[QUOTE]According to Snyder, he encouraged Utah
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[QUOTE]According to Snyder, he encouraged Utah
[QUOTE]Utah
[QUOTE]"I thought we played solid defense," Utah point guard Trey Burke said. "But they got hot. We obviously wanted to get stops, and we tried to control what we could. But that was a good team, and they know how to play with each other."
[/QUOTE]
The defense sucked all game not just that stretch when it was horrible.
[QUOTE]There were bright spots. Rudy Gobert
[QUOTE]Deron Williams led the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals alongside Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur in his first playoff run. It was the Jazz's best postseason run since the days of John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Four years later, Jazz vice president of basketball operations Kevin O’Connor sent the All-Star point guard to the New Jersey Nets in exchange for Devin Harris and unproven rookie Derrick Favors.
Favors had appeared in 56 games for the Nets before they decided to give up on the promising young big man in favor of the already proven point guard from Utah. Harris had reached his peak in New Jersey, and was included in the deal to make salaries match.
In addition to Harris and Favors, the Nets shipped out two future first round draft picks, one used to select Enes Kanter and another the Jazz packaged with an existing first round pick to acquire Trey Burke.
In total, the haul is impressive, as four years since the deal, the Jazz have ended up with three starting-caliber NBA players in place of Williams.[/QUOTE]
All 3 have a lot to prove and considering it looks like they got raped in the Burke deal and we have no idea what the true value of Deron Williams was since they took the 2nd offer from the one team that knew he was available impressive is not the word I'd use. Obviously Deron has fell off a cliff since so it was a good trade. How much better could it have been though is the question?
[QUOTE]However, three starters in the NBA don’t add up to one All-Star level player, especially one that at the time of the trade was a top five player at his position in the league.[/QUOTE]
Exactly. Deron is their best player between Stockton/Malone and Gobert.
[QUOTE]Until recently, the winner of this deal seemed to hinge on the health of Williams, now in Brooklyn with the Nets. The point guard missed 11 games in his initial season with the team, four the following year, and 18 last season. This year, Williams has been forced to sit out five games for the Nets.
The further the Jazz get from the trade, the clearer the picture gets. O’Connor made the right trade.[/QUOTE]
Trading Deron was right. Hard for me to believe it was the best trade though.
[QUOTE]While Kanter and Burks have contributed mixed results, Favors' growth has given the Jazz the most promising young piece in the deal, if not the best player overall.[/QUOTE]
Favors hasn't contributed mixed results? Remains to be seen if Favors will be better than Kanter.
[QUOTE]For the season, Williams is averaging 13.9 points per game, 6.3 assists and 3 rebounds — solid, albeit unspectacular, numbers for the guard in his 10th year.
Favors is contributing 16 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game for the Jazz in only his fifth career season. Most impressively for Favors is the growth he’s continued to show from one season to the next. Favors is currently experiencing career highs in points per game, assists and field goal percentage. Favors’ scoring has grown over six points during his past two seasons as a full-time starter, with more room to grow.[/QUOTE]
Before this season he hadn't shown much growth though. Not sure he's better this year really. They are using him better anyway.
[QUOTE]While Williams proved to be a valuable recruiting piece for the Nets, landing both Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in a trade with the Boston Celtics, the results for Brooklyn have been disappointing.
Though Favors is yet to provide the Jazz with a postseason victory, his recent play hints at an enormously high ceiling. Over his last four games, Favors is averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds per outing. Before this stretch, the power forward had never strung together back-to-back 20-point, 10-rebound performances. He’s now done it three times in his last four games, including a 20-point win on the road in Chicago.[/QUOTE]
Now if he was only the great defensive player he was made out to be.
[QUOTE]While Favors has yet to achieve the personal accomplishments, or lead the Jazz to similar postseason success that fans saw from Williams during his six-season career in Utah, his future looks bright. If Favors can continue his recent high scoring outings, not only will he make an All-Star appearance of his own, he can take the Jazz back to postseason success.
About the Author: Ben Anderson[/QUOTE]
First he has to show he is worthy of being on the court with Rudy. Than the Jazz have to win games.
[QUOTE]Normally, a 27-point quarter
[QUOTE]Gobert
[QUOTE]As for Kanter's health, the 6-11 big man said his sprained ankle is getting better, but admitted it's not fully healed. He said it's "not going to be 100 percent for a long time," so he just has to forge forward.
"I
[QUOTE]David 'Dubi' Pick: Asked Ante Tomic of his NBA aspirations: "I'd like to make the NBA, the window isn't closed." Twitter @IAmDPick
David 'Dubi' Pick: Ante Tomic said Barcelona "has a team-option for next season" and that "anything (Re: Europe/NBA) is possible." Twitter @IAmDPick[/QUOTE]
Contrary to recent reports. Gobert's back-up?
