overall, not very pretty.
a lot of people seem very eager to hang ty corbin out to dry. obviously he's still trying to figure out who needs the minutes to get us the wins.
(who deserves the minutes is another thing altogether and that may not necessarily be as important in the eyes of the organisation.)
i would argue that too many of our players are out of sync and playing without enough passion.
i'd be interested in other people's thoughts on our playing group rather than hearing the usual 'fire jerry 2.0' rhetoric rolled out again.
al: not our biggest problem. we still need his dependable low post scoring. makes it look easy on some nights. i also think he's playing some really good 1-1 defence. we know he's terrible defending the pick and roll - most of our guys are. he's slowly getting better at passing out of the double team, even though he can often score against it. i'm sure he'd do more passing if our wings actually spaced better or, i don't know, made smart cuts to the basket occasionally. we just don't do it. a couple of times on the trip al fed millsap under the basket for easy scores. we need more of that awareness and movement off the ball.
millsap: seems to be either not getting many calls go his way (when has he ever?) or he is turning into one of the bigger whiners in the league. i love paul and his game and i hope we re-sign him next year but he's another one guilty of playing without enough fire on this trip. with his size and skill set he should be killing it in two-man game but it's not happening. which brings me to mo.
mo williams: i'm blaming mo more than ty for our lack of on-court cohesion. he's a terrific player but he's not running this team at all well. too much time dribbling around outside the 3 until there's 5 seconds left on the shot clock so we (he) throws up a rushed fadeaway. on pick and rolls he almost never passes back to the bigs when they show and i think they've stopped expecting it. he's not pushing the tempo for easy scores like we saw in the pre-season. he's settling for jumpers and not driving enough. some horrible decision making at times. i don't mind him getting his shots but that alone won't win us games. he needs to run this team.
hayward: still goes missing sometimes but i expect and allow that in young players. he's developing fine. the most promising all-round player we've had since a young AK47 in my view. stick him with the second unit, let him handle the ball and create more for himself and others and i think he'll step up.
foye: a very useful and one-dimensional player. tries hard enough on defence but can not or will not pay attention. should've been benched for some of his recent efforts. unfortunately (or fortunately) his streak shooting has helped cover up a fairly disorganised offence. burks on the other hand looks often like he's more disorganised than anyone else out there. i've seen enough to keep hoping burks is the future and corbin needs to commit some minutes (the way he has done for favors) before we will see any of potential tapped.
favors: i don't think he necessarily has to start but i'm glad he's getting his minutes. can really anchor this defence if he can keep the fouls down and stay on the court. offensively i'm happy to see him keep trying things with the ball in his hands (hayward too) because i think they both need to find their strengths and limitations at this level. will be interesting to see how much more he can develop his game over the course of the season. (one more thing, i know that boler and harpring bang on about it but i really don't see that his athleticism is so far off the chart. certainly he is quite agile for a big guy and he gets across the court quick enough, but when you look around the league i see a bunch of guys his size who move at least as well as him).
kanter: in a way, he's progressing just fine as well. i'd wondered if he kept up his preseason form if jefferson might not have become expendable by the all-star break, but kanter is going to be a longer-term project. he's not ready for starters minutes. definitely looks fitter and more polished than last year but still has a fair way to go. many times when he went back to the bench i was relieved. needs more patience and awareness on offence. like the other young guys you can live with mistakes to a point, then they need to sit and watch.
carroll: can't think of a negative. would almost rather he started ahead of marvin. in that line-up he would probably add more (especially if he could set a defensive tone), with marvin getting 25mins off the bench. is making enough shots to keep them honest. reminds me of the way millsap used to play.
marvin: like his versatility on d but what's happened to his 3 point shot? it's getting uglier and uglier. not convinced by his post-game and fadeaway jumpshots either. he looks so much better when he attacks the rim. again, i don't know why guys like he and millsap aren't cutting and looking for feeds from the low post, or rolling hard to the basket off pick and rolls. it feels like we don't know how to run it or defend it. almost every other team in the league runs it better than we do.
tinsley: adequate back-up point guard who looked great starting a week ago. he's fouling unnecessarily, not looking after the ball and not even getting close on his field goal attempts (although it's not as hard to watch as earl shooting). he needs to fix those 3 things.
a lot of people seem very eager to hang ty corbin out to dry. obviously he's still trying to figure out who needs the minutes to get us the wins.
