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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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Getting Traded

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What can we take from this first game of the season?

The Good: We have a virtual Armageddon of offensive power. Smokin' Joe can still deliver, Hood is a legit borderline All-Star, and George Hill is probably close to a top 10 PG. We almost won last night against a rising power in the Blazers on their home court without Hayward, Favors, and Burks, three of our top six players. Dante showed some flashes in the second half, and Rudy is showing that his improvement at the foul line is for real.

The Bad: Dante reverted to his timidity in the first half. Perhaps because it took so long for him to get off the bench, which caused a lack of confidence, or maybe Quin sensed it to begin with. Boris was too slow to handle the quickness of the Blazer 4's, but against more traditional 4's he will be a lot better and he also was forced to take some bad shots because of poor offensive flow, which should improve as the team develops better chemistry. We need to do a better job in the pick and pop situations.

The Ugly: Just some poor continuity on offense, inability to stop their pick and pops and close out on the shooters. I think we will be better with Favors playing and Hayward's defense will be a lot better than Smokin Joe's.
 
I was actually pleased with Exum. His rookie year he seemed to float around the perimeter, last night he actually drove into the paint at will. He blows by his first defender with ease, he just doesn't have the confidence/ability to get past the second defender yet (he did do it once though, and got an and1... which we never saw his first year.) I'm okay with Exum not being able to score at the rim yet, maybe he'll figure it out sometime this season, or maybe it will come next year. Overall, I though Exum looked two or three steps ahead of where he was in his rookie year and I'm quite pleased with that.
 
Or how about they were just hot! It was very good effort against a very good team without our top players.
 
Jazz were without Hayward & Favors. Even with the added depth it's going to be tough to beat a playoff team on the road.


The downside for me was Lillard going off. Between Hill/Exum I would think we could keep him in check a bit more.
 
We should start game threads for this kind of chatter. Something to keep in mind going forward -- as we collectively try to improve the site.
 
NAOS said:
We should start game threads for this kind of chatter. Something to keep in mind going forward -- as we collectively try to improve the site.
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We need to develop more connectivity.
 
Beantown said:
Jazz were without Hayward & Favors. Even with the added depth it's going to be tough to beat a playoff team on the road.


The downside for me was Lillard going off. Between Hill/Exum I would think we could keep him in check a bit more.
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Lillard hit some tough shots on good defense. Hill did a great job hounding him. The biggest problem was the pick and pop defense. There is only so much u can do against superstars.
 
Observations:

-We had 3 new players in the starting lineup, two starters injured, and a key bench player out. It will take some time for the new players to jell with the old. All things considered, an encouraging first game.

-Mack and Lyles were the difference makers, in a negative way. Lyles was hesitating and missing shots he made all summer and pre-season. He was shooting just a bit hard, the shots looked good but a bit rushed. First game jitters I guess. Mack just looked bad on both ends, yet Quin complimented him in the post-game, ugh. Exum actually looked good, just needs to be more decisive.

-We have better passes, so we should get better shots, but I still hate our offensive sets. Team continuity should make it a bit better, saw a few good opportunities that were blown due to hesitation. I know I was spoiled with Sloan's UCLA/Flex/Motion, but it made the Jazz stand out from the status quo and was truly fun to watch. And teams hated to play against us, because it made them work so hard. Our current sets don't do that.

-I like our team. Hill was a great add, and getting rid of Burke was an even better addition by subtraction. Looking forward to see how Exum progresses this year. I think he is going to take off.

Final observation: Basketball is 100,000 times better than baseball. Glad the season has started.

Edit- I forgot to add: Hood can evidently break his ankle just standing in a spot.
 
We did a great job of closing out on shooters actually. They only attempted 19 3's. which is ridiculously low for them. The problem was whenever they actually got open, they drained them and they didnt really force anything.
 
Beantown said:
Jazz were without Hayward & Favors. Even with the added depth it's going to be tough to beat a playoff team on the road.


The downside for me was Lillard going off. Between Hill/Exum I would think we could keep him in check a bit more.
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Portland adjusted by setting picks super high beyond the 3pt line. Way too much space for Gobert to guard by himself with no help-side defense. This game is definitely different from a defensive standpoint if we had Favors in the game.
 
Favors was definitely missed. We really needed better pick and roll coverage to have a chance of stopping them.

It was a fun game though.
 
Didn't watch the game because I was working late, but everything I've heard is super optimistic and everyone said the jazz played really well.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Portland adjusted by setting picks super high beyond the 3pt line. Way too much space for Gobert to guard by himself with no help-side defense. This game is definitely different from a defensive standpoint if we had Favors in the game.
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Nailed it. It's not much a knock on Gobert, he was targeted and put in a position where it would be really hard for him to make a play.
 
Two good teams. Favors might have been the difference on defense and on the boards, but Lillard played like a legit superstar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-WhmZOKTOo
 
cowhide said:
Why did Exum and Lyles get so little playing time? It isn't like Boris was killing it.
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I'm guessing it's because, with the injuries, Snyder felt like he needed to give Mack more burn at PG to make up for the lack of offense from our 2nd unit.
 
JAZZGASM said:
Observations:

-We had 3 new players in the starting lineup, two starters injured, and a key bench player out. It will take some time for the new players to jell with the old. All things considered, an encouraging first game.

-Mack and Lyles were the difference makers, in a negative way. Lyles was hesitating and missing shots he made all summer and pre-season. He was shooting just a bit hard, the shots looked good but a bit rushed. First game jitters I guess. Mack just looked bad on both ends, yet Quin complimented him in the post-game, ugh. Exum actually looked good, just needs to be more decisive.

-We have better passes, so we should get better shots, but I still hate our offensive sets. Team continuity should make it a bit better, saw a few good opportunities that were blown due to hesitation. I know I was spoiled with Sloan's UCLA/Flex/Motion, but it made the Jazz stand out from the status quo and was truly fun to watch. And teams hated to play against us, because it made them work so hard. Our current sets don't do that.

-I like our team. Hill was a great add, and getting rid of Burke was an even better addition by subtraction. Looking forward to see how Exum progresses this year. I think he is going to take off.

Final observation: Basketball is 100,000 times better than baseball. Glad the season has started.

Edit- I forgot to add: Hood can evidently break his ankle just standing in a spot.
Click to expand...

Nailed it all. Great post
 
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