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[QUOTE]"It's just a mental thing," Favors said. "Everybody is trying to learn the defensive system and try to do the right thing, but I think it's just a mental thing."[/QUOTE]
seems like more of a talent thing. Outside Gobert and Exum everyone should be available.
[QUOTE]One of the game
[QUOTE]Utah
[QUOTE]Alec Burks is hurt. So the 22-year-old rookie Rodney Hood got his first NBA start in place of the 24-year-old Burks.[/QUOTE]
He got his first start because of tanking. Hood should be in Idaho with a couple of other guys until he proves he's ready for the show.
[QUOTE]As a result, the Jazz
[QUOTE]While both played 33 minutes, Kanter outscored Valanciunas 19-9. Kanter also outrebounded his longtime foe 9-6 and 4-0 on the offensive glass. Both big men recorded a block.
A tale of the tape heading into the matchup
Kanter: 13.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 0.3 blocks
Valanciunas: 11. 9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.2 blocks
First quarter
Kanter: 11 points (5-9 shooting), 4 rebounds, 1 steal
Valanciunas: 1 point (0-3 shooting), 2 rebounds, 1 block
Starting at power forward on the night, Kanter led all Jazz scorers in the opening quarter with 11 points, while Valanciunas, matched up against Derrick Favors to start the game, struggled. Though he wasn’t always matched up with his familiar counterpart, Kanter flourished with his offensive opportunities.[/QUOTE]
Which is why you shouldn't really be comparing them. Maybe Tristan Thompson and Kanter?
[QUOTE]In one particular offensive battle with Valanciunas, the Jazz forward rotated around the opposing center for an easy layup. After making a fastbreak layup, Kanter made a solid defensive play on Valanciunas, forcing the Raptors' center into an awkward and errant shot that went out of bounds for a turnover. It was the last time Valanciunas played in the quarter.
Kanter was paired with both Tyler Hansbrough and Patrick Patterson the rest of the quarter. The Jazz big man made the most of his chances in that span, making a perfect pirouette around Patterson for a layup during one opportunity and making another basket after that.
Second quarter
Kanter: 4 points (2-4 shooting), 2 offensive boards, 1 block, 1 assist
Valanciunas: 6 points (3-4 shooting), 2 rebounds, 1 assist
Both saw significantly less time than the opening quarter. Kanter did a better job on the offensive glass in the second quarter, and even stuffed Valanciunas while on the defensive end. However, Valanciunas awoke offensively as the quarter wore on.
He hit a 10-foot jumper from the baseline in Kanter’s face, in which Kanter failed to put a hand in Valanciunas’s face. Kanter, though, responded with a quick layup on the other end.
Valanciunas skied over Kanter for a defensive board late in the quarter, then capitalized with an easy dunk shortly after on another possession. Both had embarrassing moments defensively in the waning moments of the first half. Kanter failed to rotate while guarding Patterson, which allowed Patterson to drill a 3-pointer right over him. Valanciunas was forced to foul Jazz forward Gordon Hayward to prevent Hayward from posterizing him with a monster dunk attempt just before halftime.
Third quarter
Kanter: 0 points, 1 offensive board
Valanciunas: 0 points, 2 rebounds
Both players were quiet again in the third quarter, though they were matched against each other a few times. Valanciunas picked up two defensive boards, but allowed an easy Trevor Booker tip-in. Kanter’s best play was an offensive board.
Fourth quarter
Kanter: 4 points (2-3 shooting), 1 defensive rebound, 1 offensive rebound.
Valanciunas: 2 points (1-2 shooting), 0 rebounds
Valanciunas was held to just one basket in the fourth quarter, while the offense continued to look for points from the perimeter. His lone bucket came on a nice wraparound layup on Jazz center Rudy Gobert, while his other attempt was blocked emphatically by Gobert on Toronto’s following possession.
Kanter picked up an offensive foul while trying to dish the ball to Gobert. He had a nice slam midway through the quarter and his night ended after a hoop-and-the-harm layup with 4:30 left in the game.
