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Why Does Earl Watson Get So Many Minutes?

HeavenHarris

HeavenHarris

Banned
He's clearly one of the weakest links in our rotation.
I'm looking over the stats right now, and he has a piss poor 9.5 Player Efficiency Rating, second lowest on the entire team, yet he plays the 7th most minutes and is in an almost even time share with Captain Harris, who's putting up a much more impressive 15.5 PER.

Now, the other guy I would put in this category is of course Raja Bell, but there's already a ton of posts wanting him to be benched in favor of Alec Burks (which I agree with, btw). I think the issue is that Bell is the veteran while Burks is still busy carrying everyone's bags and getting them coffee and stuff.
Derrick Favors looks like he could use more minutes also, but it's somewhat understandable since the Utah front court is so loaded and him being so young.

What I don't get, and what I don't see a lot being posted on this board, is how Earl fricking Watson is getting so much PT.
The guard rotation isn't great, so it's not like Devin Harris is in a Favors-type situation. Watson doesn't really have much potential than what he already is either, so they can't be developing him. Devin Harris is clearly the much better option here. Dunno what TyCo has up his ***.
This guy is dragging the team down. Put emotions aside and think about this rationally guys.
 
I agree with most of this actually. Watson was good early in the season, when we had a home heavy schedule. He is like CJ in that he plays well at home, but terrible on the road. His minutes do need to be cut to either give Harris more minutes, or Tinsley all of his minutes.
 
As much as the OP is definitely a homer for Harris I have to agree with him a little here. Harris's game has gotten a lot better in the last couple of months while Watson has been struggling. While Watson was needed to play big min at the start because Harris was struggling that is no longer the case. There is no reason for the time share to continue if Harris is playing as well as he has been lately.
 
I would have to agree with a lot of the OP as well... Myself, being as that I like Earl the person, it makes it easier to overlook some of the shortcomings that Earl the player has displayed for the past few months.

I've liked what I have seen from Harris lately, and do feel that he should be getting more time now. I've also been happy with what Tinsley brings when he plays, and really wouldn't mind seeing him playing a little more backup and Earl playing a little less.
 
Watson involves more people in the offense and I love how he involves Hayward. He's been playing through a sprained ankle though, he's a tough cat....I don't mind Watson getting minutes. He also controls the tempo of the game very well.

People that should get less minutes are Bell and Jefferson.
People that should get no minutes are CJ Miles and CJ Miles and CJ Miles and CJ Miles and CJ MIles.

Tinsley and Burks should get more minutes. Burks is already well beyond his years as a rookie...it's amazing. But I want Bell to have some of Burks' minutes because this is lockout season and I don't want lockout basketball to injure Burks or Hayward ala Rubio. I'd rather the season injure Bell or Howard.
 
David Harris is the 29th ranked point guard by Hollinger's PER.
He's brawling Raymond Felton for worst starting point guard in the league.
 
Weezur said:
Watson involves more people in the offense and I love how he involves Hayward. He's been playing through a sprained ankle though, he's a tough cat....I don't mind Watson getting minutes. He also controls the tempo of the game very well.

People that should get less minutes are Bell and Jefferson.
People that should get no minutes are CJ Miles and CJ Miles and CJ Miles and CJ Miles and CJ MIles.

Tinsley and Burks should get more minutes. Burks is already well beyond his years as a rookie...it's amazing. But I want Bell to have some of Burks' minutes because this is lockout season and I don't want lockout basketball to injure Burks or Hayward ala Rubio. I'd rather the season injure Bell or Howard.
Click to expand...

If Tinsley gets more minutes, then Watson has to get less (actually 0 because we aren't splitting 48 minutes between 3 PG's).
 
Watson is a lot better than Tinsley. He's been poor statistically lately and nobody is going to like this defense of him but he brings a toughness to the team. Tinsley is a more creative offensive player and will look better in the short term but Earl is a better player overall.

As far as why Harris is getting shorted on minutes I don't know. Maybe it's about having a fresh starter to close. More likely it's all about the tear Watson went off on early on while Harris struggled. Our coach does take his time to react to trends. That all being said, Devin played 32 minutes against the Twolves. Not terrible time.
 
