The UTAH JAZZ Support Group thread: Majorly updated.

The Lakers suck/don't care, but a road win on the second night of a back-to-back is rarely going to be a walk. Especially when playing such a physical brand of basketball. Nice immediate bounceback.

Hayward with 22 on 10 shots, 5, 5, 4 and 1. :smokin

14-4 in the last 18. 25-18 in the last 43.
 
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Rudy Gobert 

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@ChrisMannixSI: Interesting to hear Jazz players talk about how the team is not yet mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Team has come far.
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@Lockedonsports: Since Feb. 1, Hayward is scoring 21 a night on the slowest-paced team in the league. Means that 21 is more like 23 or 24. Big-time player.
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21, 5, 4 and 2 per on 46/36/80 in those 20 games. 13-7 record.

Pretty in line with his season as a whole, but a small uptick in scoring and steals. March has been his best offensive and defensive month of the year.
 
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Mannix:
The start of something big? Young Jazz reveling in second-half surge

There's an undeniable attraction we feel to a rising young roster, a magnetic pull that seduces like a siren song. In 2010, we fell for Oklahoma City; in ’12, it was Indiana. These teams existed in a climate of ideal expectations. Successes were celebrated, while failures were dismissed as growing pains.

That’s Utah in 2015. The Jazz—average age: 23.3—are America’s upstart. They have won 12 of 15 games since the All-Star break, the latest an 80-73 win over the Lakers on Thursday, and have an outside shot at finishing the season above .500. They don’t have anyone over the age of 27 and run out a starting five so young Gordon Hayward (age 24) is the greybeard. The first unit is a mix of high-lottery picks (Hayward, Derrick Favors, Dante Exum) and late-round gems (Rodney Hood, Rudy Gobert) mined by general manager Dennis Lindsey and molded by head coach Quin Snyder.

At 31-37 the Jazz aren’t planning any parades. But Snyder says team expectations coming into the season were based on how quickly—and how much—it could improve, and Utah’s storm to the finish line is evidence of significant development.

Consider: Last October Gobert was a big kid with a cool nickname (The Stifle Tower), a fascinating physical specimen—he has a 7’9” wingspan—but hardly a can’t-miss prospect. Today he is the anchor of the best defensive team since the All-Star break. It’s Gobert who made Enes Kanter expendable, prompting the Jazz to ship Kanter to the Thunder last month for little more than a protected first-round pick.

It’s pretty easy to connect dealing Kanter to Utah’s sudden surge in the standings, though the Jazz are quick to napalm that narrative.

“We don’t see it as being some sort of pivotal moment,” Snyder says. “I think what has happened is our players have gotten better. Our team has gotten better. There is a connectivity that we have now and a defensive mindset that was bubbling beneath the surface. The habits were there; the intensity was there. Things have just clicked.”

Adds Hayward, “I don’t know if much has changed. Things are starting to click a little but more. Our defense has locked up and we’re trusting each other and holding each other accountable.”

O.K., but moving Kanter—who Utah had no interest in paying premium money to this summer anyway—has had an impact. Favors feels it. A Favors-Kanter frontline looked nice on paper, but the two ball-demanding bigs were never going to work. Instead of sharing post touches with Kanter, Favors now lines up alongside Gobert. It has liberated Favors offensively while offering badly needed defensive support.

“[The trade] helped me work on my game a lot,” Favors says. “Enes was the first option in the post. Since the trade, it’s always been me. It’s helped me work on my game and made me better for it.”

A Favors-Gobert frontcourt would seem to create a spacing problem, with neither equipped to step out beyond 10 feet or so and both better suited to playing in the paint. But the Jazz do a remarkable job of keeping the floor balanced, relying on screening and ball movement to mask a lack of shooting. It’s a nifty piece of coaching from Snyder, and far from the only one. Snyder came to the Jazz with a reputation for player development, having rebuilt his image after a scandal-plagued end to a successful run at Missouri with stints in the D-League, Russia and as an assistant in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta. And he has lived up to it. In Utah, Snyder has empowered his players to play through many mistakes.

“It’s incredibly important,” Snyder says. “It may be painful at times, but that is how we get better. That’s how we process things, even the losing. Take in the larger context and stay focused on the process. Sometimes if a guy makes a mistake enough times, he may never make it again. In a lot of things the only way to learn is through experience.”

