"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[MarkGrace]

Losing steam in the Tank Rank.

6. Utah Jazz | Status: Tanking | Record: 11-25 (2-1 past week)


The Jazz have been basically playing .500 ball since Dec. 13. They aren't beating anyone special, but they've been super competitive with the worst teams in both the East and West. I don't see them making a move to get better, nor do I see them trading away any of their core young players right now.

The bad news if they play .500 ball the rest of the way? They'll move just out of the running for one of the top five guys in the draft.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10250050/tank-rank-boston-celtics-los-angeles-lakers-rising

[MarkGrace]

CJ Miles knocked down a cool 10 3pters tonight.

[MarkGrace]

(But G-Time triple-double watch if he plays in the 4th)

[MarkGrace]

And a Durant 50 point watch.

[LiveCoug]

44 for Durant. Thunder within 8.

[smokymountainrain]

Hayward with 37 on 16 shots and Durant with 48 on 34 shots.

[MarkGrace]

37/11/7

Hot damn. His shot definitely appears to be back. Last 8 games or so he's hitting +50% on around 4 attempts per game from 3.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

37/11/7

Hot damn. His shot definitely appears to be back. Last 8 games or so he's hitting +50% on around 4 attempts per game from 3.

Incredible how he has cycled through hot and cold streaks so far in his career, every single season. He has had stretches, sometimes extended stretches, where he plays like an all-star. And then he'll shoot 29% from 3 for two months.

Before this year, it really seemed consistent that when he had the ball more and was a focal point of the offense, he'd get hot. When he'd play more minutes with Al and just told to act like he was Bobby Hansen he would struggle. Obviously this year is a whole new game with him often being an opposing team's primary concern, playing with JLIII, a big shift in overall personnel, the contract issue likely weighing on him, etc. It will be interesting to see what he shoots from Jan 1 through the rest of the year, assuming Burke stays healthy.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

After a really rough stretch to start the year, Hayward is up to 17.3 in PER. Paul George's PER last year on his way to superstardom was 16.8. GH's reb rate has had a nice uptick, his ast rate is way up, and we know he's going to shoot better than he did to start the season. He'll probably push Favors for team PER lead by the end of the year; Favors currently at 18.5.

[Jacob]

After a really rough stretch to start the year, Hayward is up to 17.3 in PER. Paul George's PER last year on his way to superstardom was 16.8. GH's reb rate has had a nice uptick, his ast rate is way up, and we know he's going to shoot better than he did to start the season. He'll probably push Favors for team PER lead by the end of the year; Favors currently at 18.5.

Let's hope he has one more nice slump this year before stardom so that Boston doesn't make him a near-max offer we have to match.

What bad luck we have to catch OKC missing 2 of their best 3 players. But that we are 7-2 in close games (decided by 2 possessions or less) is a good sign that the this team is still a ways (a player?) away from being good. I look forward to a regression to the mean. Too bad we couldn't make the Jefferson to Cleveland deal work. I thought there was no way anybody would take Jefferson. Williams should be gone in about a month though. That'll hurt, but in a good way.

[smokymountainrain]

My favorite part of the game last night was when Harpring was pumping Fisher "for changing the game" with his toughness, getting into heads of the young Jazz players, etc. However, he failed to recognize that it was Burks who almost singlehandedly got the Jazz into the penalty by baiting Fisher into 4 straight fouls off the ball.

It was one my favorite sequences of the year watching one of my all-time Jazz players make one of my most hated Jazz players of all time look foolish. Burks was toying with Fisher and Harpring couldn't see it right in front of his face.

Also, it was shocking that the Jazz were able to pull out a win despite the fact that Marvin fouled out and Corbin was forced to play Burks down the stretch. I guess it was Hayward's greatness that allowed the Jazz to overcome Burks playing the last 5 minutes of the quarter.

[Maximus]

My favorite part of the game last night was when Harpring was pumping Fisher "for changing the game" with his toughness, getting into heads of the young Jazz players, etc. However, he failed to recognize that it was Burks who almost singlehandedly got the Jazz into the penalty by baiting Fisher into 4 straight fouls off the ball.

It was one my favorite sequences of the year watching one of my all-time Jazz players make one of my most hated Jazz players of all time look foolish. Burks was toying with Fisher and Harpring couldn't see it right in front of his face.

Also, it was shocking that the Jazz were able to pull out a win despite the fact that Marvin fouled out and Corbin was forced to play Burks down the stretch. I guess it was Hayward's greatness that allowed the Jazz to overcome Burks playing the last 5 minutes of the quarter.

I wish marvin never played

[Jacob]

My favorite part of the game last night was when Harpring was pumping Fisher "for changing the game" with his toughness, getting into heads of the young Jazz players, etc. However, he failed to recognize that it was Burks who almost singlehandedly got the Jazz into the penalty by baiting Fisher into 4 straight fouls off the ball.

It was one my favorite sequences of the year watching one of my all-time Jazz players make one of my most hated Jazz players of all time look foolish. Burks was toying with Fisher and Harpring couldn't see it right in front of his face.

Also, it was shocking that the Jazz were able to pull out a win despite the fact that Marvin fouled out and Corbin was forced to play Burks down the stretch. I guess it was Hayward's greatness that allowed the Jazz to overcome Burks playing the last 5 minutes of the quarter.

My favorite part of the broadcast ( I mean most annoying) is when Harpring kept harping on the point that the Jazz did a great jod defensively on Durrant when he score over 40 points in a previous game. As if hacking him and giving him 22 points on free throws had nothing to do with defense.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Smart with a monster game tonight against Texas: 24 points, 11 rebounds, 6 steals, and 5 assists. 20 FTAs.

He still intrigues me a lot because of how good he is on defense and how strong he is, meaning he could likely play next to Burke. I hate that he's still not shooting well, and seriously doubt that will ever change much. But if you could ensure in today's NBA that you would have a really good PG on the court for all 48 minutes of a game you would give your team a significant advantage. Burks has a 63% TS% when he plays with Burke this year. Favors is at 64.5%. Without Burke, Favors drops to 52% and Burks 47%.

The Jazz could end up at 5 and have their pick of Randle or Smart. Not bad.

[smokymountainrain]

Smart with a monster game tonight against Texas: 24 points, 11 rebounds, 6 steals, and 5 assists. 20 FTAs.

He still intrigues me a lot because of how good he is on defense and how strong he is, meaning he could likely play next to Burke. I hate that he's still not shooting well, and seriously doubt that will ever change much. But if you could ensure in today's NBA that you would have a really good PG on the court for all 48 minutes of a game you would give your team a significant advantage. Burks has a 63% TS% when he plays with Burke this year. Favors is at 64.5%. Without Burke, Favors drops to 52% and Burks 47%.

The Jazz could end up at 5 and have their pick of Randle or Smart. Not bad.

You really think Randle slips as far as 5? I can't see that, but I hope you're right.

I'm still not convinced Smart is a PG. I know he plays the point on his team and everybody calls him a 1, but he still looks me like a strong, scoring, athletic SG who can pass and make plays, much like DWade, than a true facilitating PG who runs an offense and consistently gets guys involved. He's only averaging 4 assists and even in that monster game tonight, it was his scoring and rebounding that stood out rather than his assisting.