Final analysis
The scorecard goes to Kanter in this battle; however, since it’s basketball and not boxing, Valanciunas wins the important part. Neither played particularly great defense in the game. Kanter was efficient with his team-high 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting. His four offensive rebounds also led the team. That being said, he struggled to pick up perimeter shooters when needed and to help out when opposing guards slashed to the basket.[/QUOTE]
I see him improving defensively with each game and only one TO last night as well. Should have went to him more in the 2nd half.
V[QUOTE]alanciunas fell below in his season averages, but his team shot 57 percent from beyond the arc, so he shouldn’t feel too bad.
As for Kanter and his position, Jazz coach Quin Snyder applauded parts of the game he excelled in. In the end the effort stopping the Toronto guards, however, did too much damage to salvage a win.
“We took care of the ball and by in large, we took care of the glass,” Synder said. “When we’ve done that in previous games, we’ve had good results. Tonight it was just … sometimes they’re just shooting and you tip your hat.”[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]
[QUOTE]
[QUOTE]The Utah Jazz began practice at 11 a.m. Thursday. Nearly four hours later
[QUOTE]Lindsey
[QUOTE]"There
[QUOTE]The biggest concern has been the defense, which has simply disappeared over the last few weeks. On Wednesday, the Raptors scored 123 points, received a career-high 39 points from Kyle Lowry and sprayed in 3-point bombs as if it were a shootaround.[/QUOTE]
It's been a concern since the Sloan era. After all the blame on Ty and all the hype about Snyder turning things around you really got to wonder about the players they have. Rudy gives me hope for someone to build a respectable D around but will he ever be the man with the beloved Favors around?
[QUOTE]That wasn
[QUOTE]Jody Genessy: More Jazz news: Source tells me it's "very possible" Utah will re-acquire Andrei Kirilenko in exchange for Jeremy Evans and Toure' Murry. Twitter @DJJazzyJody[/QUOTE]
Wonder what the story with Murry is? It works without him. NJ wants him? Utah doesn't?
[QUOTE]Jody Genessy: Jazz SG Alec Burks has seen doctors in New York and Cleveland for his left shoulder injury. Surgery is a real possibility, per sources. Twitter @DJJazzyJody
Jody Genessy: Alec Burks has had problems with his left shoulder off and on since preseason. The injury was re-aggravated on that hard foul by Afflalo. Twitter @DJJazzyJody[/QUOTE]
Going to really need AK. Might be why Burks has struggled?
[QUOTE] each team only had 85 possessions, so in fact it’s a much different story: the Jazz put up a 109 ORtg, while Orlando put up a 115 ORtg. Once you adjust for the pace of play, Utah’s offense performed at a top-5 team level, whereas it’s defense performed at a league-worst level.[/QUOTE]
What's new?
[QUOTE]That’s especially true once you consider that there were only 6 fast break points combined for the two teams tonight, so the Magic were very successful at just breaking the Jazz down in half-court sets time and time again.
This is where it gets worrisome for the Jazz. Essentially, the ingredients for a good game defensively were there: they got back in transition defense, like Quin stressed so heavily during preseason and training camp. Orlando was the NBA’s 27th best offensive team coming into tonight’s game. Derrick Favors blocked 5 shots. The Jazz didn’t give the ball up on offense often, with just 12 turnovers, thus preventing easier looks. The Magic were without probably their best player in Nikola Vucevic. And yet, they still struggled hugely.
The stats aren’t pretty for one Enes Kanter, who ended up with a game-low -16 plus/minus. In the 27 minutes Kanter was on the floor, the Jazz had a 145 DRtg, also a game low. On the other hand, when Kanter wasn’t on the floor, the Jazz allowed the Magic just a 74 DRtg. We mentioned on the show yesterday how we felt that maybe too much of the blame was flowing to Enes Kanter for the Jazz’s defensive problems, but the stats from tonight’s game make it difficult to conclude anything but that.[/QUOTE]
It's one game. I've certainly seen improvement from him as the season goes on. Put him in there with Rudy instead of Favors and see what his numbers are.
[QUOTE]Quin Snyder again tied the problems in tonight’s game to a need to compete. As Quin said, “You can talk about positions and habits, but at some point you’ve got to compete, and that’s what we need to find.”