Like the Thunder and Pacers before them, Utah has an enviable roster, one both smartly built and sustainable. Sure, drafting Exum was easy, and Favors was the price the Nets were willing to pay to extract Deron Williams in 2011. But Gobert could have been had 26 times in the ’13 draft before Denver scooped him up and shipped him to the Jazz for the bargain-basement price of a second-round pick and cash. And Hood, drafted 23rd last June, is averaging a season-best 11.6 points in March. Privately, Utah officials are positively giddy about Hood’s future.

There is still plenty to be done, and a hot month comes with no guarantee of future success, especially for a team still developing. “I think some of the growing pains we have experienced, we are going to experience them again,” Snyder says. “I want to be realistic about youth. There are going to be ups and downs. The main thing for us is how we handle them.”

Exum needs to mature physically. Trey Burke must discover an identity. The bench must improve before Utah can contend in a brutal Western Conference.

But these are problems for another day. Today, it’s about wins, it’s about charging toward .500, about clinging to the team’s faint—but still mathematically possible—playoff hopes. It’s the honeymoon phase for a team on the way up, and the rapidly rising Jazz should revel in it.
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http://www.si.com/nba/2015/03/20/utah-jazz-rudy-gobert-second-half-surge
 
Jazz holding Portland to 37 tonight in the 1st half :lol: :x
 
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They scored 33 in the second half of their last game against the Jazz about a month ago, too.

Aldridge is 6-24 in that game and these two quarters tonight.

I hear it, V verdykt . Tough to beat anyone without Hayward, though.
 
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Another really annoying loss.

The Celtics inbound play loss, having an improbable chance late against the Wizards and blowing it, Burke shooting them out of the Timberwolves game, and now this.

Those four losses came by a combined 10 points. They missed 40 free throws (59-99 - under 60%). Problematic.
 
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Wish Joe could play that well all the time. We need scoring so bad. Hopefully Hayward and Hood can get back quickly.
 
Kanter trashed the organization and then OKC took the L. 
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13,14,4 for Gobert. 
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:lol:

To end a four-game slide, too. Huge win.

And without Favors. Really wanted to see him rough up Kanter, though. Gobert isn't as capable, obviously. Borderline surprised that Booker didn't incite a dustup.
 
So, looking ahead...

Locked in:[/color=purple]

Burke
Burks
Exum
Favors
Gobert
Hayward
Hood

Total: $45,583,334

Player options:[/color=yellow]

Booker ($4,775,000)
Cooley ($845,059)
Cotton ($845,059)
Jerrett ($947,276)

Free agents:[/color=green]

Evans
Ingles
Johnson
Millsap

Rights:[/color=navy]

Raul Neto
Tibor Pleiss
Ante Tomic

Picks:

First round (own)
Second round (own)
Second round (Cavs)
 
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I want Millsap back, and maybe Booker (dependent on what else happens because of his cost). The other six are all expendable for me.

It sounds like Pleiss could very well be on the team next season. Maybe the Burke/Exum struggles create an opportunity for Neto to come over, too. As always, overseas guys are tough to factor in because of their contracts.

Draft/trade/free agent targets are a whole other discussion that I'm not personally prepared for just yet, but I think the focus needs to be on guards. I stand by the idea of moving picks for a veteran impact guard.

Edit: I will specifically mention a no-qualms desire to take Jeremy Lamb off the Thunder's hands for next to nothing because they clearly want nothing to do with him. I pretty much stand alone in believing in his ability at this point, but I truly think he could at least be one of the best "three and defense" players in the league with an opportunity to actually play and coaches/teammates that engage him.
 
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Don't yell at me, but would you take a flier on Lin?

No trade, he's a FA, but he could be a 3rd guard, with enough talent around him, likely cheap, still only 25-26, rotate with Exum/Burke, play either spot, 18-20 minutes a night.

If cheap enough, not many other proven guys out there that can randomly drop 30, or dish 10-11 assists.
 
He would actually be a fairly significant upgrade. :lol:

Burke averaged 12.8 points on 12.8 shots last year, and 12.9 on 13.3 now. Through two full seasons, he's shooting 37/32/82. And it's not as though he is a great creator, along with being pretty awful on defense. He was already small and unathletic coming into the league; playing like this for any additional amount of time could very well send him out of it.

The point guard abilities are there, but he usually tries to score more than distribute. It is more understandable since he has been a sixth man, but rarely goes well.

