible, just taking up space, except for the couple of shots he got on kick-outs.
CJ Miles showed some potential, but didn't get many touches. A guy like him needs to warm up and stay hot.
Okur didn't even try to defend or rebound against guys who were quicker. He was Boozer-esque out there.

I think the Jazz should hand over the keys to the younger players sooner rather than later if the vets don't execute better. The team used to rely on one-dimensional role players and a dynamic point guard. Now we need to play multi-dimensional players like Burks, Hayward, Miles over players like Raja and Okur. Josh Howard and Paul Millsap could be all the veteran presence we need.

I'd like to see Favors, Hayward, Burks and Millsap on the floor together. Play Favors/Kanter when you want to go big. Play Favors/Millsap when you want to go smaller. No way the other team can keep both Favors and Kanter out of the paint and off the glass.

Evans - Needs to see 5 minutes every nite for quick points and energy. Love his game. He is fun to watch. May even earn up to 10-15 mins.
Hayward - You can tell he feels more comfortable, almost too excited it is not last year. (I think he was intimidated by Dwill, Sloan & NBA) I hope his bulking up did not impact shot, may take a few games. He is driving well, but his mistake is he is getting caught in the air with nowhere to pass. 2 TO's as a result of jumping with no place to go :) He will be fine. I actually like his Defense and feel he will get 6 pts a game from quick run the court points. (like his 1st 2).
Favors - WOW. WOW - Dwill trade looking AWESOME considering he was gone after this year.
Burks - Very impressed. Does not seem intimidated by the game.
Harris - Ahh. I do not like his play. He is too out of control for me.
Bell - Veteran, Nice Guy. Needs to play backup minutes. Not worth starting over developing youth. Not worth the trade off.
Okur - Ahhhh. No.
Al - What offense we gonna be ? Motion or dump the ball into Al and watch ?


We have a lot of good peices, but I do not see the puzzle yet.


Offense - Do we have one. WAY too much standing around. Wings not involved consistently.
Defense - Can we box out please. They have our wings bolting for the fastbreak instead of making sure we get the ball 1st.
 
Biggest positive is obviously Favors. While the numbers were great, what was even better was the little chip that he seemed to have on his shoulders last night. He played a little mean which you didn't see that much last year. I think he made a huge case for starting at the 4.

The biggest negative from last night had to be the spacing - the worst I've ever seen from a Utah team. The Jazz looked like the Memphis Grizzlies 5 years ago - alot of standing around, no meaningful cuts, lazy screens, everyone waiting to get the ball so they can go one-on-one which led to ball handlers contantly dribbling the ball into traffic. It looked like Portland had 7 guys playing defense on every possession.

This will be the first adjustment I look for on Wednesday
 
They need someone who can go one on one... Favors aside, all I saw was catch and shoot , or driving all the way to the hoop. Doesn't anyone on the team have an in between game.... put the ball on the floor, pull up to score, or draw the defense and hit the open man?
 
It amazes me how fast people on here will rush to bash the players and team. It was a preseason game. Lets see how they do in a couple games that actually matter before we are ready to ship players out, fire coaches...

They need time to jell, work the rust off. It will get better.
 
I can not take any more CJ miles. He has had his fair chance and he just is not consistent enough.

I was really impressed with Favors offensively..

The difference was obvious even from the boxscore. Favors managed 66%, Miles was the picture of inconsistancy at 60%. If we hadn't had the youngsters Burks, Hayward, and Kanter in, who knows what our FG% might have been?
 
Some people still insists to not get it, but both Kanter and Favors will be much better players than Jefferson, Memo or Boozer , and i am not talking about stats, i am talking about real contribution and being team players.

Favors - very possible. Kanter - very unlikely.
 
A couple things i noticed that havent been mentioned yet: CJ started out hitting shots and playing better than any of the starters.... And was the first guy taken out of the game The last guy to come out.... raja bell. not good coaching. if cj is hot then leave him in, if he is cold THEN take him out.

Another thing: I have always hated how the jazz double team down low no matter what the match up is and end up leaving the 3 point shooters open. I thought that ty might change that but alas he did not. I remember a specific play where Favors is guarding craig smith one on one down low and hayward and another player both came down to help favors leaving their guys open on the 3 point line. So basically we were triple teaming craig freaking smith. I think that we should allow our best defender (favors) to defend a guy like craig smith one on one and tell the wings to stay on thier guy. I felt that the coaching was horrible. Although im not giving up on corbin as it was just one pre-season game. But man it was 1 very badly coached pre-season game.
 
The difference was obvious even from the boxscore. Favors managed 66%, Miles was the picture of inconsistancy at 60%. If we hadn't had the youngsters Burks, Hayward, and Kanter in, who knows what our FG% might have been?

I don't know if you saw the game; but Miles made two uncontested jumpers and had a great drive to the basket for an and-1. In every other facet of the game he was dreadful.

Enjoy watching CJ play his seventh consecutive rookie season.
 
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