The Utah Jazz, in conjunction with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will present the Larry H. Miller Youth Scholarship on Monday, Jan. 19 at its annual memorial luncheon held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A reception begins at 11:30 a.m. followed by the luncheon at noon in the Grand Ballroom at Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City. NBA.com
[url]http://www.nba.com/jazz/news/jazz-sign-elijah-millsap-second-10-day-contract[/url]
not much of a surprise. Looks like he'll stick for the year. Elliot Williams might be gone before his second.
[url]https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/BC82F273E41167599284552609792_2a2852e3aec.5.1.13414507776389537046.mp4?versionId=Yged8yjakMRcMpxrQ42dkHrvKAVHNO_U[/url]
Rudy!
[QUOTE]In 4 of the last 5 games Derrick Favors has notched a 20 point, 10 rebound game. He has scored 20 points or more in more games this year than he did the entire year last year. He is shooting a career high 55.5%. His scoring jump over the last three years is 9.4 to 13.3 to 16.2. The list continues, career high in assists, free throws attempts, offensive rebounds and lowest turnover per game since his rookie year.[/QUOTE]
Shouldn't he be getting better finally?
[QUOTE]Numerous factors have come together for Favors to make this step. He is a starter for the 2ndyearbuilding off last year
[QUOTE]Hayward is blossoming with career-high averages, but is the fifth-year swingman finally ready to seize the franchise's reins?[/QUOTE]
He was and than Rudy emerged.
[QUOTE]Standing 5'11 and 155 pounds of skin and bones, Hayward wasn't his team's first option as a freshman at Indiana's Brownsburg High School. He wasn't the second, third or fourth option, either.[/QUOTE]
He wasn't as a freshman? :facepalm
[QUOTE]Instead he zealously played StarCraft video games. He sat with his parents and twin sister rather than his teammates at varsity football games. He smoked his teammates at ping pong, foosball and pool.
But on the court? No one expected much.
"I didn't even notice him until he started raining threes on us," said Grantland's Mark Titus, a former high-school teammate. "Just a tiny, tiny dude who could shoot."
He was more fit for tennis than hoops. With his slight frame and superb agility, Hayward spent hours training with a private tennis coach in hopes of succeeding long-term in that sport. But a sudden growth spurt altered his plans, skyrocketing him to 6'8 and 185 pounds by his senior year. The combination of Hayward's ball-handling, outside shooting and athleticism allowed him to dominate along the perimeter and in the post, leading Brownsburg to the state title.[/QUOTE]
shooting certainly isn't a strength.
[QUOTE]A FEW YEARS BEFORE, HE ALMOST TRADED IN HIS HIGH-TOPS FOR A RACQUET. ON THAT NIGHT, HIS HALF-COURT HURL AT THE BUZZER ALMOST MADE HIM AN INSTANT LEGEND.
He also morphed into one of the top tennis players in Indiana, reaching the state singles quarterfinals. But as college basketball coaches began to watch him play, it became clear Hayward's future lied on the hardwood.
"If he played tennis year round, he had a strong chance of probably playing professional tennis," former Brownsburg tennis coach Eric Esterline said.
Still, Hayward wasn't a five-star basketball recruit and garnered three scholarship offers before deciding on Butler. Not one to seek attention, he made the right plays at the right times, quietly coming into his own as a lead-by-example kind of player for Brad Stevens' club.
"Whether it was him getting a big-time block, a steal against Murray State, he wasn't somebody who needed to say a whole lot," former Butler teammate Willie Veasley said. "Just somebody who went on the court and did what coach asked for when we needed it."
He wasn't the one anyone imagined would lead a Cinderella Butler team all the way to the title game against Duke in 2010. But there Hayward found himself, an unlikely star thrust into the ring with the highest of stakes. A few years before, he almost traded in his high-tops for a racquet. On that night, his half-court hurl at the buzzer almost broke the Blue Devils and almost made him an instant legend.
gordon haywood college
Photo credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
It's three days before the New Year and the Jazz are warming up against the Clippers in Los Angeles. Hayward shoots jumper after jumper, one of the last Jazz players to return to the locker room while his teammates ate, joked around, rode the bike and listened to music.
This is mostly how Hayward spent the offseason: shooting by himself from every spot on the floor until his mind could erase the percentages that haunted him. Forty-one percent from the field. Thirty percent from three-point range. Both were career-lows, down from 43 and 41 percent the previous season.
Both were the effect of having to shoulder the entire scoring load instead of leaning on veterans Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap. The court was still 94 by 50. The rim was still 10-feet high. But the spots he used to weave through to the cup? Closed up. The daylight he used to enjoy on the perimeter? Not there. The teammates he depended on for easy buckets? Gone to other teams.
Utah still matched the Hornets' four-year, $63 million offer to keep Hayward, but the move was mocked: Unbelievable. Nowhere near a max player. Not ready to lead a franchise.[/QUOTE]
an he's still not regardless of what articles like this try to say.
