Whiteside Is Going to Be Good

[One Brow]

6'10" and 245 lbs. What front-line centers would he be having trouble with? And, of those, how well did TB or Favors fare?

Favors fared well enough that he was in the top 25 of centers when looking areas such as VOR and similar measures. Not as good as Whiteside, but much better than Udoh ever was.

Udoh's issue is that he's poor on offense and they can go 5-on-4, on top of bad rebounding. Other than that, he could handle 1-5 on switches, and he protected the rim better than anyone I've ever seen not named Rudy Gobert.

Things were so much better then, amiright?

 

[gomretat]

It's not that they're hard to find, it's that we don't look at the specific skillset needed and instead look at a player globally and deem them unfit. Here is a short list off the top of my head of guys who have been fairly available for cheap that can fill those needs and that role:

Andrew Bogut
Joakim Noah
Ekpe Udoh
Javale McGee

If we hadn't signed Whiteside to actually seen what he's done, he'd be a guy in a thread like this where we'd dismiss him with a "nah, he sucks." The biggest problem we got lost on was looking at Favors overall and then comparing anyone else who has more specific skills and perceiving the drop of as "Favors is so much better, _____ sucks."

Happy to agree to disagree. It is not just the talent level - it is them wanting to come to Utah, comfortable with what we will pay, and comfortable with 15 minutes a night. The back up C is key to what we are trying to do and I think some folks are way off in how easy it is to find those folks. Hope I am wrong and very glad to have HW.

 

[infection]

I hate to say it but I don't get the Epke love. Dude was an amazing human but he was absolutely unplayable during the playoffs... kind of like Niang. This current team is built more for the playoffs with guys like Whiteside and Gay.

The argument is that he would have been an already-there stand-in solution to whatever it was we did for the past 2+ years. If the argument is that he's unplayable in the playoffs... well, we had Ed Davis, Tony Bradley, and Derrick Favors. All of those were unplayable, and the defense suffered. Whiteside is much more well-rounded. The argument is more about prior years and how we botched this whole thing by not looking for the right type of guy (such as a Whiteside) to backup Rudy, and instead pretended that Favors was a rim protector or poor man's Rudy.

Happy to agree to disagree. It is not just the talent level - it is them wanting to come to Utah, comfortable with what we will pay, and comfortable with 15 minutes a night. The back up C is key to what we are trying to do and I think some folks are way off in how easy it is to find those folks. Hope I am wrong and very glad to have HW.

With the exception of McGee, all of those guys were looking for contracts in the league. And again, if we didn't have Whiteside right now we'd either being saying he sucks or saying some variant of "he'd never come here." The beauty of viewing things through this lens is the belief that we're absolutely preforming at the pinnacle of our capacity from an executive and managerial sense, and there's absolutely no way we could improve on status quo because if there was we would have already done it, and our inaction is therefore proof that it can't be done.

 

[str8line]

Whitesides has been such a pleasant surprise, as has Paschall. I really think in attitude alone, these 2 change our competitive make-up out there on the floor come playoff time. It’s also nice to see Rudy Gay fully engaged and jumping up and down on the bench while cheering his teammates on. The dude is obviously very excited and fully engaged before he’s even been able to step on the court.

When these 3 players were added to the Jazz roster, I think Jazzfanz let out a collective “meh” as each one comes with some positives, but as a group doesn’t really do much to address the perimeter defense issues. I think this could be the classic scenario of a group being greater than the sum of its parts. Specifically with Hassan. I get so frustrated when the Jazz are unable to punish opponents down low when they go small. I think this year, we can finally see some of that.

Good post. The guys are buying in.

Sent from my SM-G986U using JazzFanz mobile app

 

[The Fresh Prince]

The argument is that he would have been an already-there stand-in solution to whatever it was we did for the past 2+ years. If the argument is that he's unplayable in the playoffs... well, we had Ed Davis, Tony Bradley, and Derrick Favors. All of those were unplayable, and the defense suffered. Whiteside is much more well-rounded. The argument is more about prior years and how we botched this whole thing by not looking for the right type of guy (such as a Whiteside) to backup Rudy, and instead pretended that Favors was a rim protector or poor man's Rudy.



With the exception of McGee, all of those guys were looking for contracts in the league. And again, if we didn't have Whiteside right now we'd either being saying he sucks or saying some variant of "he'd never come here." The beauty of viewing things through this lens is the belief that we're absolutely preforming at the pinnacle of our capacity from an executive and managerial sense, and there's absolutely no way we could improve on status quo because if there was we would have already done it, and our inaction is therefore proof that it can't be done.

That's how out usually goes here. Most people on JF thinks most NBA players are headcase, a bad fit, etc then they come here and we fall in love with them.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I hate to say it but I don't get the Epke love. Dude was an amazing human but he was absolutely unplayable during the playoffs... kind of like Niang. This current team is built more for the playoffs with guys like Whiteside and Gay.

Epke was superb defensively, that's why people loved him. He also had the book club thing.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Whiteside is benefitting from "Attack dude who isnt Gobert" syndrome in a way Favors wasnt able to.

 

[Engorged On Unborn Gore]

Even with a couple of turnovers, Whiteside’s still plus’n.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Whiteside is benefitting from "Attack dude who isnt Gobert" syndrome in a way Favors wasnt able to.

That has been a sound strategy in years past. Whiteside is benefiting because he’s actually good at blocking shots. We took a weakness and made it a strength… because Whiteside is good.

 

[LogGrad98]

Per 36

Whiteside

Pts = 15.0
Reb = 17.3
Blks = 3.7
FG% = .568

Gobert

Pts = 17.6
Reb = 19.8
Blks = 2.0
FG% = .736

Damn there is no reprieve for the opposition. They are challenging Whiteside a lot more, which is where the blocks are coming in, and as per usual they are not attacking Gobert because he is the Deathstar in human form, so his blocks are down. Soon though they will likely stop attacking Whiteside as well. We have never had a backup at any position like we have right now in both Whiteside and Clarkson. Our bench is absolute fire, and we don't even have Gay yet.

 

[aussietin]

I hate to say it but I don't get the Epke love. Dude was an amazing human but he was absolutely unplayable during the playoffs... kind of like Niang. This current team is built more for the playoffs with guys like Whiteside and Gay.

I remember one time against the clippers I think udoh switched onto Chris Paul… and completely shut down any shot CP3 had in the midrange. That was a wow moment for me.

He just didn’t bring enough value as a rim runner on offense, but I loved ekpe.

Whiteside is better though. This was the guy that heat fans were saying was better than gobert because he posted up more on offense and led the league in blocks (inefficiently and chasing blocks though). He is a huge disruptive force at the rim, and bench units can’t exploit the fact he chases blocks as well. He is a perfect backup center in the same mold as Rudy, I’m just very pleasantly surprised he has accepted the role so well

 

[LifeOnaPlate]

There's a lot of Udoh love in here, but my recollection is that he was practically a toothpick, and there is no way he'd have been able to face front-line centers in the NBA, which means he would not have been able to play with our current rotation pattern.

My recollection is he was solid off the bench, but his offensive skillet wasn't the best, although he had a few great games on that side of the ball (against Boston?). Our current bench is such that he wouldn't have to do more than get putbacks or lobs anyway. And his defense was extremely good. Could guard perimeter and at the rim.