Season of the tank!-2013-14 regular season

[mrpibb]

"Lineup of Trey, Alec, Gordon, Favors and Kanter played together tonight for 9 minutes and outscored the Pacers 24-19. Offensive rating of 141 and a defensive rating of 106. They had only played 1 minute together prior to tonight."

Also, you've been pretty harsh on Trey all year. Are you starting to change your tune?

I didn't like the fact that everyone has been writing that he is their savior because he is such a great shooter. I'm all for guys actually proving it and earning it. He's starting to that.

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]Jody Genessy: Favors laughed about his NBA 3-point shooting. "I don

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Will Stevens and the Celtics try to land Hayward? If Hayward agrees to an offer from another team, the Jazz can match and retain Hayward. "I'm a Jazz guy and love being here. You just play basketball and that stuff will take care of itself," Hayward said. USA Today Sports

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Jeremy Evans had a nice impact on the game. The Blazers went at him defensively and he lacks size, this will never change but he made a lot of plays with his hops and his reach and his ability to make plays. He played a nice game and continues to show he can impact games.

Need to play him more especially when no one else is doing anything.

[QUOTE]Richard Jefferson doesn

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Big time jump by Derrick Favors on the offensive end. To be a 25 Locke offensive rating is a high level starter in the NBA. This is a big jump. 14% of his possession being free throws is good.

Than he sucked in the last game!

* Jermey Evans another solid number this time with real playing time.

* This was a super tough stretch for Gordon Hayward. League wide his -12.4 is one of the worst offensive players in this period

Not surprising. He was the only player doing it at the beginning of the year. Teams focused on him.

[QUOTE]* Very few players using possessions above the league average

* As excited as we all are about Trey Burke only 3.4% of his possession going to the free throw is something that must improve.

* Gordon has not only not made shots but dropped in the amount of three

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[QUOTE]the point guard play has gone from being the team

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Deron Williams did a decent job, at some points better than others, but was not the pass-at-all-costs point guard we were accustomed to.

Deron like Stockton before him should have shot more if anything. Was one of the top assist guys in the league. To say he was decent is laughable!

Devin Harris, Jamaal Tinsley, Earl Watson and Mo Williams were brought in to fill in the gaps, and now it’s John Lucas III and Dionte Garrett’s turn. None of those interim options have yielded ideal results (unless a top pick in the 2014 draft is high on your list).

Obviously that was the plan with who they've thrown out there.

David J. Smith shared some stats last night that really jumped out to me. Here are Trey Burke’s last four games: 17.0 ppg, 41 FG%, 48% from 3, 100% FT (6-6), 4.0 APG, 4.0 RPG, 1.25 SPG, 1.5 TO. Considering the numbers we had been getting by our point-guard-by-committee, those are a welcome sight. On the year now—which, admittedly, includes all of seven games for Burke—his eFG% is 45.5% and his TS% is 47.8%, much closer to his college numbers (53.0% and 56.9%, respectively) than his summer league numbers, and for that we are grateful. Hopefully, as he gets more comfortable playing at the NBA level, those numbers will continue to increase.

He couldn't have been much worse in summer or much better as the college player of the year though. Got to get better.

What really impresses me with those stats are Burke’s rebounding numbers. For a small point guard, he rebounds well. Remember last year, how we had the worst-rebounding starting backcourt in the league? Mo Williams averaged 2.7 rebounds per 36 minutes, and so far this year Burke is averaging 4.8 rebounds per 36 minutes. Randy Foye averaged 2.0 rebounds per 36 minutes last year, while Hayward (currently starting at the 2) is averaging 5.4 rebounds per 36 minutes. That is a significant upgrade on an important backcourt stat.

(Side note: Have you noticed that Mo, like Burke, is also perfect from the line so far this season? 11-11.)

(Side side note: Burke reminds me a little bit of a rich man’s Mo Williams: undersized, score-first mentality, fearless, with a lot of swagger)

He's got a lot to prove to where he's better than prime Mo.

Another stat that has seriously impressed me was one first mentioned (I believe) in a Tweet by @NBAGuru: “Trey Burke has turned the ball over 1 time in his last 89 minutes.”

Dang. For a team that has also struggled so far this year with a high turnover rate, that’s a much-needed number to see, even if it’s a turnover rate we may not see consistently. But it’s even more impressive coming from a rookie who missed a decent chunk of time with a broken finger.

His lack of turnovers is probably the most impressive thing so far.

Random thoughts:

I’m not quite understanding Enes Kanter’s minutes lately. Are we trying to keep his stats down so we can afford to extend him in the offseason? Will he be able to develop if he’s playing about a quarter a game? Because he logged fewer minutes last night (12:45) than he averaged in his rookie season (13:14).