Meanwhile, Schroder... :smh:
 
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@tribjazz: From Timberwolves PR: Tonight was the 25th time the Jazz have held an opponent under 90 points. Tied w/ Memphis & Milwaukee for the most.
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@Lockedonsports: Jazz will finish March with a defensive rating of 95.2 best in the NBA and 93.2 since All-Star Break.
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"It's just about pride," the second-year center continued. "When you make a bad play, you want to get somebody back on the other end. You want to make sure they don't disrespect you no more. You've got to make yourself respected. If not, they'll try to dunk on me every time. That's what he try to do the second time, so I had to let him know."
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View media item 1469897
:smokin
 
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Another nice little bounceback after that embarrassing showing against them last week. And without Hayward doing much. That's a pretty good offensive team since they ditched Brian Shaw, and they obviously just dropped 107 on the Jazz recently.

Career-high 20 on a perfect 7-for-7 for Gobert, all while doing everything else that he does.

Exum with 12 helpers. More of that with the defense, please. I don't care if he never scores.
 
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Indeed. Is there any chance for Rudy to get Most Improved Player? or is Jimmy Butler a lock for that?
 
Verdykt said:
Indeed. Is there any chance for Rudy to get Most Improved Player? or is Jimmy Butler a lock for that?
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I don't think he's turned it on for long enough to take the award away from Butler, but maybe because of how much he has improved in the short span they will give it to him. Honestly Hayward should be up for the award as well, his game has taken a big jump.
 
Lowe:
Pick or Trade: What Should the Jazz Do to Make the Leap?

The Jazz are sitting at one of those juicy intersections that make it both exciting and terrifying to be an NBA general manager. They are 17-8 since February 7, and they have the best defense in the league — by a mile — since dealing Enes Kanter’s slow feet and making way for Rudy “The Stifle Tower” Gobert to clown fools at the rim.

They’re a young team learning the nuances of Quin Snyder’s offense amid clunky spacing, but Utah has scored just below a league-average rate for the season — despite missing Alec Burks for almost all of it. The sample size isn’t huge, and teams are figuring out new ways to attack the massive Derrick Favors/Rudy Gobert frontcourt. League executives like to joke that any trend that pops up in March and April, like Utah’s rising defense, deserves extra skepticism, since so many teams are mailing it in.

Sill, the Jazz have something here. They probably don’t have a 50-win team with the greatest defense in league history, but it’s not unreasonable to see them pushing over .500 and chasing a playoff spot next season. Seven of their core rotation players are 25 or younger, and they’ll continue to get better.

All that youth raises a question: Has Utah arrived at a moment when they should think about trading their first-round pick, currently slotted at no. 11, for an established veteran who could help them make a leap now? Most league executives expect Utah to quietly suss out the market, though the Jazz, as usual, are mum.

It’s a brutally tough call for lots of reasons, and Utah in the end is unlikely to find a player in the sweet spot of age and skill set to make it worth their while. Remember: This is a small-market team with no history of luring big-time free agents, and their general manager, Dennis Lindsey, arrived three years ago from San Antonio. This is a group that values continuity and cap flexibility; they will not take trading a first-round pick lightly — even if their hot recent play has dropped that pick several pegs down the lottery.

The Jazz must also consider their place within the bloody Western Conference. This isn’t the East. Utah can’t reasonably hope that acquiring a solid veteran would tee them up for a run at a top-four seed. The eight current playoff teams could all be strong again next year, the Pelicans and Suns aren’t going anywhere, and Minnesota could make a huge win-total jump if they stay healthy.

The West is set to enter a state of flux, but it will not happen all at once this summer. The Mavs have three key outgoing free agents. The best players in Portland and Memphis are about to hit the market, and the Grizz are aging. The Spurs will undergo major roster turnover at some point, presumably before we are all dead. The Clippers, Thunder, and Rockets all face major free-agency questions over the next two years. The conference hierarchy could look a lot different in 2019, but it will take time, and some of the current juggernauts are set up for a half-decade run of strong play if they can keep their cores together.

The timetable is important. The Jazz want to peak in two or three years, and not in 2015-16. Utah will not flip its pick for some 31-year-old who will be creeping toward retirement by the time the Jazz get really good. The ideal trade target is a mid-career guy not much older than Utah’s foundational players and in the early part of a long-term contract. That’s a tough ask.

