2014-2015 regular season!

[QUOTE]Toronto's James Johnson sprained his right ankle after he stepped on the foot of a cameraman along the baseline while chasing a loose ball in the fourth. Johnson stayed in the game briefly but had to leave and was unable to return.[/QUOTE]

He was giving them a lot of trouble at the time too.

[QUOTE]DeRozan shot 5 of 8 in the first, one more made basket than he'd made in either of his previous two full games. DeRozan's 10 points were matched by 10 from Favors, and Burks hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer as the Jazz led 25-23 after one.

Kanter scored eight points in the second and Lowry missed a driving layup in the final seconds as Utah led 49-46 at halftime.

DeRozan had 11 points in the third as the Raptors took a 76-72 edge into the fourth.

___

TIP-INS

Jazz: Rodney Hood (right foot) was unavailable. ... Utah had an assist on 16 of its 18 made baskets in the first half. The Jazz finished with 22 assists. ... All five starters scored in double digits.

Raptors: DeRozan shot 7 for 32 in Toronto's previous two games, going 4 for 15 against Orlando and 3 for 17 against Chicago. He went 10 for 17 against the Jazz. ... Valanciunas posted his second double-double of the season. ... F Landry Fields was available after missing the previous two games with flu-like symptoms, while Vasquez played despite a sore right knee.

UP NEXT

Jazz: Visit Oklahoma City on Tuesday.

Raptors: Host Memphis on Wednesday.[/QUOTE]

They've got guys at the end of their bench that would play for the Jazz. They cut Hamilton before the Jazz picked him up.

[QUOTE]Nets Daily: Once again, Andrei Kirilenko was DNP-CD last night. So far this season, he's played a total of 27 minutes, 10 in last five games. Twitter @NetsDaily [/QUOTE]

Let's bring him home. Evans for AK probably works. Good fit. Plays D and loves to pass.

[url]http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=njxlq8p[/url]

Probably get a 2nd round pick and/or cash out of it just for saving the Nets luxury tax money. They've also got 4 guys at the end of their bench not playing that the Jazz might have interest in with their extra roster spot which could soon be two extra spots. Jazz still would be just under the cap after the trade. Jeremy might get a chance with the Nets.

[QUOTE]As an NBA fan, I want to commend the Utah Jazz for actually trying. ESPN released an article Friday morning about how the current Philadelphia 76ers team may be the worst team in history, and all evidence points to them just tanking their season on purpose. If they perform poorly enough, they get a higher chance of a better draft pick next year.

I know the Jazz are not the most stacked team, and probably one of the worst in the league. But the new head coach, Quin Synder, seems serious about having his players do their best each night. Utah is a small market for potential NBA athletes, so just to go out each night with a goal for working hard makes me proud to be a Jazz fan, even if it doesn

[QUOTE]If you need a small sign of hope that the Utah Jazz are improved from a year ago [/QUOTE]

I thought that was an unquestionable fact? Corbin is gone. Jefferson is gone. Marvin is gone. Got our future superstar with last year's tank.

[QUOTE]

[QUOTE]the Utah Jazz and Gordon Hayward failed to agree to terms on a contract extension. As a result he played last year without the financial security that some of the other players from his 2010 Draft Class had, including teammate Derrick Favors. He would finish the season with eye popping statistics on a bad team, and entered restricted free agency. It wasn't long before the suitors started calling for the USA Basketball camp invitee. The Charlotte Hornets threw a match contract offer at him, which the Utah Jazz had no option but to match it.[/QUOTE]

Why did they have no option? I know 3 weeks proves he's a max player for the next 4 years but I'm still not convinced. He's always been streaky. The Jazz still suck.

[QUOTE]They knew how good Gordon could be. [/QUOTE]

Did they? They gambled.

[QUOTE]So they had to pay the market value for their potential star.[/QUOTE]

They didn't really though. They might have a better roster right now if they had spent that money elsewhere? They are thin. And next year doesn't appear to be any different. Wait for 2017 when the cap rises!