I'd say he could get dealt eventually if they don't think he and Favors can't play together and they have other options come the off season.

Derrick Favors has been doing what he does best, quietly turning in yet another solid performance, rendering Dwight Howard ineffective. Favors was perfect from the field and the line last night, going 6-6 from the field and 2-2 (!) from the line, for a line of 14/13/2. Solid and understated, per usual.

The Favors/Kanter combo. If this season is all about the season of discovery and the development of players, surely there can be plays created that can find ways to incorporate both Kanter and Favors on the floor at the same time, utilizing each of their strengths, right? Considering Kanter’s ability to hit the outside shot and Favors’ growing arsenal in the post, it just seems like there’s plenty of talent to work with here.

Kanter has now played almost half as many minutes as he did all of last year.

Jeremy Evans was 1-4 from the field. GASP.

Alec Burks was unbelievably efficient last night. He was 7-11 from the field (including 3-4 from 3), 4-5 from the line, 21 points, 4 assists (!), and three rebounds.

Bottom line: This Jazz team is a lot more fun to watch with a good point guard running the show. It’s amazing the difference a point guard makes.

In Utah Jazz

A healthy team makes a difference too.

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]EMPTYING THE NOGGIN

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[QUOTE]Ty the Bold: Keeping with the theme of smaller lineups, a big hats off to Ty Corbin. The oft-embattled coach has given his doubters something to chew on in recent weeks, injecting some creativity and unpredictability into his lineups that was basically unheard-of for Jazz basketball. I touched on small lineups last week in my piece about Utah

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They Forgot About Trey: Of course, any praise for Corbin’s work from the sidelines comes with a big thank-you to Trey Burke for his work on the court. The rookie has been everything expected of him and more

Not sure about that. He was pegged as rookie of the year, great shooter etc. We've seen low turnovers and some clutch shots but he doesn't look like the best rookie pg let alone the best rookie and he's been a streaky shooter at best.

, his return to the team from injury coinciding almost perfectly with Utah’s improvement offensively. In 12 games without him, the Jazz scored a league-worst 92.2 points-per-100; since his return on November 20th, they’re up to 103.1, a ridiculous 10.9 point discrepancy. And this is just for the Jazz as a whole – when Burke is actually on the court, the number rises to 105.0, a number that would rank above league average. Think about that for a second. For an offense to go from league-worst to league-average largely due to a single player is remarkable enough, but if that player is a rookie? Forget about it. His main weapon comes via the pick-and-roll, where Burke is 7th in the NBA in efficiency when finishing possessions as the ball handler, per MySynergySports.

Wasn't just him. The whole team got healthy.

This is one of Burke’s favorite tactics – he simply runs the defenders out of position. He may not be Russ Westbrook, but the guy has some wheels, and he makes teams pay for ignoring that fact. A high percentage of his pick-and-roll buckets come this way, often involving great patience and a remarkable ability (for his age) to read angles and opposing defenses. But when teams load up to stop him coming around the corner, watch what happens:

You can’t go under his screens, and you can’t lag off him for even a second – something Phoenix found out the hard way as Burke all but iced the game with that triple. He’s shooting an even 50% on threes out of the pick-and-roll per Synergy…so you’ve got to close hard, right? Not so fast:

WHOOPS! GET FROZEN, AARON BROOKS!! Sorry, just couldn’t resist throwing that in there in case anyone thought the handles might have been lacking. The man is just mean. Allow me one more:

Pay particular attention to his hesitation dribble as he gets into the lane; this is Chris Paul-esque, magic stuff that a high percentage of NBA point guards simply don’t have in their arsenal. Ditto for his excellent court vision and a remarkable cross-court pass to Jefferson (who I yelled at for ruining such a gorgeous play by missing), over Roy Hibbert and Paul George just in case it wasn’t tough enough already. He has work to do defensively just like every Jazz player, but this is an NBA-ready point guard on offense.

If efficiency isn't your thing and it has been in Utah for a long time.

The things this guy could do out of the pick-and-roll with a strong shooting cast around him are mouth-watering.

[Xiao Yao You]

[Xiao Yao You]

• Goal for the Next 10: With so much improvement offensively, it would really be great to see Corbin start to work with his team on the other end of the court. The smaller lineups have brought some needed energy to the offense, but they’ve likewise done no favors for the defense, which continues to operate at bottom-five levels. It’ll be interesting to see if Corbin can bring things up in this area as well, and that’s what I’m looking forward to most for the next 10 games. Cheers, Jazz fans, and a happy holiday season to all.

That could eventually be Ty's downfall if anything. Lindsey said D was the foundation and with Favors instead of Al they were expected to be better at that end.

