We needed a change from Sloan and we didn't really get it from Corbin, we just got a worse version of Sloan that focused on out-of-date post play instead of PNR and Princeton/UCLA offense.
Bill and Jalen's Jazz Preview
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We needed a change from Sloan and we didn't really get it from Corbin, we just got a worse version of Sloan that focused on out-of-date post play instead of PNR and Princeton/UCLA offense.
Yeah, at his core, Simmons is an entertainment/pop-culture dude. He is just happens to be a basketball fanatic who is an incredibly skilled writer who really knows his NBA history.
His Achilles Heel is his Celtics fandom. So ****ing annoying, but endearing at the same time. I wish I could be Bill Simmons, but with Jazz homerism.
Also curious to see how our offense translates in road games. It's always easy to push tempo in Utah where we have the altitude and a good fan base. It seems like we are always significantly worse on the road though. Can Snyder keep us uptempo on the road? That is the difference of us being a high 20's/low 30's win team to a high 30's/low 40's win team.
Quite frankly I doubt he's seen much of him, as evidenced by the general lack of details about what he thinks is wrong with him(this is not the only time he's talked about Exum busting in the last several months without EVER as much as sharing the simplest of analysis of what exactly leads him to think that). Just watch the video and tell me what those two said specifically about his actual game - ANYTHING specific, ANY detail! If you find me ANYTHING they said about his game I'd rep you for a month. Here's what they talked about throughout the whole segment about Dante:
-Bill is worried about "that Dante Exum thing"
-Bill is worried that "those guys who were drafted after Dante Exum are really good and the Utah fans are going to look around and they are going to see Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, Elfrid Payton, and they are going to think - why did we take this 18 year old kid who looks like a baby? [great, I think we have something here that is close to analysis of Dante Exum's game... "he looks like a baby"... well, kinda close]
-Jalen says he never played against elite competition...[well duh, nobody knew that... and especially Bill and Jalen when they put him #4 in their mock draft]
-Bill follows with - and on top of that all those rookies that came after him, are going to gun for him during the season(WTF? How is that even relevant?)... "Marcus smart is going to get really upset before that game... He's gonna try to embarrass him"[still waiting for ANYTHING about what actually made them do that segment]
-there's gonna be a problem when Steph Curry, CP3, Ty Lawson, John Wall come to town... there's gonna be a problem with his confidence, too...[ OK, maybe... that might have been a better segment for Clairvoyant Bill.]
-he doesn't know what position he is!!! Lol!!! Seriously? You are going to tell me he looked at more than 2 of his games and didn't think he's a PG? Seriously?!?!?!?!?!?
In a funny way I think most of the people here can make a much better case as to why Dante is going to be a bust than those two, even if we don't think he's going to be a bust(or we don't think we have enough information to know if he's going to be a bust).
Thee Jazz Fan
Well-Known Member
Yeah, the whole point of him questioning Exum is that he feels like he has the biggest ceiling/floor of any player in recent history, so he openly admits he doesn't know much about him, but what he has seen hasn't told him enough to feel strongly either way.
The position debate is still a valid one. Obviously he has immense PG skills, but is he better off playing alongside another PG, or a SG? A lot of that will depend on how far he can advance his ball-handling ability.
The rookie competition is relevant because to the other rookies Exum is undeserving because he hasn't proved as much as they have and was picked higher than them, meaning they will get paid more and are probably perceived as better players by a lot of people based solely on draft position. I'm sure this is an actual thing because players are competitive. When someone is picked ahead of me in pickup basketball and I know I am better than them, it gives me added intensity and motivation to play better than them.
*Also, Smart and Payton played Exum in Fiba U19 games and outplayed him (if I remember correctly, could be wrong), that probably leads Smart to believe he is more deserving and he is probably eager to show this when they play again.*
Probably because we enjoy good writing that avoids the average and mundane and has a lot of humor added in.
Thee Jazz Fan
Well-Known Member
I think that's pretty much all you get from him to be honest. All rhetoric and jokes, no substance. I don't mind it, I even like some of his stuff, but when I go to listen to/read him I do it with the clear idea that I am not getting any insight whatsoever about the game of basketball or basketball players, or in the rare cases when he actually has some guest who actually knows anything about it.
BTW, I've said in other threads that the biggest thing that worries me about Exum is that he looks timid and doesn't drive to the basket. The reason this worries me the most is that this is polar opposite to what he used to do just 1 year ago and from what I've read from analytics people, driving to the rim and drawing fouls are some of the metrics that project BEST between U18 and NBA-game. If for whatever reason one of his best selling points, which usually translates well, in his case doesn't translate, I think we might be looking into much more serious problems than simple timidity and lack of confidence and he'd have real problems establishing himself in the league and might indeed turn into a bust.
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Well there are plenty of both. I agree that I prefer Lowe, because he does combine humor/good writing with advanced knowledge, but when it comes to pure entertainment and fun predictions, Simmons is #1.