Random thougths.
- I like Kessler. The fact that he's not physical enough yet on offense doesn't worry me at all. He'll learn. Neither does his non-shooting - he has good form on his FT's, there's nothing stopping him from developing a respectable jump shot. What does worry me somewhat, though, is that he seems utterly incapable of closing out to the perimeter. Modern NBA teams will eat you alive if you become known as a guy who just sits deep in the hole. It's not a career killer, but it does put a ceiling on you as a 5. It may be the difference between becoming a career starter or a career backup, particularly if you offense is limited. Team defenses these days depend on all five guys being able to at least bother a 3pt shooter.
- Teams obviously think the Jazz is full of streaky outside shooters who fall too easily back into the habit of launching tough long balls when being denied passing/driving lanes, and they're right. I presume more teams will start gambling that shutting down the middle and turning us into a 100% jump shooting team is the way to a W. It worked perfectly in this game.
- Fun fact: if you take away the one outlier game against Portland where Vando got lucky and somehow hit 4/4 from the perimeter, he's 1 of 10 over the last 15 games. Just stop saying that he's "adding a 3pt shot to his game". The only thing he's adding is terrible spacing. It's high time Vando goes to the bench and Kessler starts. We've seen enough. I'd also trade Vanderbilt without a second thought, but I suspect his market is really small and limited to teams that already have plenty of firepower in place and need an "energy" guy (LOL). IMO his value is dropping as we speak, so get on those phones, Danny.
- This was one game where we definitely missed Sexton putting pressure on the basket. Guys were playing scared.