[Xiao Yao You]

1. Indiana’s defense, designed to force mid-range shots, did so by minimizing scrambling rotations.

Perhaps the main ingredient to Indiana’s defensive success is how they discourage teams from taking high-efficiency shots. They certainly did that tonight: the Jazz made 0 corner threes in the game, and shot just 11 overall. Furthermore, Utah shot 28 shots within the restricted area, making 13 of those around the basket shots. The midrange shots that Utah had in the first half generally went in, and in the second half, they generally didn’t. The second half was especially effective, as the Jazz scored just 19 in both the 3rd and 4th quarters.

How do the Pacers do this? Vogel says the secret is “eliminating rotations”. The goal is to “try to handle all of the action you see in the half court without getting into a chain reaction of rotations”. Jazz fans are certainly familiar with this chain reaction, as the team ends up scrambling in many defensive possessions, thus giving up an easy shot at the rim or the 3 point line.

So what’s the process to becoming an elite defensive team? According to Vogel, “Step 1 is to get good defensive players. Our starting five are all exceptional at guarding their own position. From that point forward, it’s urgency and having guys who care.” Dennis Lindsey is trying to build that same defensive core in Utah, but in both personnel and scheming, there’s much work to be done.

The fact that Favors was supposedly paid on his elite defensive skills is the most worrisome thing. He hasn't been anywhere near elite.

2. The young Core Five played together on the floor for the first time.

With Trey Burke’s return, it had been a possibility for over two weeks, but until tonight, Coach Corbin had chosen to generally play either Favors or Kanter at center against teams with smaller lineups. Against the more sizable Pacers, and with power forwards Marvin Williams and Jeremy Evans out, Corbin played the promising young lineup of Burke/Burks/Hayward/Favors/Kanter in their first NBA minutes together as a group. The lineup played 7 minutes together, including roughly 4:30 to end the game, and generally played well, beating the Pacers by 7 points overall when they were in the game. 7 minutes is actually quite a bit for a non-starting lineup to play together, and in this season of discovery, Ty Corbin might be well served to see how the young group plays together by getting them in the starting lineup. Doing so would generally mean at least 12 minutes together per game as a group to gel, allowing the front office to learn the group’s strengths and weaknesses when playing together.

Might be Evans and/or Gobert as part of that core eventually.

3. Utah’s elevation tired the Pacers out.

This is always a factor when teams come to Salt Lake City, but rarely do multiple players on a team comment about it as a limitation after the same game. Pacers star Paul George, who was limited to just 19 points after a 43 point explosion on Monday, commented, “It was so hard to find my wind. My chest was burning. I tried to play through it and just find a way to get a win tonight.” Things were even worse for Roy Hibbert, who suffers from asthma. Hibbert said, “I’m going to be honest, the altitude because of my asthma kind of kicked me in the rear to begin with. It’s not an excuse, but you have to get in here a couple of days before hand and practice hard to get adjusted to it. I talked to some people and went through some methods to get through it.”

Even with a day off between games, the Jazz’s location allowed them to get an advantage on an opposing team. I wrote about this on SLCDunk last year: the top two teams, statistically, in terms of home-court advantage in the NBA are Denver and Utah. I’ll leave it to you to find the common denominator between the two franchises.

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Will Stevens and the Celtics try to land Hayward? If Hayward agrees to an offer from another team, the Jazz can match and retain Hayward. "I'm a Jazz guy and love being here. You just play basketball and that stuff will take care of itself," he said. USA Today Sports

While embracing and adjusting to his new role, he is also turning into Utah's vocal leader. He was bothered that teammates forgot to set screens or didn't know what play to run and said so. "I got after some guys during the game," Hayward said. "If we don't execute our offense, we're not good enough yet individually to take guys one-on-one. When we start standing around, it makes it difficult for everybody. We have to continually move and make sure we're running our plays." The question is, will Hayward be the go-to-guy and vocal leader for the next several seasons? The Jazz and Hayward failed to reach a deal on an extension at the start of the season, and Hayward can become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. USA Today Sports

The new role has resulted in increased minutes and shots for Hayward, who has struggled with his shooting in the first five weeks of the season as he adjusts to an increased role. "It's a bigger role, and I accept the challenge for sure," Hayward told USA TODAY Sports. "It's exciting to have that opportunity in front of you. I'm doing a better job facilitating and making plays for others. I just haven't shot the ball well this season. Hopefully that picks up and I'll be doing all right.:" USA Today Sports

He's a slow starter. I expect he'll finish strong again.

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]Rookie point guard Trey Burke continues to have a major impact on the Jazz.

Burke averages 12.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists since returning from a fractured finger that sidelined him for the first 12 games of the season.

The Jazz are 3-2 in Burke