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NBA Columnist/Cavs Insider Sam Amico: "Jazz have made Burks available"

here's the thing, fish: alec is good. nobody's questioning that. i think he's a very good player and i hope he's part of a very bright future for the jazz. but this team has 11 or 12 rotation-ready guys. some guys are going to have to take turns, and that means the best way to ensure a role is to be ready whenever you're put in. yes, corbin could just decide burks gets 20 minute a night regardless because he's a recent lottery pick and because he's got a higher ceiling (potentially) than foye or carroll, but you don't create a culture of hard work by just handing things to guys who haven't earned it, or by denying guys an opportunity no matter how hard they work.

and preseason and summer league just don't matter. they really don't.

If the preseason and summer league don't matter then why play them. Why the coaches say they matter?


"alec is good. nobody's questioning that. i think he's a very good player and i hope he's part of a very bright future for the jazz."

Then you have to see the importance of developing a player in his second year, and why not giving him any time is detrimental. Giving Foye all the time is Corbins plan, and it will have an impact on Burks. The bottom line is that what we are doing is not good for the future of Burks with the Utah Jazz. If playing Foye is that important to you ok, but that is what is happening here.
 
here's the thing, fish: alec is good. nobody's questioning that.

I'll go ahead and be the one who is questioning that. Alec has talent, but is he good? That remains to be seen. I know that Alec is the darling of the board and everyone, including myself, badly wants him to be be a star. But until Alec learns the nuances of the game, such as passing and shot selection, he's always going to be a questionable player. He should be looking at Carroll and understanding that busting his *** and taking the shot only when it is presented are what will get him floor time. Instead, he pouts when a shot doesn't go in and then forces the next shot. I hope he figures it out soon and becomes a quality player, but if he doesn't, just count him as another guard the Jazz took a gamble on that didn't pan out and move on to the next player.
 
here's the thing, fish: alec is good. nobody's questioning that. i think he's a very good player and i hope he's part of a very bright future for the jazz. but this team has 11 or 12 rotation-ready guys. some guys are going to have to take turns, and that means the best way to ensure a role is to be ready whenever you're put in. yes, corbin could just decide burks gets 20 minute a night regardless because he's a recent lottery pick and because he's got a higher ceiling (potentially) than foye or carroll, but you don't create a culture of hard work by just handing things to guys who haven't earned it, or by denying guys an opportunity no matter how hard they work.

and preseason and summer league just don't matter. they really don't.

Nerd, if he is good, as you say, then I don't buy your logic. He hasn't been given a chance this year. Foye absolutely sucks in my opinion. Sure he can shoot but he doesn't deserve minutes based on the rest of his play because just as he makes a three, he gives up four on the other end, or when he's not shooting commits a turnover. Burks is young, he needs playing time and based on his play last he showed to me that he's worth giving time to develop. I see a lot of other guys doing do-do for more than 7 minutes at a time. Just watch our third quarter against Houston. By your standard, the starters should not suit up next game.
 
I'll go ahead and be the one who is questioning that. Alec has talent, but is he good? That remains to be seen. I know that Alec is the darling of the board and everyone, including myself, badly wants him to be be a star. But until Alec learns the nuances of the game, such as passing and shot selection, he's always going to be a questionable player. He should be looking at Carroll and understanding that busting his *** and taking the shot only when it is presented are what will get him floor time. Instead, he pouts when a shot doesn't go in and then forces the next shot. I hope he figures it out soon and becomes a quality player, but if he doesn't, just count him as another guard the Jazz took a gamble on that didn't pan out and move on to the next player.

Even if he doesn't work out for Utah you have to be happy with 2 of 4 young lottery players here, and Kanter at the very least clearly is no stranger to dedication. If the Jazz go 3/4 on the young guys we are looking really good.
 
If the preseason and summer league don't matter then why play them. Why the coaches say they matter?


"alec is good. nobody's questioning that. i think he's a very good player and i hope he's part of a very bright future for the jazz."

