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Game Thread Mar 27, 2023 07:00PM MT: Jazz vs. Suns

Added to Calendar: 03-27-23

Lauri look quite rusty tonight which is quite normal after sitting few games. But the overall effort was good, THT, Kessler, KO..... bench was not good but they are quite short of players for the moment.
 
Elizah Huge said:
I love Ochai. He’s going to be special.
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I like Ochai and I think he is going to be really good, but I don't see "special" yet. I think he's shown good defense and a great ability to shoot off-ball.
That's the kind of guy every great team needs though, so if he can improve into a Klay Thompson he will be special.
 
ONE LOVE said:
Growing moments for Lauri right now. Can he take over this game?
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Growing moment for sure, but unless you're an MVP contender there was no way of taking over this game. If you put Jokic, Giannis, Lebron, Steph, or any other superstar out there with that squad, it's gonna be tough.
 
JazzMan4Life said:
Growing moment for sure, but unless you're an MVP contender there was no way of taking over this game. If you put Jokic, Giannis, Lebron, Steph, or any other superstar out there with that squad, it's gonna be tough.
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They were all over Markkanen tonight. Holding hooking him just being physical with him at all times and the refs let them. They were pretty handsy with him
 
- Teams continue to take advantage of Kessler's unwillingess to get out of the hole. The Suns kept relentlessly switching him onto jump shooters and daring him to close out. Most of the time he took a couple of tentative steps but stayed in no-man's land, leading to easy buckets. This is what we'll see more and more when the other team has shooting at all five positions, and Phoenix has quite a few lineups like that they can put on the floor. Next season guys won't go at Walker as much and he'll have to adapt. The only other option is to surround him with quick, long wing defenders who can pick up the slack.

- THT and Ochai with 7 turnovers combined. That's brutal. There is literally no team in the NBA who's watching these games and thinking "THT could be a starting point guard for us". He's strictly a bench guy with his irrational confidence, endless brain farts and moments of divine inspiration.

- Speaking of Ochai, I've been encouraged by the increased variety and confidence in his offensive game. He looked strictly like a corner shooter for a while, but now he can hit from anywhere. That's excellent. But man.... his defense still leaves a LOT to be desired. He still hasn't realized that you can't be relaxed when going over screens in the NBA. There's usually a moment where he slows down and almost stops playing for a second after he clears a screen, like "What am I supposed to do next?" For NBA scorers, that's more than enough time to get an advantage and go downhill. Ochai needs to be much more intense and "connected" on defense if he wants to be known as a 3&D guy.

- You know who IS working hard on defense? Lauri. It's insane how much he's moving around out there for a 7 footer and picking up elite ballhandlers. In fact, I think it's really starting to take its toll on the other side of the ball. Again it looked like the guy simply didn't have his legs on O after chasing people around and settled for a ton of flat perimeter shots. I get that he's a blue collar type dude and puts his body on the line, but do we really want our All Star scorer to expend 80% of his energy on defense? As someone said, he also had this "What am I hustling for again?" look on his face quite a few times.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
- Teams continue to take advantage of Kessler's unwillingess to get out of the hole. The Suns kept relentlessly switching him onto jump shooters and daring him to close out. Most of the time he took a couple of tentative steps but stayed in no-man's land, leading to easy buckets. This is what we'll see more and more when the other team has shooting at all five positions, and Phoenix has quite a few lineups like that they can put on the floor. Next season guys won't go at Walker as much and he'll have to adapt. The only other option is to surround him with quick, long wing defenders who can pick up the slack.

- THT and Ochai with 7 turnovers combined. That's brutal. There is literally no team in the NBA who's watching these games and thinking "THT could be a starting point guard for us". He's strictly a bench guy with his irrational confidence, endless brain farts and moments of divine inspiration.

- Speaking of Ochai, I've been encouraged by the increased variety and confidence in his offensive game. He looked strictly like a corner shooter for a while, but now he can hit from anywhere. That's excellent. But man.... his defense still leaves a LOT to be desired. He still hasn't realized that you can't be relaxed when going over screens in the NBA. There's usually a moment where he slows down and almost stops playing for a second after he clears a screen, like "What am I supposed to do next?" For NBA scorers, that's more than enough time to get an advantage and go downhill. Ochai needs to be much more intense and "connected" on defense if he wants to be known as a 3&D guy.