[QUOTE]The TV airwaves, news talk radio, and internet went ablaze, and many questioned if Gordon Hayward is a max contract player. Today the jury may still be out, but so far this season it's hard to argue that Gordon recognizes the faith and trust the franchise has in him; and is doing his best to be worth that kind of investment.[/QUOTE]

He wasn't doing his best a year ago?

[QUOTE]So far this season we saw him go head-to-head against LeBron James and drain the game winner in the 5th game of the season. This week he went out East to play a five games in seven nights road trip. So how did he do, overall against the likes of the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, and Toronto Raptors?

Well, there should be few doubts if any about Gordon's ability. He has been nothing short of a star player during this last week. even if the team went 2-3.[/QUOTE]
If you give him a pass for a couple games and don't mind the sub-.500 record when choosing your stars which the coaches picking the all-stars generally do.

[QUOTE]Basic Stats:

Gordon played in all five games, and played an average of 35.09 mpg. What did he do in that time? Well....

PPG: 20.60
RPG: 4.60
APG: 4.20
SPG: 2.00
BPG: 0.40
If you add that up, that's 31.80 BARPS (Blocks/Assists/Rebounds/Points/Steals) per game, which may mean nothing to you unless you play fantasy basketball. His efficiency is such that he was registering one of those simple five category stats at the rage of 0.906 per one minute. That's very close to a 1:1: ratio of getting good numbers when he's out there on the floor.[/QUOTE]

Fantasy star!

[QUOTE]While there's no science to it, if you are a 20/5/5/1+ player that means you can call yourself playing at an All-Star level. While this was only for five games we must recognize that on this highly visible period (early games, East coast bias, whatever you want to call it), he was very good.[/QUOTE]

But is that max level?

[QUOTE]Shooting and Scoring:

Gordon Hayward averaged over 20 points a game. Again, sample size, but if that continues to be the case for the season G-Time will be the first 20+ point scorer for the Jazz since Deron Williams ' 21.3 ppg (2010-2011, traded at the deadline and played only 53 games).

He shot 48.61 fg%, 36.84 3pt%, and 81.25 ft%.[/QUOTE]

I have my doubts as to rather he can keep that up. Still don't think go to guy/scorer is where he's at his best over the long haul.

[QUOTE]Gordon got to the line 6.40 times a game, and if not for the 0/3 performance in Atlanta, he would have gone 29/32 during this trip.[/QUOTE]

Cool we can eliminate games when making guys stars! :cheers:

[QUOTE]Good players make their free throws. Great players don't leave points at the line in a close game. [/QUOTE]

Actually they do. He's always hit free throws though hasn't he? Can he consistently shoot well for the field and behind the arc though?

[QUOTE]And by that measure alone you can say that Hayward played like a player in-between those two qualitative measures. Looking at the normative picture going 50/40/80 is pretty awesome.[/QUOTE]

Or 45/35/80 anyway. :confusedshrug:

[QUOTE]So he shot well, and he didn't jack up a ton of shots. He only averaged 14.40 shots a game (with 3.80 from outside). [/QUOTE]

He's still had a tendency to throw up bad shots to try to get himself going. He has to have more confidence in those around him. There are some other guys capable of putting the ball in the hole when he's not feeling it.

[QUOTE]He took a shot once every 2.44 minutes on the floor. He was assertive, which he like, but not shooting the ball every single time he touched it. (Point of direct comparison, in that same year D-Will averaged 21 ppg, Al Jefferson shot the ball once every 1.70 minutes on the floor. Or once every 102.29 seconds on the floor.)

Because he got to the line so much and made those shots he had a PPS (points per shot) value of 1.43, which is above that of Karl Malone's career average of 1.41. He delivered better than the Mailman on this Eastern Conference trip.[/QUOTE]

And we expect him to keep that up?

[QUOTE]And because of his great shooting across the board he ended up with a TS% of 59.83%, and an eFG% of 53.47%.

Any way you slice it, Gordon shot the heck out of the ball, and it was awesome to see. But even better than that was the fact that he recognize it was going to be 'all on him' (something that Tracy McGrady had trouble dealing with). Gordon put the team on his (larger) shoulders, and carried the team during some of the most important stretches of the last five games. His killer instinct in Madison Square Garden was one of the best of any Jazz player. And it shows, he has a win in that building now, while the 41 year old New Orleans / Utah Jazz franchise has only 13 total.

