Game Thread Mar 27, 2023 07:00PM MT: Jazz vs. Suns
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Added to Calendar: 03-27-23
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.
Thee Jazz Fan
Well-Known Member
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
Tremendous Upside
Well-Known Member
- 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.
- 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.
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.
Tremendous Upside
Well-Known Member
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tremendous Upside
Well-Known Member
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.
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.
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.