So why is it that in a Utah Jazz system with the point guard as the key to the offence, the best passing point guard is the one getting the least minutes?

Now I have noticed that Tinsley will pass the ball on purpose to get more assists when he doesn't need to, for example in a break away fast break. I have also noticed that even though he is in decent shape all things considered, he is the slowest on his feet of the three, but the Jazz offence doesn't require a quick point guard, that's what the 2 guard and the SF is for. The radio guys made a good point today saying that there isn't much separation between the three point guards. Kind of like if you have two or three quarterbacks, you don't really have any quarterbacks. I just wonder if it is time to give Tinsley a chance at the 1 and see how he does with regular minutes. The Jazz don't have much to lose.
 
franklin said:
David Harris is the 29th ranked point guard by Hollinger's PER.
He's brawling Raymond Felton for worst starting point guard in the league.
Click to expand...

Good thing we don't have anyone named David Harris then...

But ya, Harris is 29th on that list, but that also includes guys like John Lucas, who hardly play.
Cut out the players who don't play at least 25MPG and Devin moves up to 22nd.
BTW, that's still including guys who don't necessarily play point a lot for their teams, like Mo Williams.
Take into account Devin's early struggles (when he was on a giant TyCo leash) are included in these stats and the fact that PG is the deepest position in the League chock full of elite studs, Devin Harris ranks as one of the better PGs in the League.

But yea, that David guy totally sucks.
 
HeavenHarris said:
Good thing we don't have anyone named David Harris then...

But ya, Harris is 29th on that list, but that also includes guys like John Lucas, who hardly play.
Cut out the players who don't play at least 25MPG and Devin moves up to 22nd.
BTW, that's still including guys who don't necessarily play point a lot for their teams, like Mo Williams.
Take into account Devin's early struggles (when he was on a giant TyCo leash) are included in these stats and the fact that PG is the deepest position in the League chock full of elite studs, Devin Harris ranks as one of the better PGs in the League.

But yea, that David guy totally sucks.
Click to expand...

You need to post more.
 
I don't disagree that Harris is better than people around here give him credit for. I've defended him, especially recently as he's playing more of his game. I've stated numerous times that the team could succeed with him starting for the foreseeable future if they weren't running black hole offense through Jefferson.

However, judging Watson based off of his recent play is just as bad as judging Harris for his slump earlier this year (which I regrettably fell victim to as well as many others on the board).

Watson earned his minutes with hustle and hard work. I especially think it's rather unfair to judge any point guard by their numbers when success at that position is so largely dependent on the performance of the other 4 guys on the court. It's like judging a quarterback based on their completion numbers when the fault actually lied in the (no pun intended) hands of the receivers that couldn't hold onto the passes. Not really fair.


Edit: And HeavenHarris... I know you spend a lot of time trying to recruit people to your Harris cult, but running down Watson might not be the best way to go about it.
 
HeavenHarris said:
Good thing we don't have anyone named David Harris then...

But ya, Harris is 29th on that list, but that also includes guys like John Lucas, who hardly play.
Cut out the players who don't play at least 25MPG and Devin moves up to 22nd.
BTW, that's still including guys who don't necessarily play point a lot for their teams, like Mo Williams.
Take into account Devin's early struggles (when he was on a giant TyCo leash) are included in these stats and the fact that PG is the deepest position in the League chock full of elite studs, Devin Harris ranks as one of the better PGs in the League.

But yea, that David guy totally sucks.
Click to expand...

You are really hurting yourself with these kinds of posts.
 
Harris has been playing well lately and I think Tinsley is a better backup PG than Watson--at least of late. Harris is extremely injury prone, so it makes sense to play the backup a little more.
 
Harris has played great lately and probably should get more minutes than he is. However I like that Watson brings toughness to the bench players, who outside of Burks and Kanter all seem to lack a bit of toughness. Tinsley has been pretty good lately but I don't see that he really is any better than Harris or Watson. If one or both of those guys gets traded this offseason I'm comfortable with Tinsley as the backup PG for this team.
 
I like of PG rotation in the 1st half. But Harris needs to be coming back into the game at 7 or 6 minutes mark of the 4th quarter. He is defensively superior to Watson and Tinsley. He also gets us a couple of cheap buckets a game with his speed.
 
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