The Non-Jazz NBA Thread in the Jazz Section

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I didnt say he isnt athletic, but I dont see him being elite athlete. Maybe decent was lowballing him and good would have been better.

I just think the definition of athleticism in basketball peoples minds is skewed towards very specific traits. Reaction time is athleticism. Lateral movement is athleticism. Balance is athleticism.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

View: https://x.com/BRICKW0RLD/status/1792027113480229284


My boy never should've left Utah.

Even Tony Snell think Gordo needs to be doing more out there.

 

[kabenac]

The WCF is going to be fun no matter who plays The Mavs. I expect Boston to be in the Finals but in the West it's anyone's guess.

 

[infection]

Are we going to see the return of youngjefe tonight or will we have to wait until some point in the WCF?

 

[HermanG]

I just think the definition of athleticism in basketball peoples minds is skewed towards very specific traits. Reaction time is athleticism. Lateral movement is athleticism. Balance is athleticism.

If you compare Sexton and Jrue, its pretty easy to see how much more technique and IQ/instincts/experience matter than athleticism.

Sexton probably beats Jrue in most aspects of athleticism, isnt drastically smaller nor does he lack in effort.. but there is a massive difference in their defensive prowess.

 

[LogGrad98]

Frankly effort and desire are at least 50% of elite defense. Look at Mitchell. When he was drafted one of his top strengths was defense, and he was touted as a defensive stopper at the next level and he is easily one of the worst defenders we've seen at his position in the last decade. It's because he has chosen not to play defense. And he's literally said as much. There have been plenty of good to great defense with average athleticism. The thing people underestimate is simply the fact that average athleticism in the NBA is still "elite" compared to the general population. You don't have to be the greatest athlete in the room to be a good or great defender. Bruce Bowen was never an elite athlete, by NBA standards, yet he was the prototypical 3 & D guard, setting the standard for it.

 

[sip]

Hardy not keeping AJ on staff was a mistake. He does a good job with bigs. Moment he left Kessler development stopped. Rookie Lively looks good already.

It was a mistake but I can't really blame Hardy since he didn't want to constantly be looking over his shoulder knowing that management also viewed him as a head coaching candidate.

 

[sip]

Will Kessler ever get to the level as Dallas’s two centers, Gafford or Lively? It’s insane how much we’ve invested in that position over the years to have so little.

Having said that, we freaking need to draft athletes. Dallas has wave after wave of athletes. Same with Minnesota. And Boston. We have small volume shooting guards. We need more athletes. At the very least we need some guys that can defend, run, jump, and tear down the rim.

He was at that level last year so I definitely think he can get back there.

 

[sip]

Are we going to see the return of youngjefe tonight or will we have to wait until some point in the WCF?

It all depends on if the wolves win. If they win then we know that he won't have the balls to show his face until the wolves lose a game in the conference finals.

 

[Deleted member 365]

When I watch Boston I don't see a ton of athletes.

Jazz have Lauri (great size combined with crazy hops), Sexton (crazy speed combined with crazy hops), Collins (dunk contest level jumper), Hendricks (length, speed, good jumper), keyonte (good athleticism)

Celtics have brown and tatum. Derrick White is nothing to write home about athletically. Horford? Lol. Holiday? Nope. Payton Pritchard? Nope. Sam houser? Luke kornet?


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I don’t know about this. I see a lot of good athletes with these teams while I saw a lot of crap on the Jazz. Sure is Holiday a prime Baron Davis or Westbrook level athlete? I guess not. But he looks better than anything on the Jazz, especially with size. I look at these other teams in the playoffs and they have big guards and athletic wings to spare. I can hardly keep track of Dallas’s wings as they all can run, jump, defend, and shoot the hell out of the ball. We just have so much work to do.

 

[sip]

Frankly effort and desire are at least 50% of elite defense. Look at Mitchell. When he was drafted one of his top strengths was defense, and he was touted as a defensive stopper at the next level and he is easily one of the worst defenders we've seen at his position in the last decade. It's because he has chosen not to play defense. And he's literally said as much. There have been plenty of good to great defense with average athleticism. The thing people underestimate is simply the fact that average athleticism in the NBA is still "elite" compared to the general population. You don't have to be the greatest athlete in the room to be a good or great defender. Bruce Bowen was never an elite athlete, by NBA standards, yet he was the prototypical 3 & D guard, setting the standard for it.

Yep. Defense is mostly about effort and desire. There are so many elite athletes in the league that are mediocre defenders while there are a decent amount of limited athletes that are solid defenders because they put in the effort on that end. The transformation of Brook Lopez over his career has been one of the more impressive things because he was a mediocre defender the first part of his career when he was more of a primary scoring option. He was written off as a bad defender because he had heavy feet when we now know it was all about effort. He goes to the bucks where he is no longer relied on as a key scorer and his focus changes to defense and he turns into a beast on that end.

 

[infection]

Frankly effort and desire are at least 50% of elite defense. Look at Mitchell. When he was drafted one of his top strengths was defense, and he was touted as a defensive stopper at the next level and he is easily one of the worst defenders we've seen at his position in the last decade. It's because he has chosen not to play defense. And he's literally said as much. There have been plenty of good to great defense with average athleticism. The thing people underestimate is simply the fact that average athleticism in the NBA is still "elite" compared to the general population. You don't have to be the greatest athlete in the room to be a good or great defender. Bruce Bowen was never an elite athlete, by NBA standards, yet he was the prototypical 3 & D guard, setting the standard for it.

This is what frustrates me about the Snyder era. We continually blame the roster and the defenders (or lack thereof) on it. I have beef with DL but if you were to weight the actual problems, the system structure and the conditioning of “just let Rudy do it” was the real downfall. Changing that would have made the difference.