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AK’s departure weakens us.
Posted by: Patrick on June 16th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.If you read back on these blog posts you will find that most people agree as to what our needs our as a team. The difference is in how we should fix our problems. We all agree that perimeter defense, perimeter shooting, and rebounding is what our team needs to improve upon. Then the very next line you hear someone say, so we need to draft two bigs.. Ok, how many bigs shoot from 3 point range? How many bigs defend the perimeter, let alone do any good at it? Hmm, so I am guessing they are getting Bigs for rebounding correct? Then look at this draft and see how many bigs within this draft will help with our needs?
Lets look at why Bigs could improve us, but they wont make us a winning team. Well to put say Biyombo on the floor to gather rebounds and play defense in the paint, you take Millsap or AL off the floor. Yes defense may improve, and you may get one or two extra rebounds correct. But you give up points in a big way. Even if Biyombo does great deffensively and grabs those two extra boards he probably wont get much more than 12 ppg. So we lose scoring when he is in the game. The important thing here is did we get better? No, we did not address the above needs for perimeter defense and or shooting by putting Biyombo on the floor. We didnt improve our wing or guard rebounding either.. We replaced one productive big, with a different productive big.
So, ok, we put Valanciunas on the floor so that we dont lose out on points. Say he does as well as Al scoring wise, and he ends up being a better defender and he starts next season (stretch). He defends the paint gets another rebound or two per game. Did we improve and are we contendors? No, we didnt address our perimeter shooting very much, and we didnt address perimeter defense. Again, we solved nothing. We took a productive player off the floor and replaced them with another productive player.
Say Favors takes off next season. He rebounds better than Millsap and we know he does a bit better defensively. Al is doing well and we have Kanter backing them both up adding size and such. Will this make us contendors? No, we still have not fixed our perimeter shooting and defense. Seeing the pattern? We may improve a little, but the “Big” suggestion doesnt make us contendors with our big hole on the perimeter.
If we bring Knight in here, will that address our needs? Not really, but maybe some. Again, your taking a productive Harris off the floor and putting a productive Knight out there, unless Harris and Knight are on the floor at the same time.. You then slide Hayward to SF, but I like him as SG. Am I against any of the players I have mentioned. No, because they may be upgrades to the guys they replace. But bottom line is until we fix our problems of perimeter defense and shooting, we will be a very similar team. So how do we address these issues?
Well, where is the problem? Its out on the perimeter, in the form of lack of defense and shooting. Our wings are not helping out with the rebounds either, much.. Hayward is going to start helping us in this coming season. We saw improvement in his game. He seems to work very well at the SG position, so I say lets keep him there. So our problem is in SF position and depth.
AK’s departure hurts us. We lose out on 12 ppg, 5 rebs, 3 ast, 1 st, 1 blk per game. That is a huge loss, in an area we are already weak. AK, when on the floor last season made us a better team. With Miles poor offensive effeciency, and inconsistant play, do you want him replacing AK on a full time basis? This is already a problem, and due to become a much bigger one if we do not address it. You may not like Bell, but for the time being, coming off the bench would not be a bad plan for him, unless we find a nice trade for him.
So looking at the situation, it seems we need to finish grooming Hayward and find a decent back up at the SG position. But the biggest problem we have is a gaping hole at the SF position. Millsap is rumored to be working on his game, to maybe plug that hole. If that happens, then who fills his shoes at the PF, or backup PF position? Say Favors jumps right in next season, without Millsaps help at PF we lack depth there and at Center.. So how do we fix the problem?
There are several different ways, the draft being first since we are strapped for funds. One solutions is to rely on Harris, bring Kanter in to back up PF and Center, move Millsap to SF, and find a backup SG/SF. Singleton and Hamilton could fill that spot. Another possible solution is leave Millsap in his spot, bring in a SF Leonard, and then Hamilton or Singleton.. Again these are just some scenerios, but they are things we should be looking at.
I guess if we got two PG’s then we could trade Harris away. In a perfect world maybe we get what we want. Send Harris, Bell, and Miles to porland, and Bring back Mathews, Batum, and Babbitt. But is it a perfect world? Can any two PG’s in this draft come in and be productive immediately? Wish wish wish. There are even wishes for trading away our dead weight to fill our needs, but who really wants Okur, Bell, or Miles?
What are your thoughts? Look at our roster, and look at our stats for last season. With AK possibly moving on, and us already weak on the wing, is getting two bigs a smart idea? I guess you could if you wanted to continue building for a few yrs, and thought that one or two of this yrs bigs would come immediately and would really turn into something big and solid.
Many guys say trading down may not be smart. If we landed Leonard, Singleton or Burks, and Harris Hamilton or Brooks, would that be better than Knight and Singleton, or Kanter and Fredette? How about a Leonard, Biyombo, Hamilton or Harris? What makes our team better. AK leaving hurts us. Maybe we get lucky and he loves us too much to go. I doubt it though.
