Through the first few days of practice the Jazz have been running a good deal of Deron Williams, Gordon Hayward, CJ Miles, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson together as a unit.
Two items about this are newsworthy. With the injury to Memo Okur and the acquisition of Al Jefferson I had wondered if Jerry Sloan would have tried to use Francisco Elson or Kyrylo Fesenko as a starting center to bridge the gap. Instead, Coach Sloan has sent the message to Millsap that the position is his and he believes he is ready to take over.
This also may be a sign of the uncertainty to when and how Memo Okur is going to be able to return to the playing floor.
The final impact of this line-up is how Andrei Kirilenko could be used. As the first person off the bench AK could replace either of the bigs or either of the wings playing the 3 or the 4. Some of Andrei best times on the floor have been as a power forward.
Something Deron Williams is a fan of Deron. “AK has played well, he is in this 10th year with the offense, looks like he is in great shape and has been playing a lot of 4 which I think is his best position.”
There are some advantages to having AK at the 4. He is able to be a much more active help defender on the defensive end, while on the offensive end able to be an active slasher to the basket. His elite passing skills also get more accentuated in the Jazz system from the high post 4 spot. AK’s three point shooting doesn’t put any fear in most opponents, but when he is a 31% three pointer shooter from the 4 spot it is more palatable than from the 3.
Certain match-ups will be too difficult for AK to play the 4 spot, however many teams now are playing with a smaller 4 spot and many of them are coming off the bench. Phoenix will be small all year with
Hedo Turk0glu at the 4, Dallas will play Shaun Marion, ALHarrington will get some run in Denver, Jeff Green in OKC, and Lamar Odom in LA, are all match-ups Kirilenko can handle.
In other news from practice: Al Jefferson continues to learn the ropes and is working his way into the shape he needs to be into. Jefferson went to Santa Barbara to the Jazz training coaches for a week and got into town early so he was in good condition, but this system asks a lot more out of him than what he has been asked for in the past.
I was surprised on Wednesday how solid Jeremy Evans 15 footer jumper looked in shooting drills. He release is high, his rotation is true and he made a good percentage. It was quickly pointed out to me by people with more knowledge that lets see if he can hold all those things together with everyone else around him at full speed before we decide he is a good mid range shooter.
