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Who is this years suprise contributer?

M

mfree

Well-Known Member
It seems as if the Jazz regularly have a player who exceeds expectations to become a major part of the team.

Matthews, Milsap, Shandon Anderson, etc.

I am looking at the roster (so far) and wondering who it will be this year.

It could be Hayward, but I think expectations are pretty high for him, so may not be a surprise, although I do think he will turn out to be more of a 2 than a 3.
CJ is not really a surprise anymore, kind of grew up a bit last year.
Gaines and Jeffers are what they are.

My pick is Evans. I think the Jazz may have struck gold with a guy whose skills will translate well to the NBA game. Love the attitude, and desire to learn. He will respond well to Sloan, and become one of his favorites.

JS talked about how hard guys like Koufos and Araujo worked, but the basketball ability was lacking despite the hard working attitude. Matthews and Milsap worked hard, but also had some skills that they could develop. Milsap is a rebounding fool and had a projectable post-up game. Matthews had a very strong upper body with the quickness to guard guys.

I predict we will see that Evans has the talent and the hard working attitude of Matthews and Milsap. I think he will be one of those guys to exceed expectations and be a big part of the team.

I also think he will turn out to be more of a 3 than a 4, and that the roster is not yet complete.

Who do you guys think it will be?
 
....don't know much about this Evans kid, but if he's a clone of Sap then you might be right! Anybody that works that hard for rebounds and loose balls is a rarity in the NBA these days....especially during the regular season!
 
Me thinks GHayward will be it. But if I have to bet on it I will choose ... er .. Bell. Surprise that he will play a lot of games as if he wasn't injured last season =)
 
Hayward, he is the only player that can come off those screens and hit jumpshots, and the Jazz are known to run those plays ALOT.
 
I don't see any surprises. But that's a good thing.
Evans is too skinny and not a good enough shooter to make much of an impact. Evans will be inactive most games and will definitely be with the Flash (Orem, not his teammate, Gordon).

For the first time, I feel very, very good about our core 8. That's not to say the Jazz can't improve it. I'd still be in favor of trading AK's expiring for a very good SF. And I definietly would like to see the Jazz get a legit backup PG. But DWill, Millsap, Big Al, Memo, AK, Raja, CJ and Hayward: that's pretty darn good. Yea, maybe I'm placing expectations too high on Flash. But what I saw in the OSL convinced me. This kid is going to be very, very good with the JAzz. He only had 1 week of practice, but he was already running the offense, coming off curls and fighting for every rebound and loose ball. He'll be a rotation player - and at worst, a very good sub.

Will it be a surprise if Hayward averages 10/4/3? Or if Millsap averages 16/10? Or if Jefferson gets back to 23/11?

I think the real surprise will be seeing that we're actually a better team than last season, even with Booz, Korver and Matthews gone. Or maybe the surprise will be that Utah is considered one of the better defensive teams next season. Bell, Deron, AK, Millsap and Jefferson...I think that group can be pretty stout.
 
I doubt Evans will be any good this upcoming season. He is skinny as a rail. Maybe with some physical development and NBA/D-League experience, but not yet.

I think Hayward will be the most surprising. Specially considering how much we complained when he got drafted.
 
I actually think it could be Fes. As long as he shows up in shape with his head on straight, I think Jerry will give him regular minutes as the backup 5. He could thrive in that spot.
 
Evans wont do anything this year. Milsap was good in college, so was Matthews. Evans was an ok contributor for his college team, but he is far from the player Matthews or Sap where. He has a chance to be ok in a couple of years if he can bulk up and add some skills.
 
If one of the posters here was correct about Evans having to keep his weight down to high jump then it is possible that he could add 20-30 pounds of good weight in the weight room and be a surprise. Goran Sutton signed today with an Italian team.
 
My vote is for Hayward. I don't believe a lot of people realize how good this kid is at this point and how high of a ceiling he has. He's a keeper.
 
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