Rebounds and Distribution:

Gordon didn't have the best game of his career in Toronto, but he was putting in work on the glass. It's even more impressive when you recognize that for some of the games he was the primary defender of the other team's best scorer. So he was playing defense, and then ALSO getting the defensive board to solidify that the other team was stopped.[/QUOTE]

They didn't do much stopping did they?

[QUOTE]Sure, 5 rpg isn't the same thing as 10, but for a wing player it definitely will do. Getting stops has been the problem for the Jazz defense this year, and when your small forward is out there getting 8 defensive boards (Indy), or 7 defensive boards (Atl) that means he is committed to helping your team get stops.[/QUOTE]

They got killed on the offensive glass regardless and it cost them big time.

[QUOTE]Sure, it takes away some rebounds from the bigmen -- but the other way to look at is it that he is trying to help them so the task of rebounding doesn't fall to just the players on the team who are just the PFs, and Cs.

Hayward didn't just rebound the ball, then dribble up the court and shoot it himself. Because he was torching teams it helped him draw the defense towards him. This is why having star players is so critical to success, because it changes the defensive pressure around the floor, and allows for good players to kill teams with their passing. Which is what Gordon did. Save for the Atlanta game where no one was making shots down the stretch, The Precious had at least four assists in each game and averaged 5 for the four games not in Georgia. There was a little bit of fumble-itis for all of the players on the Jazz during the trip but Gordon still managed a 2.10 to 1.00 assist to turn over ratio.

This shows that he wasn't just a guy jacking up shots to score a lot, but he played a fundamental role on defense and on offense beyond that of just shooting really well.[/QUOTE]

That is where his value lies. If he can shoot well enough to keep the defenses honest he can make plays for his team mates.

[QUOTE]Defense and hustle:

The one thing these numbers don't show is his actual man defense, where he made life tough for so many talented players: Josh Smith, Carmelo Anthony, DeMar DeRozan . . . uh . . . C.J. Miles? Okay. So it wasn't like playing LeBron James again, but you can tell that Hayward is just one of those guys other players don't want to be defended by.

More than that, other teams just don't want to play against him period. He averaged 2.0 steals a game on this trip. He's smart enough to know what's happening on the court while being there to lock up his man, and know where the opponents are trying to move the ball. These were not Ronnie Brewer style steals where his 6'11 wingspan and track athlete physicality allowed him to cheat in the passing lanes. This was a guy getting steals with his mind, knowing when the gamble on defense, and knowing when to time his strike.

It was awesome to see. And for those who like stats that you haven't heard of, he had a Defensive Gambling value of 1.35 (which is a ratio of steals, steal attempts, blocks, block attempts, and fouls called -- which you have to track by hand to really figure out). [/QUOTE]

Have fun with that man! :D

[QUOTE]Gordon was more than just a one-way player (like Carmelo Anthony or Monta Ellis, or other big scorers who don't bring much else to the table).[/QUOTE]
Wouldn't want to pay them max either myself.

[QUOTE]Gestalt Offense:

GO Rating is another thing I invented to better quantify how good a player is on all aspects on offense. Sure, he wasn't just a scorer. Yes, he got boards. Yes, he passed the ball. He hustled on defense. But the easiest way to be a star in this league is to be a big deal on offense. Someone the other team absolutely has to scout and really has to gameplan for.

And for this trip Gordon Hayward's GO Rating was 109.89. For a frame of reference, what players are in the neighborhood?