(who deserves the minutes is another thing altogether and that may not necessarily be as important in the eyes of the organisation.)
i would argue that too many of our players are out of sync and playing without enough passion.
i'd be interested in other people's thoughts on our playing group rather than hearing the usual 'fire jerry 2.0' rhetoric rolled out again.
al: not our biggest problem. we still need his dependable low post scoring. makes it look easy on some nights. i also think he's playing some really good 1-1 defence. we know he's terrible defending the pick and roll - most of our guys are. he's slowly getting better at passing out of the double team, even though he can often score against it. i'm sure he'd do more passing if our wings actually spaced better or, i don't know, made smart cuts to the basket occasionally. we just don't do it. a couple of times on the trip al fed millsap under the basket for easy scores. we need more of that awareness and movement off the ball.
millsap: seems to be either not getting many calls go his way (when has he ever?) or he is turning into one of the bigger whiners in the league. i love paul and his game and i hope we re-sign him next year but he's another one guilty of playing without enough fire on this trip. with his size and skill set he should be killing it in two-man game but it's not happening. which brings me to mo.
mo williams: i'm blaming mo more than ty for our lack of on-court cohesion. he's a terrific player but he's not running this team at all well. too much time dribbling around outside the 3 until there's 5 seconds left on the shot clock so we (he) throws up a rushed fadeaway. on pick and rolls he almost never passes back to the bigs when they show and i think they've stopped expecting it. he's not pushing the tempo for easy scores like we saw in the pre-season. he's settling for jumpers and not driving enough. some horrible decision making at times. i don't mind him getting his shots but that alone won't win us games. he needs to run this team.
hayward: still goes missing sometimes but i expect and allow that in young players. he's developing fine. the most promising all-round player we've had since a young AK47 in my view. stick him with the second unit, let him handle the ball and create more for himself and others and i think he'll step up.
foye: a very useful and one-dimensional player. tries hard enough on defence but can not or will not pay attention. should've been benched for some of his recent efforts. unfortunately (or fortunately) his streak shooting has helped cover up a fairly disorganised offence. burks on the other hand looks often like he's more disorganised than anyone else out there. i've seen enough to keep hoping burks is the future and corbin needs to commit some minutes (the way he has done for favors) before we will see any of potential tapped.
favors: i don't think he necessarily has to start but i'm glad he's getting his minutes. can really anchor this defence if he can keep the fouls down and stay on the court. offensively i'm happy to see him keep trying things with the ball in his hands (hayward too) because i think they both need to find their strengths and limitations at this level. will be interesting to see how much more he can develop his game over the course of the season. (one more thing, i know that boler and harpring bang on about it but i really don't see that his athleticism is so far off the chart. certainly he is quite agile for a big guy and he gets across the court quick enough, but when you look around the league i see a bunch of guys his size who move at least as well as him).
kanter: in a way, he's progressing just fine as well. i'd wondered if he kept up his preseason form if jefferson might not have become expendable by the all-star break, but kanter is going to be a longer-term project. he's not ready for starters minutes. definitely looks fitter and more polished than last year but still has a fair way to go. many times when he went back to the bench i was relieved. needs more patience and awareness on offence. like the other young guys you can live with mistakes to a point, then they need to sit and watch.
carroll: can't think of a negative. would almost rather he started ahead of marvin. in that line-up he would probably add more (especially if he could set a defensive tone), with marvin getting 25mins off the bench. is making enough shots to keep them honest. reminds me of the way millsap used to play.
marvin: like his versatility on d but what's happened to his 3 point shot? it's getting uglier and uglier. not convinced by his post-game and fadeaway jumpshots either. he looks so much better when he attacks the rim. again, i don't know why guys like he and millsap aren't cutting and looking for feeds from the low post, or rolling hard to the basket off pick and rolls. it feels like we don't know how to run it or defend it. almost every other team in the league runs it better than we do.
tinsley: adequate back-up point guard who looked great starting a week ago. he's fouling unnecessarily, not looking after the ball and not even getting close on his field goal attempts (although it's not as hard to watch as earl shooting). he needs to fix those 3 things.
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both get the ball int he post and all things stop for them as well. I agree with the comment about Hayward's play. It is quite lackluster, but it think it is not him personally, but the fact that we don't execute enough of an offense to get him to engage. The optimism around MaWill was centered on: "Utah is a structured offense, bla bla..." Well, that is not the case right now. He's no better (maybe worse) due to the lack of execution going on in Jazzland.