2021 training camp/pre-season!

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https://www.deseret.com/2021/10/18/2...a-vivint-arena

The expectations, pressures and goals are different. When Mitchell was a rookie he was just hoping to get into the rotation. Obviously that worked out and he quickly became a leading scorer, a max-level player and an All-Star. Even so, opening night of the NBA regular season is special and this season it’s even more special for Mitchell.

debatable if he's a max level player or all-star. Maybe he'll show up before December this year?

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https://saltcityhoops.com/storylines...itchells-leap/

Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell should be All-Star locks, especially buoyed by the fact that Kawhi Leonard, Jamal Murray, and Klay Thompson will likely miss large portions of the season due to injury. Having earned honors for two consecutive years now, Utah’s stars are on the “perennial All-Star” track until regression kicks them off. I also suspect they won’t repeat as the last chosen when teams are picked. I wouldn’t count on Conley returning, who barely made it last season, and may rest more this season. He got the All-Star monkey off his back, making the team for the first time in 14 stellar seasons. There will be less of a grassroots push to get him in this year.

A joke that Mitchell was picked ahead of Conley last year

Both Mitchell and Gobert were in the fringes of MVP talk last season. Neither were a true contender, but in the conversation. Gobert appeared on some ballots and finished tenth in voting. Mitchell did not receive MVP votes. With another jump, offense-oriented Mitchell may have the best chance of cracking the top five if Utah is again formidable, but either player actually winning feels out of reach this season.

Gobert should be in the running every year. Few guys as impactful as him

Jordan Clarkson and Joe Ingles should compete for the Sixth Man Award once again. Clarkson should continue to put up scoring numbers, which speak loudest for this award. There’s precedent for repeating, with Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford each winning three times in recent memory. Ingles may face a tougher path if he can’t replicate a historically efficient season, and especially if he rests more. It’s doubtful Rudy Gay will play enough minutes or score enough to compete, but don’t count him out completely.

hopefully Clarkson is on another team by the trade deadline and Bojan takes that role

Quin Snyder is held in high esteem across the league, but last season felt like his best shot to win the Coach of the Year award. Since the Jazz are expected to repeat as a contender for the top seed, it’s hard to imagine what more Snyder can do. His best bet may be out of his hands: if no other coach overly exceeds expectations and the Jazz are the clear winners of the regular season maybe Quin will finally get his due.

hopefully he heads out of town with Clarkson

Prediction: I’m an optimist, so I’m going to root for Whiteside to succeed. He has it in him, and the effort should be there.

has the effort ever been there with him?

Mitchell could play more minutes and increase his usage. I wouldn’t bet on his minutes increasing with the emphasis on player health. I imagine he’ll continue to average between 33 and 34 minutes per game. That’s already on the low side for a star of his caliber. (Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal play almost 36 minutes, for comparison). Increasing his usage seems almost as difficult, as his 33.5% was fifth highest usage mark in the league last season. But Mitchell has shown to be capable as the focal point in a heliocentric offense, particularly in the playoffs, where his usage jumped to 38%. The Rockets iteration of James Harden sported a usage rate as high as 40.5%. It’s not out of the question that Mitchell takes even more of the offensive reins.

will he play D or pass?

On one hand, Rudy will rely on his teammates to overcome the narrative. If Utah can stay healthy and defend the perimeter, then Rudy’s interior defense will shine. On the other hand, Rudy can do more to punish mismatches on the offensive end. When teams switch everything (and you can bet that opponents will try after the Clippers found success), Rudy can dominate the rim when smaller players switch onto him. He just did so in the Olympics, arguably on the biggest stage he’s been on yet. He nearly willed his team to one of the biggest Olympics upsets ever.

got to get him the ball!

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https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/19/uta...ersary-team/3/

While there is absolute certainty regarding John Stockton and Karl Malone’s cases to be included on this list, there is only mystery surrounding the cases of some other Utah Jazz greats. Adrian Dantley is one of the best pure scorers in NBA history. He averaged at least 30 points per game in a Jazz uniform from 1980-81 to 1983-84. He has a strong case, but the team’s lack of success during that stretch may earn him a reputation as an empty-calorie scorer.

He led the worst franchise in the league and started their long playoff run

Pete Maravich is actually likely to make the cut on the strength of name recognition and influence. His highlight reel dimes were a staple of New Orleans Jazz basketball from 1974-75 to 1978-79. Like Dantley, his case may get held back by the fact that the Jazz consistently underperformed during his tenure with the club.

he didn't win

Finally, current Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert may be fortunate enough to hear his name get called when the league unveils its top 75 all-time players. Some fans may bristle at the inclusion of active players, but the Stifle Tower has a case. He joins Dwight Howard, Ben Wallace and Dikembe Mutombo as one of four players in NBA history with more than 2 Defensive Player of the Year awards.

He won't make it but the past almost 7 years have been the best in team history by far outside of Stockton and Malone despite playing alongside the best player in franchise history!

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https://thejnotes.com/2021/10/18/uta...jabari-parker/

Meanwhile, there’s still a chance that the 26-year-old Jabari Parker can again be a strong bucket-getter in the NBA, despite the 6-foot-8, 245-pound power forward getting the boot from the Boston Celtics over the weekend.

they need a starting 4 or depth not more offensive players that play no D

Plus, there’s the Duke basketball connection. Before going No. 2 overall at the 2014 NBA Draft and after growing up in a Mormon household in Chicago, Parker shined for one season under Mike Krzyzewski in Durham, N.C., where Jazz head coach Quin Snyder played for the Hall of Famer and then served as his assistant.

forgot he went to Duke. God no!

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Andy Larsen: Eric Paschall did fully practice today, a good sign for his availability after his finger sprain last week. Trent Forrest did not fully practice after his concussion last week.
– via Twitter andyblarsen

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Eric Walden: Eric Paschall (right finger dislocation) is PROBABLE to play vs. OKC tomorrow. Both Rudy Gay (heel surgery) and Trent Forrest (concussion) are OUT.
– via Twitter tribjazz

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Ben Anderson: Eric Paschall who is coming off a dislocated right index finger said as an NBA player your fingers are always injured and you get used to it. Showed off his pinky finger which is noticeably misaligned. Said he just has to keep the range of motion. #TakeNote | @kslsports

– via Twitter BensHoops





Eric Walden: Eric Paschall, on a young Donovan Mitchell: “All the stuff y’all see Don do now, he didn’t have none of that. All he could do in AAU was go hard right and try to dunk on people.”
– via Twitter tribjazz

did he play D or pass?

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Eric Walden: Rudy Gobert, reflecting back on the Clippers series, notes that his lower back was in such bad shape by the end of it that, had there been a Game 7, he probably wouldn’t have played in it.
– via Twitter tribjazz




Andy Larsen: Rudy Gobert said the fall he suffered in Game 6 vs. LAC limited his movement substantially. In particular, he said he didn’t think he would play in Game 7 if the Jazz could have held on to the lead.
– via Twitter andyblarsen






Eric Walden: Rudy Gobert’s media session ends with @Andy Larsen exclaiming: “This is your ninth season?!” To which Rudy shrugs, nods, and replies: “Time is not real.”
– via Twitter tribjazz