150+ : Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal
140-149: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, George Gervin, Chris Paul
130-139: Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Allen Iverson , Adrian Dantley, Julius Erving, Bernard King
120-129: Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley
110-119: Carmelo Anthony, Alex English, Vince Carter, John Stockton, Dirk Nowitzki, Clyde Drexler
109.89 <-- GORDON HAYWARD ON THIS TRIP
100-108: Paul Pierce, Isiah Thomas, David Robinson, World B. Free, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan
90-99: Deron Williams, Moses Malone, Ray Allen, Mitch Richmond, Steve Nash, Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett
Yeah, obviously not the most dominant ever, but between a group of legit star players who have taken their teams to (at least) the Final Four of the NBA as the best player on the team. (Yes, even Vince Carter did pretty okay as a 1st option.)[/QUOTE]

Just ahead of the gunner World B. Call me convinced! :rolleyes:

[QUOTE]The Big Picture:

Gordon got paid. And he is earning his pay right now. A 5 game sample size of 20/5/5/2 is great. But the larger body of work is what we're going to watch -- and enjoy -- all season long. And he's averaging 19.2, 5.5, 4.8, 1.3 for the 2014-2015 season right now. How many other NBA players are currently averaging 19,5,4,1? Four players. LeBron James, James Harden, Stephen Curry, and Gordon Hayward.

Gordon Hayward is playing like a star. And by the time February rolls around, if he keeps it up, he should be an All-Star.[/QUOTE]

But who gets left off from the teams that are winning? :coleman:

[QUOTE]Snyder is also trying to keep a big picture perspective for the rebuilding Jazz. [/QUOTE]

He doesn't have much choice does he with the roster he's been dealt?

[QUOTE]So while the Jazz lost more than they won on their first long road trip of the season, the coach sees positives.

"I think the average age of our team is like 24. Teams I coached at Missouri were [just] a little younger. I don

[QUOTE]Mark Snider, the play by play man of the Idaho Stampede, interviewed Justin Zanik at halftime of the Idaho / Erie game last night. Zanik is the assistant general manager of the Utah Jazz (and the brother of Jeff Zanik, a big-wig at ASM sports, which represents Alec Burks and Trevor Booker), and as a result, this was a gem.[/QUOTE]

That's an interesting tidbit. Wonder how much of a role that played on their new contracts?

[QUOTE] MS: Welcome back to Boise!

JZ: Thanks Mark, I appreciate it. It's always good to be here.

MS: The relationship between the Utah Jazz and the Idaho Stampede, in a lot of peoples' minds, was a no brainer given the history of the Jazz and their ownership group here in the Treasure Valley. The proximity didn't quite work out a few years ago, but when the opportunity arose to form that relationship earlier this year it seemed like Utah was enthusiastic about jumping in.

JZ: Absolutely. The history of The Miller Family and the different interests that we have up here in Boise along with a good mix of Jazz fans in Boise following our team in Utah - so it was a natural fit. And the Stampede business operations have been great to us. We've really started off to have a good relationship. So we're really happy about the relationship. And we'll see how we proceed here on the court.[/QUOTE]

Interested to see myself. The main reason to have it is to have guys actually playing games there. Hood coming off his injury and struggling before it needs to go there. Exum could use some time there too. Clark as well. Burke if they had any other options in SLC. Boise is close enough that they could play some games there between Jazz games and play for both.

[QUOTE] MS: The Jazz used the D-League a little bit, but you now have a new head coach in Quin Synder who was a head coach in this league in Austin. You have a coach here in Boise who worked for a Houston team that was very active with the NBA Development league; you can see the weaving come together of a real close working relationship. How do you in Utah, down in Salt Lake, envision this relationship working out?

JZ: Well, we see it as a great resource for - and - another piece for our development for our young players. We consider members of the Stampede and the young members of the Jazz that may be assigned here that we are all on the same page as far as the development of our players. And then seeing where that grows. We have a young team in Utah, we have a young team here in Idaho. Those experiences and really both coaches staffs being connected in terms of how we teach, what kind of structure, what kind of culture that we're trying to build that it's replicated in both places.

MS: Dean Cooper in his first year as the Head Coach of the Stampede; what was it about Dean that Utah liked and pursued. I know he has a history with your General Manager in Salt Lake, so there's some history there with the Houston days. What is it about what Coach Cooper brings that makes him right for the Jazz organization here in Boise?

JZ: Well, there's a few things. Good question, Mark.

Aw yisssss

JZ (continued): Dean's an outstanding teacher. He's very meticulous and organized in terms of practice plans and development plans for our players - both in Utah and here in Idaho. He's an extension of Quin's staff. They've been in constant communication. Dean was with us for a good two months, and all summer, in Utah with our new Summer League program, and with Quin installing his new philosophies as well. And Dean as been there with him every step of the way so that what Quin's staff wants, and what we want here in Idaho is reflected with Dean. He's been outstanding so far.

