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Game Thread Oct 18, 2024 08:00PM MT: Utah Jazz @ Portland Trail Blazers (Preseason)

Added to Calendar: 10-18-24

Few thoughts:
  • The starters went in for a nice peaceful preseason game but got met by tenacious and aggressive postseason defense. Result was fair as they played harder and basically clowned us on transition, defense and on the boards.
  • If Blazers play like this all year they may exceed their expectations by a lot. West is truly crazy when us and Blazers are the two worst teams on paper.
  • There has to be something wrong with the light levels or smth when even Juzang goes 1/7 from deep.
  • #freeflip from garbage duty and let us see what he looks like playing with Lauri and Keyonte. He could even reignite the triple tower concept that worked well the past two years even if he isnt at KO level offensively yet
This game corrected all the anti-tank momentum and swung the mean all the way back to "we bad".
 
tksavis said:
Hate to agree with this, but it was pretty obvious tonight
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Nothing Kessler can really do about. Clingan is massive and has better offensive feel. He's going to be a monster. If the jumper is actually legit, he's even more of a monster.
 
HermanG said:
Few thoughts:
  • The starters went in for a nice peaceful preseason game but got met by tenacious and aggressive postseason defense. Result was fair as they played harder and basically clowned us on transition, defense and on the boards.
  • If Blazers play like this all year they may exceed their expectations by a lot. West is truly crazy when us and Blazers are the two worst teams on paper.
  • There has to be something wrong with the light levels or smth when even Juzang goes 1/7 from deep.
  • #freeflip from garbage duty and let us see what he looks like playing with Lauri and Keyonte. He could even reignite the triple tower concept that worked well the past two years even if he isnt at KO level offensively yet
This game corrected all the anti-tank momentum and swung the mean all the way back to "we bad".
Click to expand...
Blazers are probably stuck with Ayton. Do they have the balls to bench Ayton or can they play him and Clingan together?
 

At one point in the game Clingan caught the ball in the paint and did a dribble into a hook/push shot. I thought to myself, if Walker got the ball there he would immediately dribble out to the 3pt line to run the most ineffective DHO you've seen in your life or rocket a pass to the first Jazz player he saw.​

 
Also, I think Potter can actually hoop and may actually be capable of being a NBA player.

I dont think Preston is anywhere close to being a NBA player despite his impressive G-League numbers.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Clingan >>>>>>>>> Kessler
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And that what gives me the pause thinking about Kessler's future on the Jazz. There are many experienced centers who are currently better than Kessler but the hope was that Kessler gets better with age and moves up in the rankings. However, every new season we get two more young centers who are CLEARLY better than Walter: Wemby and Lively, Clingan and Edey... And then you have other young centers who you can argue are on the Kessler's level (and may exceed it in the future): Durren, Sarr, Mark Williams....

That means that Kessler will likely never move up from his current 25th-35th range, the range of a fringe NBA starter. And that also means that in almost every future playoff series the Jazz will lose the battle at the center and the players in other positions will have to make it up. Heck, one can argue that the elite teams now have on their rosters TWO centers who are better than Kessler and will outplay him even in the backup role: Porzingis and Horford, Lively and Gafford, Gobert and Reid, Towns and Mitchell Robinson.

And that also means that on a playoff team Kessler is destined to be a great career backup, or a temporary, stop-gap starter (unless you have a super-team with several stars at other positions). And that the Jazz will need to upgrade at 5, while hopefully keeping Walter as a bench center on a cheap contract.
 
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I love how our guards could barely bounce the ball against them and yet Kessler is still the whipping boy. I’m not even a big Kessler guy but I can already tell it’s going to be annoying seeing him be the scapegoat of anything and everything.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Blazers are probably stuck with Ayton. Do they have the balls to bench Ayton or can they play him and Clingan together?
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Its a tough decission. I dont know whether they are trying to be competitive or tank this year, and that will also factor in.

Ayton and Scoot off the bench gives them a higher ceiling imo.
 
HermanG said:
Its a tough decission. I dont know whether they are trying to be competitive or tank this year, and that will also factor in.

Ayton and Scoot off the bench gives them a higher ceiling imo.
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Ayton isnt bad enough to bench and he's on a max deal. He can still be an effective good player. They are ultimately trying to tank, and both Ayton/Clingan show believable 3pt range, so why not just play them together and see if it works?
 
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