- You know who IS working hard on defense? Lauri. It's insane how much he's moving around out there for a 7 footer and picking up elite ballhandlers. In fact, I think it's really starting to take its toll on the other side of the ball. Again it looked like the guy simply didn't have his legs on O after chasing people around and settled for a ton of flat perimeter shots. I get that he's a blue collar type dude and puts his body on the line, but do we really want our All Star scorer to expend 80% of his energy on defense? As someone said, he also had this "What am I hustling for again?" look on his face quite a few times.
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I used to think that you were a "glass half-empty" person.

Now I see that you're more of a "the water in the glass is probably contaminated with diarrhea-inducing toxins" kind of guy.
 
MT Steve said:
I used to think that you were a "glass half-empty" person.

Now I see that you're more of a "the water in the glass is probably contaminated with diarrhea-inducing toxins" kind of guy.
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Are you physically incapable of talking about NBA basketball and this team instead of other posters?

Getting boring.

We lost, I put some effort into a post where I outlined my views on the game and certain players. I'm open to having my opinions and analysis dismantled if they're weak. Just go ahead and try.

Otherwise, get ****ed.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
Are you physically incapable of talking about NBA basketball and this team instead of other posters?
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I posted 9 times in this game thread, 8 of them were about the team, 1 of them was the light-hearted joke in response to a person named "Tremendous Upside" who can't stop bashing our players 22 years of age and under for not being completed products yet.
 
Tremendous Upside said:
- Teams continue to take advantage of Kessler's unwillingess to get out of the hole. The Suns kept relentlessly switching him onto jump shooters and daring him to close out. Most of the time he took a couple of tentative steps but stayed in no-man's land, leading to easy buckets. This is what we'll see more and more when the other team has shooting at all five positions, and Phoenix has quite a few lineups like that they can put on the floor. Next season guys won't go at Walker as much and he'll have to adapt. The only other option is to surround him with quick, long wing defenders who can pick up the slack.

- THT and Ochai with 7 turnovers combined. That's brutal. There is literally no team in the NBA who's watching these games and thinking "THT could be a starting point guard for us". He's strictly a bench guy with his irrational confidence, endless brain farts and moments of divine inspiration.

- Speaking of Ochai, I've been encouraged by the increased variety and confidence in his offensive game. He looked strictly like a corner shooter for a while, but now he can hit from anywhere. That's excellent. But man.... his defense still leaves a LOT to be desired. He still hasn't realized that you can't be relaxed when going over screens in the NBA. There's usually a moment where he slows down and almost stops playing for a second after he clears a screen, like "What am I supposed to do next?" For NBA scorers, that's more than enough time to get an advantage and go downhill. Ochai needs to be much more intense and "connected" on defense if he wants to be known as a 3&D guy.

- You know who IS working hard on defense? Lauri. It's insane how much he's moving around out there for a 7 footer and picking up elite ballhandlers. In fact, I think it's really starting to take its toll on the other side of the ball. Again it looked like the guy simply didn't have his legs on O after chasing people around and settled for a ton of flat perimeter shots. I get that he's a blue collar type dude and puts his body on the line, but do we really want our All Star scorer to expend 80% of his energy on defense? As someone said, he also had this "What am I hustling for again?" look on his face quite a few times.
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Your first point is where I'm most concerned. Kessler can be exploited in man to man defense and when Hardy switched to a zone defense our entire team got exposed.
I know we absolutely robbed Minnesota in the trade, but I still miss Rudy's ability to defend an entire team.
 
JazzMan4Life said:
Your first point is where I'm most concerned. Kessler can be exploited in man to man defense and when Hardy switched to a zone defense our entire team got exposed.
I know we absolutely robbed Minnesota in the trade, but I still miss Rudy's ability to defend an entire team.
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His first point is complete nonsense.

The Jazz's defensive rating in Kessler's 30 minutes on the court was an absolutely suffocating 104.9. (The best defensive rating in the NBA belongs to Cleveland, at 110.3, for context).

The dude had 7 blocks. Seven. He also put up 18 points on 8/10 shooting on the other end.