I still havent mentioned Veseley or Valanciunas much because until they get their contracts cleared up we cannot afford to draft them. They could be the top picks in the draft, but without knowing they are available when we need them, whats the point in drafting them. So we can say they are developing overseas? Yeah, we made a great draft pick, and hopefully we will see him in 3 yrs. We need guys now, not in 3 yrs. We need to develop them here, to an NBA game, not in Europe where they like them tall and skinny.
Well, there is no perfect fix or scenerio, but I can think of a lot of bad ones. We draft Valanciunas and biyombo. Valanciunas cant get his contract worked out and we dont see him for 2 more yrs. Biyombo comes in, provides great defense, and little to no offense. Or becomes a foul troubled player who rides the pine for the remainder of his contract. Due to lack of funds, we bring in two D leaguers to fill our wing positions and they flop and we make it to the lottery next season. Wasted 2 lottery picks.
Here are some possible team lineups depending upon the draft and how we choose. Pick the lineup you like best or add one of your own. Then let us know why you chose it. Hopefully it will be to make the team better, instead of having a man crush. Some are lineups assuming we traded down and drafted 3 guys instead of two.
1) D Harris/Watson, Hayward/Bell/Miles, Leonard/T Harris/Evans, Favors/Millsap/Okur, Al/Biyombo/Okur. Traded down for another pick. (Leonard, Biyombo, T Harris)
2) Harris/Knight, Hayward/Knight/Bell/Miles, Millsap/Singleton/Evans/Miles, Favors/Okur/Millsap, Al/Okur/Favors (Knight, Singleton)
3) Harris/Fredette, Hayward/Bell/Miles, Millsap/Evans/Miles, Favors/Kanter/Okur, Al/Kanter/Okur (Kanter, Fredette)
4) Harris/Watson, Hayward/Singleton/Bell/Miles, Leonard/Singleton/Evans/Miles, Millsap/Favors/Okur/Motiejunas, Al/Favors/Okur/Motiejunas (Leonard, Singleton, Motiejunas)
5) Harris/Watson, Hayward/K Thompson/Bell, Millsap/Evans/Miles, Favors/Okur, Al/Valanciunas (Valanciunas, K Thompson)
6) Harris/Watson, Hayward/Bell/Miles, Millsap/Evans/Miles, Favors/Biyombo/Okur, Al/Valanciunas/Okur (Valanciunas, Biyombo)
7) Harris/Knight/Fredette, Hayward/Bell/Miles, Miles/Evans/Millsap, Millsap/Favors/Okur, Al/Favors/Okur (Knight, Fredette)
Harris/Fredette/Watson, Hayward/Hamilton/Bell, Hamilton/T Harris/Evans, Millsap/Favors/Okur, Al/Favors/Okur (Fredette, Hamilton, T Harris)
Replies: 14
Views: 831
14 Responses
Take two asprin and you will be fine in eight days..
Totally agree! We must not forget that we still need depth on our team. It’ll be better for us to keep AK47 and not only him but also other guys that can contribute from the bench. We must remember that team depth is the one that helped the Mavs to get the title.
LK, fine now. I have no headache. May be causing them, but I am fine. LOL Guessing you didnt like any of the above. No speculations?
LOL, just noticed that my 8 turned into a smiley face. Its an 8, not one that I specifically like..
AK is a very weak Small Forward. We need to upgrade at that position. AK is a liability on defense! He is a good off ball defender, but gets beat like a drum when he is an on-ball defender. I will be happy when the Jazz have turned the page on AK. IMHO, Derrik Williams would be the ideal pick at 3, but if we took Kanter, we could either trade Milsap for a decent SF or give him more minutes there. By the end of the year, he was doing a better job defending at the Small Forward spot.
I agree that Gordon Hayward played much better at the SG position. He has the speed to stick with SGs, and his length really bothered Kobe, but most Small Forwards overpowered him earlier in the year.
@Jared I dont think I have heard one scout or analyst say that Williams will play the 3. The only thing I have heard is he would be like Milsap, he can play the 3 in certain situations but not full time and I tend to agree.
@Woody – He gets a lot of that because he played the PF slot with Arizona, but that was more because of their personel than his game. At a true 6′8″, most college teams will have him as a Power Forward. When you look at his skillset, I think that he is a better fit at the Small Forward in the NBA. He has a sweet outside shot. He can penetrate and finish, as well as having a decent post game, and he is very athletic. He may be able to spend time at the PF slot if a team was going small and quick, but he has even come out and said that he will be a SF in the NBA.
The Jazz have several needs. Your not possibly going to address all of them in one draft, or even in one off season.
With the third pick, you go best player available. That player will most likely be Brandon Knight, if Irving and Williams are already off the board.