MS: We've seen Toure' Murry assigned here for the first two games of the season. When you bring a player to Boise from the Utah roster what are you looking for?[/QUOTE]

He wasn't there the first game but why would you know that as play by play man? :wtf:

[QUOTE]JZ: So it's an individualized plan. Every player's different, of course. With Toure' he did not have much of an opportunity to play in Utah, and this is a way with us running a very similar system in Utah and Boise that he gets a chance to get reps. And some good practice time. We've been on the road, we're finishing tonight a five game road trip on the East Coast, so there hasn't been much practice time of many reps for guys that are not in the rotation so it's a great opportunity for Toure' to come down here and play. And the assignment, I think, will be good for everyone. So Toure' gets to play and we get to see him develop.[/QUOTE]

Most importantly you see if he's worth keeping around past the deadline for guaranteed contracts. Didn't show that in game 1.


MS: He seems like he's shook a little of the rust off. He's playing better tonight, uh, today than he might have played a little bit last night. A little tentative. We're seeing more of what, I think, Utah saw when you had him on your roster.

[QUOTE]JZ: Well I think there's probably some rust or jitters for everyone, it's the second game for Idaho as well. Certainly just trying to get into the flow of playing big minutes going from not playing and having some little practice time to 25 / 35 minutes here. It'll be a bit of an adjustment and learning to play with other players he hasn't played with yet. Every game the familiarity will obviously get better.

MS: Are there other players, without getting too far into the thinking of the Jazz, but are there other potential assignments throughout the season?

JZ: You can never predict what's going to happen as we go through the season. And the coaching staff / management identify that Idaho would be a useful tool for one of our players in terms of development. Well certainly we wouldn't hesitate since we have a close relationship here in running basketball operations. Again, it's very nice to have another tool in the tool box, so to speak; to have a D-League organization to be able to rely on and really mold basketball-wise some of the things you want to accomplish with young guys.[/QUOTE]

No reason for them to have so many young guys and an extra roster space and not use it. The Spurs have guys going back and forth all year.

[QUOTE]MS: Final question for you Justin is when you were working with Dean Cooper and his staff and the front office of the Jazz during the NBA Developmental league draft what were you looking for when you were putting together this roster for Idaho? What were the parts you were looking to get?

JZ: So Dean and his staff here have done an outstanding job of research and film and they spent countless hours on the draft. And what we wanted to do was put a group together that I) we could find guys that we feel have NBA potential, can fit particular systems or needs in Utah in the future, but also at the main core that we have good, young, hard working guys that we can implement a system and then have them play together and see what we have.

MS: Alright, well, so far the EXPERIMENT [Ed. emphasis not added] and the relationship is off to a good start. The win last night wasn't there [Ed. Perd Hapley much?]. But see how things go, and I know we'll be seeing a lot more of you in Boise.

JZ: You will, thanks Mark.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]By the way, keep an eye on Jam forward Elijah Millsap. Through the first two games of the D-League season, the 6-6 forward is putting up 21.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals per contest. Because Millsap is not under contract with the Suns, he could be called up by any NBA team. The Jam do, however, run a Phoenix-specific offense because they are the Suns' single-team affiliate. It's never a bad thing to know another young talent can put up major numbers in Phoenix's system. NBA.com [/QUOTE]

I wouldn't mind giving him a look. Might help bring Paul back next year too!

[QUOTE]Last year, the former Butler All-American ranked a dismal 117th out of 124 players in field goal percentage at 41.3 percent in the NBA and was clear back in 145th place among 151 qualified 3-point shooters at 30.4 percent. Those were by far the worst percentages of his NBA career.[/QUOTE]

Max player? :wtf:

[QUOTE]There were a lot of theories about Hayward

[QUOTE]The Thunder are just 3-8 on the season, behind the Jazz (4-7) in the Northwest Division standings, and ranking last in the NBA in points per game at 89.5. They are coming off an ugly 69-65 home loss to Houston Sunday night where two teams scored under 70 points in a game for the first time since 2005 and two teams shot below 30 percent for the first time in an NBA game since 2003.[/QUOTE]

Can the Jazz hold them under 95?