Then you have to see the importance of developing a player in his second year, and why not giving him any time is detrimental. Giving Foye all the time is Corbins plan, and it will have an impact on Burks. The bottom line is that what we are doing is not good for the future of Burks with the Utah Jazz. If playing Foye is that important to you ok, but that is what is happening here.

you have it backwards though. you don't develop a guy by giving him minutes he hasn't earned. you help him develop and THEN he gets minutes. burks had a 4-game stretch to show he was ready to make a positive difference and he didn't. again, that's fine. he's young, he's inconsistent, he'll get more shots and HE WILL GET BETTER. right now, he has no beef based on the way he has performed, and he understands that. you should, too.
 
I'll go ahead and be the one who is questioning that. Alec has talent, but is he good? That remains to be seen. I know that Alec is the darling of the board and everyone, including myself, badly wants him to be be a star. But until Alec learns the nuances of the game, such as passing and shot selection, he's always going to be a questionable player. He should be looking at Carroll and understanding that busting his *** and taking the shot only when it is presented are what will get him floor time. Instead, he pouts when a shot doesn't go in and then forces the next shot. I hope he figures it out soon and becomes a quality player, but if he doesn't, just count him as another guard the Jazz took a gamble on that didn't pan out and move on to the next player.



that bolded part is my main thesis. carroll got minutes because he absolutely forced corbin to play him in ways that had nothing to do with his talent level or ability to put the ball in the hoop. if burks did the same thing, we wouldn't be whining about his minutes.
 
you have it backwards though. you don't develop a guy by giving him minutes he hasn't earned. you help him develop and THEN he gets minutes. burks had a 4-game stretch to show he was ready to make a positive difference and he didn't. again, that's fine. he's young, he's inconsistent, he'll get more shots and HE WILL GET BETTER. right now, he has no beef based on the way he has performed, and he understands that. you should, too.


You only give a player competitive game experience once he proves he has the experience to perform in competitive games. I knew Joseph Heller wasn't the best choice for authoring NBA rules.
 
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show me one stretch of basketball where foye played seven minutes without a point, assist, rebound, steal or block and this point will be valid. (hint: you won't find any.)

11-1-2006
11-10-2009
2-6-2012
not to mention several games where he went 10+ mins with 0's in all categories but 1 (including many games of 0 pts, 1 rebound, 0's across the rest of the board)

this list is just games that he played about 7 mins with nothing. it doesnt even count games in which 7 minute stretches of no production occur. almost every player in the league experiences these lull's at least once in a while... just because we've caught alec in one doesnt mean he shouldnt play. we have too much invested in the kids to not play them.
 
you have it backwards though. you don't develop a guy by giving him minutes he hasn't earned. you help him develop and THEN he gets minutes. burks had a 4-game stretch to show he was ready to make a positive difference and he didn't. again, that's fine. he's young, he's inconsistent, he'll get more shots and HE WILL GET BETTER. right now, he has no beef based on the way he has performed, and he understands that. you should, too.

Uh, no, just no. Burks has only had 1 game over 15 minutes this year, which is the minimum time needed to get into the flow and make a contribution. But besides that fact, when you draft a player very young like Burks its understood he will have very bad stretches. If you are not going to let him play through them, you either draft seniors or trade the pick. To do otherwise would be piss poor management of resources. Burks put in the time all summer at P3, improved his vertical by several inches, was shooting lights out in preseason, and has only been given one game over 15 minutes. Granted Carroll has been playing great lately, but wasn't early on.
 
The final 25 games of last season Burks averaged about 18mpg, and scored about 8+ points per game at about a 42% clip. Decent numbers for a rookie - all while The Jazz were playing their best basketball of the season.

He played in the Summer League - which he didn't have to do (see CJ Miles)

Came to camp prepared. Obviously worked on his jumper. Had a solid preseason.

And then gets rewarded with 3 straight DNP's over a journeyman failed PG who at best is a one-dimensional player who started the preseason missing his first 17 shots.

Any way you want to slice it - that's a mind **** for a 22 year old kid who has been "the man" everywhere he's been up until this point.

Is it Burks' job to get over it? Absolutely. But don't tell me this guy "HAS. NOT. EARNED. IT"

Well that should pretty much settle it.
 
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