There’s also the tricky question of which position Utah should upgrade. They need a dose of 3-point shooting on the wing, especially if they are going to play Favors and Gobert together a ton, but they’ve invested about $25 million per season already on Hayward and Burks — plus a first-round pick last year on Rodney Hood, looking like a long-term rotation cog. That said, I get the sense the Jazz are fine with Burks working as a $10 million super-sub if they can find a shooter to slot into the starting lineup. Burks’s shooting has lagged behind his pick-and-roll work, and with the cap set to leap, paying that much for a killer sixth man won’t seem ridiculous. Flipping Kanter thinned out the frontcourt, but Favors and Gobert appear entrenched as starters, and you don’t deal the no. 11 pick for a backup.

Here’s the cold reality: If Utah wants to get good next season, it needs to upgrade at point guard. That’s tough to swallow, since Utah effectively used three first-round picks on two point guards, Trey Burke and Dante Exum, over the last two drafts. Burke has perked up in a bench role, but he’s shooting 37 percent and can’t guard anyone. Exum came out of nowhere to dish 12 assists on Wednesday, but he has spent most of this season standing around, looking confused, and launching spot-up 3s. In related news, he’s 19. Point guards need time to develop, and Exum projects already as a plus defender.

Neither guy looks ready to be a starter on a good team in 2016, and Utah is ready to be a good team in 2016. But things are never so simple. Utah may not want to unnerve Burke and Exum by bringing in a competitor, and with Hayward around, the Jazz don’t really need a ball-dominant point guard. Hayward is like James Harden Lite in that sense — a wing who can run the show himself.

The Kanter deal left Utah with about $12.5 million in cap space, and they could open up about $4 million more by eating Trevor Booker’s cheapo non-guaranteed deal if it comes to that. They could spend some of that on a Patrick Beverley–style spot-up point guard — maybe even Patrick Beverley! — or spend a bit less on a top veteran backup, like Mo Williams or Jameer Nelson, who could play extended minutes all season. Use the rest of that cap space on a rotation wing (Jae Crowder, DeMarre Carroll), and bam — you’ve filled your needs without coughing up a lottery pick.

They could also go crazy and use all that cap room on a near-max offer to a free agent wing player like Danny Green or Khris Middleton. No one quite knows what the market for Wes Matthews will look like, but that murkiness opens the door for creative contract structures that could lure him away from Portland. Wing depth could be important for the Jazz if opponents try to stretch the Gobert/Favors combination by going small against them. Teams are getting braver in slotting a smaller player on Gobert, confident that Gobert can’t hurt them in the low post, and forcing the Jazz bigs to guard out to the 3-point arc. Utah needs to have rangier lineups in its bag to counter that — at least on some nights.

Keeping the pick is the most likely outcome, but Utah won’t arrive there without first kicking the tires on every possible option. Let’s have some fun and go through some places they might look:

Avery Bradley

Again: Utah may look at wing players before point guards, since you need two of them on the court at once. Bradley is perfect. He’s about the same age as Favors and Hayward, he’s content working for off-ball jumpers at the shooting-guard spot while Hayward works the pick-and-roll, and he would give Utah a third vicious defender in the starting lineup.

He’s also locked up on a nice contract through 2017-18.

The Celtics turned down offers of a late first-round pick for Bradley at the deadline, but perhaps a pick about 10 spots higher than that would tempt Danny Ainge. What if Utah tossed in Hood?

It’s a long shot. Boston has too many first-round picks as it is, and Ainge adores Bradley. The Celtics are more likely to package some of their own late first-round picks to try to move up in the draft.

Harrison Barnes

Barnes has blossomed as a spot-up guy this season, and the Warriors will need to cut some money if they want to re-sign Draymond Green and avoid the tax. But the Dubs are set up to contend again next season, and they’re not sacrificing a starter for a late lottery pick.

Ty Lawson

Now we’re talking. The Nuggets discussed Lawson deals at the deadline, and sources at the time said Denver wanted multiple first-round picks. The 11th pick alone might not get it done, but if Utah included another asset — Hood, two future second-rounders, something — the Nuggets might think about going head-on into a full rebuild.

Lawson fits some theoretical Jazz criteria: He’s still just 27, he has already played at high altitude, and he’s under a team-friendly contract through 2016-17. But he’s kind of sputtering toward the end of a weirdly inconsistent season, and the Jazz would look askance at both Lawson’s on-again, off-again ankle issues and his recent DUI charges.

Watch the Kings on Lawson, by the way.