[QUOTE]There

[QUOTE]the Jazz pulled off a 2-3 record on their first big road trip of the year. As I wrote last week, two wins out of five equates to a decent performance. Not great. Not even good, really. But decent. Definitely not bad.[/QUOTE]

Should have been 4. Those teams sucked!

[QUOTE]And yet, there's still a bit of a woulda coulda shoulda taste in my mouth. Despite the decent performance, it feels like the team underachieved just a bit because all three losses were winnable. All three losses included a Jazz lead in the 4th quarter.

Clark has mentioned that if the Jazz are to become this year's Phoenix (which is what we'd all hope to see), then they need to do better. They need to win these winnable games. And to do that, they need some different things happening in games. They need:

Someone besides Hayward and Favors to break out. Seriously, two major breakthroughs should mean more than 5 more wins (pace Jazz are on now). So we need to look at Alec Burks, Trey Burke, and Enes Kanter and ask each of them: "When are you going to take a big step forward?"[/QUOTE]

Kanter might when they leave him on the floor! Trey might on the bench. Alec will eventually.

[QUOTE]There has to be some defensive improvement. Maybe they just don't have the right guys for a decent defensive team right now ... but I still feel okay hoping/expecting some games that they can get stops when needed.[/QUOTE]

They suck defensively despite Favors supposed elite skills at that end.

[QUOTE]And so, looking at the upcoming week, I think it's fair to make a couple projections: first what kind of performance is indicative of the team we're seeing thus far (a team taking a smaller first step to respectability), and then what kind of performance is indicative of the team we hope to see (a team taking two or three major steps toward being a good team).

This week, the Jazz play at home against the Thunder, at Golden State, and then home vs. the Pelicans.

A team that's taking big steps will win two of those. That's really the benchmark for this week: Jazz should win two. I don't know if three is a fair expectation, not when the Warriors are playing as well as they are. But the Jazz should be able to win against this Thunder and Pelicans teams. So that's what I'm holding them to.[/QUOTE]

Pelicans should beat them. They have an elite player.

[QUOTE]Stats of the Week

I'm calling Favors the Man of the Week. I know Hayward was epic at times, but Favors was more consistent. So Favors gets the Yucca Nod[/QUOTE]

G all the way. The Favors love is hard to understand still.

[QUOTE]Starters

Starters Week 3

Bench

Bench Week 3

Utah's Two All Stars

Right now, the Jazz have two players who are putting up All-Star quality production. We know who they are: Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward.

Right now there are only two guys putting up Favors' combination of scoring, rebounding, shot-blocking, and scoring efficiency: Derrick and Dwight Howard.[/QUOTE]
:facepalm Dwight is an elite defender and rebounder and can't be stopped close to the basket. Find a new comparison please. 2 all-stars=contender not high lottery pick.

[QUOTE]As for Gordo: There is not another wing in the NBA right now scoring, rebounding, and assisting the way he is

[QUOTE]The defense has predictably continued to struggle with all the youth littering the roster, currently mere decimals ahead of the putrid Lakers for the worst unit in the league2.[/QUOTE]

All Ty's fault! :rolleyes:

[QUOTE]Trey Burke, quickly becoming a divisive topic in Jazzland, has alternated uneven performances with game-winners recently as he tries to claw his way back from an awful start to the year.[/QUOTE]

Is it awful or is this who he is. A move to the bench might be what he needs. Start Burks at the 1 which might get him going too. Start Ingles? Give Clark a shot at the rotation at least? I don't know. They just don't have enough talent. This roster just screams Neto anyway you look at it. Another vet or two would be nice as well. I'd guess there could be a couple moves once other teams start making moves like when they got Ingles.

[QUOTE]Perhaps most alarming, though, has been the play of recently-extended Alec Burks. For all the good Snyder’s system has done for the team as a whole, Burks seems to be having the largest struggles of anyone on the roster adapting to the motion-oriented scheme. His basic per-minute counting stats are down across the board, and his field-goal percentage (41.5) would be the lowest of his career thus far.[/QUOTE]

Maybe he's just not an NBA starter? Better hope he is with his new contract.

