What's new

Opening Night Grades

Hayward gets a C-... should have owned Morris last night. He is not a good defender. Started really aggressive then went waaaay to passive.
Burks B... Had some good moments for sure and then some fairly clueless ones.
Hood B... Just make a damn 3 and it's a pretty good game. He is the best on our team at getting his own shot. Was excited by him.
Favs A+... pure beast mode... hitting his jumpers, so patient on offense. Great defense inside and even better when he got switched out. Might be our all-star.
Gobert B-... I have elevated expectations. He should have come over harder when Jackson drove... He had been getting burned on the dump pass when guys weren't rotating, but you still have to make the right play. Was a bit out of control on offense a couple times.
Neto B+ Super solid and he looks so calm on his jumper. I don't expect much, but he's already exceeding what I had hoped.
Quinn B... Hayward was off, but he is our best overall creator. He needed the ball not Alec on the key possession. Burks isn't as good of a decision maker even though he got a good shot. Thought we needed to take better advantage of our mismatches on offense namely Favs on whoever was guarding him and Hayward vs. Morris.
Burke - I... not sure he even showed up, but at least he didn't start chucking.

Refs - F. Not to be that guy but the refs were terrible. Gobert's charge was terrible... the guy stuck both hands out because he didn't want the body contact and they still gave Gobert the charge... should have been an And 1. Drummond quick tapped three jump balls and it was obvious... got called for it once. One of them led to a three pointer off the jump. Hood got fouled on the game tying three. It is almost impossible to cleanly block long jumper unless you take the ball out of the air and the ball reacts totally differently when that happens. Again it was fairly obvious based on the reaction of the ball. They were just so inconsistent.

Bolerjack A++ called two long twos as threes in the first half and generally seemed confused by the whole game of basketball. He was in midseason form.
 
I'll give two grades:


2. Jazzfanzers who thought we shouldn't sign a legit piece in Free Agency: F

It's bloody obvious to me that we are one player short of a well-stocked roster. That's all I'll say about that.

Naos, I agree with your statement about being one player short. I wonder if we agree about what kind of player the jazz are missing. I tend to believe Lindsey has assembled and retained a very nice group of complimentary players, just as was his job in San Antonio. But he has not yet delivered or discovered the star. The NBA is built around stars, and the Jazz's woes closing out games is just one demonstration of how they miss a star.

The trouble is everyone is looking for a star, so they don't come easy or cheap. Give the jazz credit, they almost had Harden. They attempted to move up for Wiggins (or was it Parker). They might have made a phone call about Johnson. Lindsey can't force the other team to trade, no matter how many assets he has. I feel like the current Jazz assemblage is just another stop gap until the Jazz find the ONE, but I don't think he is coming in FA.
 
Naos, I agree with your statement about being one player short. I wonder if we agree about what kind of player the jazz are missing. I tend to believe Lindsey has assembled and retained a very nice group of complimentary players, just as was his job in San Antonio. But he has not yet delivered or discovered the star. The NBA is built around stars, and the Jazz's woes closing out games is just one demonstration of how they miss a star.

The trouble is everyone is looking for a star, so they don't come easy or cheap. Give the jazz credit, they almost had Harden. They attempted to move up for Wiggins (or was it Parker). They might have made a phone call about Johnson. Lindsey can't force the other team to trade, no matter how many assets he has. I feel like the current Jazz assemblage is just another stop gap until the Jazz find the ONE, but I don't think he is coming in FA.

Well, for last night one player that would have brought us the W is Dante Exum.
 
Well, for last night one player that would have brought us the W is Dante Exum.

I think the player most affected by Exum's injury is Gobert.
Exum's height,length and speed made it hard for opposing PG's to see Gobert's second line of defense.PG's see where Gobert is now,where he's playing and adjust.Gobert feeds off his defense and blocks and feeds off his slam dunks.When he's engaged the Jazz are engaged emotionally.
The Jazz didn't have spark or play high energy.
Jazz are young and need an emotional high energy leader OR their a middle of the pack team subject to lose more close games than win them.
 
Quin's offense is utter ****e. Again. About the only nice thing he has added is holding a big at the FT line to bail out Burke and Neto on their penetration search dribble.
 
Bolerjack A++ called two long twos as threes in the first half and generally seemed confused by the whole game of basketball. He was in midseason form.

Called Alec Burks Trey Burke when Burke wasn't even on the floor. I get occasionally mixing up their names (not really, it isn't hard and it's the only team you cover) but come on. They don't even look a little bit alike.
 
Also F-- for Harpring defending no calls at the end of games. That behavior is one of the biggest problems with NBA officiating and he came down on the side of "they shouldn't do their job."
 
I have said it in other threads, this team has to play as a team on both ends to be successful. We need to be top 5 in assists. I love what Quin has done with defensive sets and starting Dante last year, but I do not like our offensive direction.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I liked Neto's jump shot. People said he couldn't shoot and it looks like he has good form. I also thought Jingles jump shot had a much quicker release than last season.
 
Back
Top