2. But, a 3 hour 45 minute practice didn’t help much.
Given the need for defensive improvement, it would make sense to have a defensive focus in practice. Yesterday, Toronto coach Dwane Casey talked about how, when he first joined the Raptors, that they spent “probably 80%” of practice on defense; after all, they were worst in the league, so they had to work on that first. In the year Casey took over, the Raptors went from 30th to 14th defensively, so he may know something about the subject.[/QUOTE]
Jazz spent at least the first few days of camp on D. :eek:
[QUOTE]I asked Jazz F Steve Novak what the distribution was in the Jazz’s practices:
“There’s, I would say, a very healthy balance. The majority of things we start out with in practice are majority defense and then we transition into offensive stuff, but Coach, he puts a lot of emphasis on both – he has an offensive mind and a defensive mind. I’d say it’s pretty much split down the middle; we feel like a lot of our offense is based on our defense, the best creation of our offense is getting stops, not having to take the ball out of bounds. So I’d say it’s 50-50. Yesterday was definitely more of an offensive day – I’d say we did offense for 3 of the 4 hours.”[/QUOTE]
Making stops is the problem.
[QUOTE]I actually think the offense has been good recently, so it’s somewhat discouraging to me that the Jazz have spent so much time on the offense compared to the defensive side of the ball. Now, much more of defense comes down to effort and reaction: it’s much easier to build out a defensive system compared to an offensive one. I don’t completely believe Casey’s proclamation that they spent fully 80% of their practices on D. It’s also easier to look at offense in heavy-tape sessions; yesterday’s was a lot of film watching. But despite all of those caveats, the Jazz’s focus needs to be defense, just so they can prove they are capable of putting up a decent defensive performance.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. There biggest problem on offense is probably not being able to shoot. Defensively there's not much good happening outside the 3rd quarter where they are one o the best apparently! :confusedshrug:
[QUOTE]3. Derrick Favors has taken a big leap.
Derrick Favors put up a big stat line tonight, scoring 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 blocks for the Jazz tonight on 10-17 shooting. It was a nice performance from Derrick, who nevertheless looked absolutely devastated in the locker room after the game. Derrick’s been taking the losses personally, and he really, really cares about the performance of the team overall.[/QUOTE]
Yeah I've noticed with his pouting and walking up court. What is the defensive rating with their stopper in the game?
[QUOTE]Favors has been putting up a tremendous season, putting up a 23 PER for the season, good for 13th in the league. While he’s not going to make the Western Conference All-Star team, just because the Western Conference also features all of Dirk, Duncan, KD, Griffin, Gasol, Cousins, and Anthony Davis, he’s put up a big season thus far.[/QUOTE]
More to do with the Jazz sucking despite having two supposedly all star caliber players.
[QUOTE]Tonight, he also held his counterpart big men to low numbers: Channing Frye and Kyle O’Quinn combined for 24 points, an improvement over previous big men. I think some of this success might be because they lack the length of the big men that Favors has faced recently at the center position.[/QUOTE]
They also aren't expected to put up big numbers are they?
[QUOTE]The clearest example to me is when Indiana center Roy Hibbert went off for his career high against Favors; maybe Derrick’s set up to succeed when the big men he’s playing against are closer to his size?[/QUOTE]
So how is he a great defensive force than?
[QUOTE]It’s a real question whether or not Derrick Favors is best as a PF or a C, and after 20 games, the jury is still out. It’s something to look at moving forward as Favors keeps playing this year.
Andy Larsen[/QUOTE]
That's certainly one of the things they need to figure out because Rudy is the future at the 5. They need to figure out if they are moving forward with Enes or Favors(or Millsap! :banana: ) by the time free agency starts.
[QUOTE]Alec Burks Won't Need Shoulder Surgery
Dec 05, 2014 9:26 PM EST
Alec Burks will not need surgery on his injured left shoulder after meeting with specialists.
Burks has been dealing with an inflamed left shoulder since the preseason, but the consensus of four specialists is that an aggressive rehabilitation program can restore the strength in his shoulder for him to return to the lineup in December.
The Utah Jazz have termed Burks as "out indefinitely."
Burks has met recently with specialists in Cleveland and New York.
Via Adrian Wojnarowski/Yahoo! Sports[/QUOTE]
Conflicting reports. One says he could be out for the year which would suck.