[QUOTE]Some of this can be explained away by his insertion into the starting lineup and subsequent play versus tougher average competition, but a deeper dive reveals some negative trends that go beyond this sort of context. Burks’ calling card is his ability to get to the rim and create issues for defenses, as detailed here by Ian Levy3 – simply put, he’s just not doing it as well as last season, or even close.

Per SportVU, Burks scored 7.9 points per-48-minutes on drives last year, a top-15 figure among rotation players and in the neighborhood of such elite drivers as LeBron James, Damian Lillard and Kevin Durant. This year? He’s down to 5.3 points per-48, 59th of rotation guys. He’s not shooting too different a percentage on his drives, but simply hasn’t appeared able or willing to get to the hoop as often. He drove the ball4 9.4 times per-48 last year, a figure that’s down to 6.1 so far, and the Jazz as a team are scoring barely half as many points per game as a direct result of Burks drives despite his per-game minutes increasing significantly.[/QUOTE]

Teams might be forcing him to take shots away from the rim or not fouling him when he does drive? He's not getting to the line as much. I would.

[QUOTE]He’s been far too willing to settle for low-efficiency jumpers instead of pushing the envelope. Where Burks in previous years was often rounding corners and flying into the teeth of the defense to cause rotations and help collapses, he’s more frequently than ever stopping short and jacking impatient shots:

Whatever the reason, be it hesitance within the system or something less fixable like complacency after his payday or even a minor injury5, it’s a real issue even through a small sample of games. The numbers bear out a significant worsening of his shot selection, both compared to his peers and to his own previous seasons. Burks is attempting over 30 percent of his total shots as two-pointers from 16 feet or further, a figure that would be far and away a career high. Not only that, but his conversion rate here has been nearly 46 percent, over 10 percent better than he’s ever shot from this range over a full season for his career – it’s good he’s improved his accuracy so far, but there’s almost no way he can sustain such numbers,[/QUOTE]

Why not? G is a great shooter now despite never being one.

[QUOTE]and his dwindling efficiency overall could suffer even more when he inevitably regresses.

There are other trickle-down effects, too. Burks has also distributed some of his new shot volume to beyond the three-point line, which is a positive sign along with another slight uptick in his accuracy from deep, now up to 37 percent. But it hardly outweighs a sharp drop in his free-throw rate6, from .449 last year to .350 so far, a big surprise given the aggression he showcased all throughout the preseason.[/QUOTE]

That's what you get when you take players away from what they do well. Same issue as making your best low post scorer a stretch 4.

[QUOTE]Furthermore, his increase from the 16+ range has come at the expense of his looks at the rim, where Burks is attempting just 26.8 percent of his looks (compared with 34.2 percent last year), easily his lowest since entering the league. His actual performance near the basket has suffered badly, as well – per NBASavant, he’s shooting an ugly 45.9 percent in the Restricted Area, 121st of 128 guys who have attempted at least 25 shots there so far7.

It remains early, and it’s not out of the question that the vast majority of Burks’ struggles can be traced back to both a new offensive scheme and his insertion into the starting lineup. But to the experienced eye, he just hasn’t seemed the same; he’s far too willing to settle, and seems genuinely uninterested in getting to the hoop for long periods of time, even when clear opportunities to do so and create an advantageous circumstance appear to be there. Couple this puzzling reluctance to attack with continued meandering defense away from the ball, an area I had hoped he was ready to clamp down on this year, and my man Alec hasn’t had the most encouraging start to the year. It’s a long season, though, and Quin and his staff have undoubtedly seen many of the same trends and will work to correct them. Look for a bounce back game or two from the young 2-guard in the near future…or if not, don’t expect the worrying to subside.

Ben Dowsett[/QUOTE]

Maybe he's still not 100%? That could explain him not wanting contact as much.

[QUOTE]Jazz rookie Rodney Hood is out for the game against Oklahoma City as he continues battling plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

Hood averages four points and 3.3 rebounds in 15 minutes, but he has missed the last five games. He was wearing a boot as he watched the end of Monday