George Hill

This would require a massive shakeup for the Pacers, who appear headed to the lottery themselves. But if Indiana senses that both David West and Roy Hibbert will opt out, they would have to at least consider hitting the reset button and building around Paul George and draft picks.

Hill would be a seamless fit in Utah. He has a ton of experience playing a secondary role around a star wing guy, and he has proven this season that he can soak up a heavier scoring burden if need be. He has played like a borderline All-Star, driving more, jacking contested 3s in big spots, and carrying an otherwise punchless Indy offense. He’s also integral to Indiana’s team culture — a hometown hero wildly popular among fans, and a locker room leader.

Lindsey knows Hill well from their San Antonio days, and Hill is locked up through 2016-17. He’s about to turn 29, so he may be at the high end of Utah’s ideal age range.

The Toronto Drakes

The Drakes have been a sub.-500 team with a bad defense for three months. That’s not quite an accurate representation of who they are, since they’ve dealt with injuries and lineup turmoil over that stretch. Still: There is a universe in which the current iteration of this team has peaked, and Masai Ujiri, the team’s GM, is an unsentimental sort unafraid of both risk and taking a short-term step back. If the Raps limp to the finish and flame out in the first round, no one should be surprised if they make a major change somewhere on the roster.

But the Drakes as trade partner illustrate how hard it will be for Utah to find the right trade match. Kyle Lowry works fine as a pinball point guard with range, but he’s 29, and the Drakes would want more than just Utah’s pick for the closest thing Toronto has to a franchise guy. Terrence Ross fills Utah’s need for shooting, but he’s not nearly worth a late lottery pick — especially as he approaches the end of his rookie contract.

DeMar DeRozan has the right combination of age and contract, but Utah has no room for a wing who needs the ball and can’t shoot 3s.

The Pellies

This might be my favorite theoretical trade match for the Jazz. If New Orleans misses the playoffs — not nearly a sure thing! — they will cough up a lottery pick for the third straight season. Recouping one such pick might feel good. In Jrue Holiday, they have a point guard snug in the Favors/Hayward age band, with experience spotting up alongside an alpha dog wing player in Tyreke Evans.

That experience cuts both ways from the Pellies’ perspective. The team has played well with Holiday and Evans on the floor together despite the skill overlap, meaning there is no urgent need to break them up. Anthony Davis and Holiday have meshed, and the Pelicans badly need a plus perimeter defender. But Holiday is making big money — about $11 million per season through 2016-17 — to chill on the wing as Evans and Davis control the offense. New Orleans might be able to redistribute its resources in a better way.

Playing with Hayward and Favors might bring the same bang-for-the-buck issue, but Favors isn’t in the Brow’s league as a one-on-one offensive option. Holiday’s chronic leg issues would make Utah queasy surrendering a valuable pick.

Ryan Anderson would be an interesting wild-card option if his contract went beyond next season. Spending big on a backup is risky business, as the Clippers learned in using their remaining salary flexibility on Spencer Hawes. But Utah could use another quality big even if they keep Booker, and especially if that big provides some legit shooting range. The Favors/Gobert duo is the bedrock of Utah’s defense, but the Jazz have to find a third big who can help Snyder stagger minutes. Booker might do the trick given another year to test his shooting range, and the Jazz could just use cap space on someone like Brandon Bass or Jonas Jerebko. If the Jazz and Raptors ever do talk, they could build some interesting megadeals in which Patrick Patterson ends up in Utah.

There are other possibilities, particularly on the wing. Any team doing due diligence has to at least ask about some of the starry names on rookie deals — Victor Oladipo, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and others. Those teams would likely hang up the phone, or (justifiably) demand so much in return for Utah’s pick as to torpedo discussions immediately.

Finding the right fit will be hard, maybe impossible. But Utah should try. They’re ready for a seat at the adult table.
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http://grantland.com/the-triangle/pick-or-trade-what-should-the-jazz-do-to-make-the-leap/
 
Another stupid loss. Hip-checking shooters in mid-air is allowed now.

15-8 since the break. Six of those eight losses were decided by one possession.

All while seven of the 15 players on the team are an assortment of 10-day guys, a 27-year-old rookie, a second-rounder that has never played, and inactive Burks. And an eighth is Evans, who rarely gets time.

Maybe the best way to improve this summer is a massive bench overhaul.
 
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Amen. We can ditch the 11th pick for some bench help. Those 2 out of bounds calls really hurt. Both were clearly off phoenix
 
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