When it comes to the 12th pick, I would take Alec Burks if he’s still available. Drafting Burks would be like filling two holes at once, because you could then move Hayward to small forward.
If he’s not available, then I would take Biyombo if he’s still on the board (his interior defense and rebounding will help you win games…period), because Okur’s status is still uncertain, and we need better alternate options then Fesenko or Elson.
If he’s also gone, I would then select Chris Singleton (who could help us with our perimeter defense).
Ian…I agree with your comment about the Mavs. If the Jazz want to win a title, they will have to do it with depth. They will need to be at least two-deep at every position, because with Williams departure, they are now lacking that “star” player. They will need to come at teams in waves. They will have to be unselfish, and dedicated to playing team defense.
Agree on getting D-will. *if possible
There are problems with our picks. Here we go again. Williams makes sense. At least your trying to fill the SF position, or as I like to call it the “AK Miles Gap”. Knight makes sense. Kanter makes sense. Singleton makes sense. I love Burks but he doesnt fit unless you can get him and a SF, because if not then your moving Hayward to SF, when he is better at SG. So you weaken him and the team.. SF, is our hole.
Even prior to talking depth, its the hole you must fix. So almost every scenerio, should stay with the theme of drafting a starting SF. If you go Williams, you can go anywhere after that. If you go Kanter, then it should be a SF after that. If you go Knight, should again be a SF. I know we cannot fill every hole with this draft, but we need to fill the main one.. We do not have the funds to try and fix it in free agency.
I almost think you get Williams and Hamilton or Singleton. Hamilton and Singleton can both play both SF and SG positions. Our gaping hole is on the Wing right now. We have options for the other positions. We have no money for free agency, so unless you fill the big hole, we arent going anywhere next season. That was the whole reason for the post. To show our gaping hole…. LOL
There are other ways to fill the hole. Trades, but who are you going to get for Bell, Okur, or Miles? Then your left with Harris, Al, or Millsap as trade bait. Dont shoot the messenger. I would love to pick up Knight and Burks. Wouldnt personally mind Fredette. But can we afford to take what we want vs what we need? What is best available?
Last is D Will 2 better than Leonard as SF? Maybe we should trade down. Get Leonard, Singleton, and Harris. Dont know, just trying to add to the conversation..
It seems so simple. You would think with the 3rd pick you could get a great SF… well at least a really good one. Seems like our options have either strong offensive skill sets such as DWill & Hamiton or strong defensive skillsets in Leonard & Singelton. Kanter is not SF but may hard to pass up because he is one of the only players that appears to versatile both ways… but what do we really know for sure about him anyway???
Also… one thought I keep having about how to improve our perimeter D (besides the obvious of drafting Singleton) is to stop reflexively double teaming in the post and leaving high pecentage shooters open all over the floor. In the past we didn’t trust our bigs (Okur & Boozer) to get it done, I hope Corbin starts to trusts Favors and AJ/Millsap to do the their “best” and keep the wings out defending their men.
Patrick, it’s likely going to come down to Knight/a healthy Kanter at #3… that’s a tough choice. If Williams does slip, we are faced with Knight/Williams… that’s a tough choice. I’m for Knight, Kanter/Williams but sorry… this fantasy draft won’t happen.
Anyway you slice it, the Jazz have a difficult choice at the 3 spot. If Harris can stay healthy/we acquire a young, solid backup PG via trade, free agency/the draft, Kanter may help us the most, assuming of course, that Paul Millsap can effectively transition to the SF position. I believe he can. If so, problem solved at the SF position. In my opinion, Kanter is the most prepared BIG option available to us in this draft who can play C/PF. He would be a definite plus/fill a need for the Utah Jazz who will likely loose 3 BIG BIGS/an athletic BIG this off season. KOC has to be preoccupied here. Just my take.
LOL, you guys are on the same page. I am glad I dont need to decide. If I could I would nab both Knight and Kanter. But we know thats not realistic. I like them both for the reasons you guys do. I think 12th pick will be just as tough. Its a tough draft and hard to know who is the best available. Burks, K Thompson, Biyombo, Singleton, Fredette, Harris, and Hamilton are all guys they could be looking at.
Its said that this draft is weak, but deep with potential starters. If you could drop down and get 3 of them, that may even be smart. Or maybe trade Miles and or Bell for an extra pick all the from 10 – 20. There are some guys that may slip that far, that are worth looking at.
Brooks, Harris, Hamilton, K Thompson, Vucivic, and Jackson are all rumored to be out that way. Many of these guys are rumored to be sleepers, or at least solid back ups if not starters. Getting excited, only a week to go.
Patrick, I agree. This draft is very difficult to read. They’ll be a lot of head scratching down the road when these players reveal their true NBA identities. June 23, 2011 is a big day for true fans of the game like those of us who interact at Jazz360. Just my take.