[QUOTE]Hayward zoned out the talk, bulking up in the weight room at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis all summer. He lifted weights five days a week, completing a near two-hour strength, conditioning and speed workout.
As a result, he added five to seven pounds of muscle by the start of training camp, weighing in at 230 pounds (up from 220 the previous season).
"He got a lot stronger, a lot more confident than last year," Jazz teammate Derrick Favors said. "I think the strength has helped him out a lot."
He almost landed a spot on Team USA, among the final cuts to the FIBA World Cup roster. Next to him were guys who were No. 1 options on their own teams. Guys he could measure himself against. Guys who challenged him.
Maybe it was all of those off-season jumpers. Maybe it was the arrival of Jazz coach Quin Snyder's motion offense. Or maybe it was being humbled by last season's failures.
In any case, Hayward is now playing the most efficient ball of his career. He's averaging a career-high 19 points, five rebounds and four assists a night while shooting 45 percent from the field and 37 percent from three. He's scored 25 or more eight times, including four 30-plus games.[/QUOTE]
those %'s contunue to drop.
[QUOTE]But it's not just his shooting, the way he twists in the air for off-balance jumpers or the way he bobs up and down for a hesitation move to beat his defender to the basket.
It's his passing out of pick-and-roll situations that has made his teammates better. Hayward's size allows him to see over the defense and instantly whip a thread-the-needle bounce pass to his roller.
"He's unique in that regard," Snyder said. "There's less really good [small forwards] that play pick-and-roll as there are point guards. So to have him at that position, oftentimes he's got an advantage."
Hayward's versatility is most apparent on defense, as his arms extend like tentacles in the passing lane, snagging the ball out of the air for the steal. Opponents still aren't safe on the fast break with Hayward trailing; not even LeBron James, who fell victim to a Hayward chase-down block earlier this season.
"He makes energy plays," said Utah rookie Rodney Hood. "Not all the star players do that."
Losing was not in his bones. Not as a senior when his high school state championship team finished 22-5. Not when national runner-up Butler finished 33-5 in 2010.
And not in practice, either. Whether it was a five-on-five scrimmage or a defensive drill that required a certain number of stops, there was always a winner and a loser to Hayward, and he couldn't be the latter.[/QUOTE]
remains to be seen rather he is a winner or loser
[QUOTE]"When the second team or the scout team would play really well and beat the first team, it drove him crazy," said former Butler assistant coach Matthew Graves, now head coach at South Alabama. "He absolutely hated to lose."
Cue the Jazz, who are 13th in the Western Conference with a 13-26 record. Plagued by injuries, first-half deficits and poor shooting, the Jazz are also one of the NBA's youngest teams. What's more, Hayward is expected to lead the group at 24, when he too is still developing.
SLC DUNK
Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward is ready to lead
AllThatAmar
Gordon Hayward's play is All-Star level
AllThatAmar
"I haven't experienced everything," Hayward said. "I think that's what makes it more difficult for us, is that our leaders are still young, still trying to work things out for themselves."
But as a max-contract player, Hayward is held to a higher standard. Those players are viewed as superheroes who have the power to melt the numbers on the scoreboard into a victorious outcome, regardless of circumstance.
Hayward has indeed willed his team to victory at times this year, like nailing a buzzer-beater step-back jumper over the Cavs or scoring 11 of his 26 points in the final four minutes to beat the Timberwolves by six.
But other times he's less aggressive in close games, waiting for something to happen rather than making something happen.
In a 119-111 loss to the Pelicans where the Jazz gave up 41 points in the fourth quarter, Hayward scored just two points in the period. And in the fourth quarter of a 101-97 loss to the Clippers, he was held scoreless with two attempts, often deferring to teammates.[/QUOTE]
Don't think he has to score. He needs to get his teammates the ball too. He's going to have bad shooting nights. Still needs to fill the box score.
[QUOTE]"For Gordon to take that next step, he has to learn to be selfish in certain situations," said former Jazz teammate Earl Watson, who calls himself Hayward's big brother.
"Gordon's going to go out there and he's going to make his teammates better, which is what every player should do," Watson said. "But it comes to a point during the game where it's critical and he has to take over and be aggressive offensively and kind of be selfish."[/QUOTE]
Disagree. The iso plays he's been running usually suck.
[QUOTE]The Jazz are up by three against the Grizzlies on the road with less than three minutes to go in the back-and-forth game.
Hounded by three Memphis players, Hayward misses a runner, but doesn't pout. Mike Conley rebounds the ball and jets the other way. Hayward sprints back as if he's the one being chased, beating everyone down.
As Conley tosses up a layup, Hayward stretches his arms to the sky and smacks the ball down to the ground, preventing the easy bucket. The Jazz eventually win by six.
Hayward could have stayed back and watched two points slip away, tally another loss in the books.
But he didn't. The spotlight enveloped him, and this time, he embraced its glow.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]The problem with it going forward is (that) we would
[QUOTE]The consistency in Dennis Lindsey