Quite frankly, he dominated this game during his minutes, and was the primary reason the game was competitive.
 
JazzMan4Life said:
Your first point is where I'm most concerned. Kessler can be exploited in man to man defense and when Hardy switched to a zone defense our entire team got exposed.
I know we absolutely robbed Minnesota in the trade, but I still miss Rudy's ability to defend an entire team.
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Exactly. I don't see Kessler ever becoming someone who can switch all the way to the perimeter. He's a great rim protector but Rudy was/is lighter on his feet when he got dragged away from the basket.

This is where playing Walker with slow, ground-bound bigs like Olynyk hurts you. Whenever Kessler commits properly to a close-out and runs someone off the perimeter, the interior is wide open because the help defenders we have are either too small or too slow. Lauri is pretty much the only real exception, and he's not a rim protector.
 
MT Steve said:
His first point is complete nonsense.

The Jazz's defensive rating in Kessler's 30 minutes on the court was an absolutely suffocating 104.9. (The best defensive rating in the NBA belongs to Cleveland, at 110.3, for context).

The dude had 7 blocks. Seven. He also put up 18 points on 8/10 shooting on the other end.

Quite frankly, he dominated this game during his minutes, and was the primary reason the game was competitive.
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No doubt Kessler was a game changer tonight, as he is most nights. I don't know the exact time, but somewhere in the late third or early fourth we went from tied to down ten and it was obviously because we had no rim protection. I'm just adding my two cents that Kessler has some work to do over the off season.
I think it's okay to be critical of the guy, hell look at my profile pic if you think I'm a hater.
 
JazzMan4Life said:
No doubt Kessler was a game changer tonight as he is most nights. I don't know the exact time, but somewhere in the late third or early fourth we went from tied to down ten and it was obviously because we had no rim protection. I'm just adding my two cents that Kessler has some work to do over the off season.
I think it's okay to be critical of the guy, hell look at my profile pic if you think I'm a hater.
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I don't think you're a hater. I agree that Kessler has had bad games, and there's plenty he has to work on. But I can't fathom using this game as an example of Kessler getting exposed.

The Suns couldn't score while he was in the game (104.9 offensive rating), and in his 18 minutes on the bench they had a god-tier 143.2 offensive rating.

I don't see how to reconcile that to the narrative that the Suns exposed Kessler's defense.
 
I think criticism towards Kessler is pretty dumb tbh. He is a #22 drafted rookie who is exceeding all expectations.

Sure he has room to develop, but lets be REALLY UNFAIR and compare his rookie year to that of every #1 drafed center in the past 20 years:

NameMPGPPGRPGBPGFG%
Kessler22.88.98.32.372.2
Ayton30.716.310.30.958.5
KAT32.018.310.51.754.2
AD28.813.58.21.851.6
Oden21.58.97.01.156.4
Bogut28.69.47.00.853.3
Howard32.612.010.01.752.0

If we forget hype and focus on what they actually did, I dont feel too bad about Kessler in that group. Only Oden had less opportunity but Kessler still destroys everyone in two statistical categories and would also win rebounds clearly in a per 36 comparison.

I would also argue the main reason he loses in points to some of those guys is that we havent given him equal opportunity.
 
Watching the game last night thinking we had those guys, and why didn’t Hardy keep the pedal to the metal. Then it hit me today when I looked at standings, as the Suns are just a few games ahead of the Wolves. It doesn’t look like it’s gonna matter though because Wolves are playing well since dumping D’Lo and adding Conley and NAW.
 
Lauri has been so bad from downtown last two months think we don't take lots of wins.
I wish it is just fatigue. Technique issues might b also one reason. His shot arch is not optimal.
However - he dropped the ball in this one and his inefficient shooting was a big reason we lost. I think the biggest.
Good thing is it does not matter that much.
 
Step-Back Hook said:
Lauri has been so bad from downtown last two months think we don't take lots of wins.
I wish it is just fatigue. Technique issues might b also one reason. His shot arch is not optimal.
However - he dropped the ball in this one and his inefficient shooting was a big reason we lost. I think the biggest.
Good thing is it does not matter that much.
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It has more to do with the quality of looks he’s getting. With Conley at PG and better players around him he was getting better looks.

He’s still averaging 28/8/2 since February 1st.
 
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