Meet
Hayward should have covered Kobe
Posted by: John Jacobs on January 12th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Someone please explain this to me. Hayward in the game last April gave Kobe a lot trouble defensively. Why then wouldn’t you try Hayward on Kobe again? I know I know Raja is a great defender—-really? 40 points? Hayward could not have done worse and who knows based on last years performance might have again been effective against Kobe.
Replies: 9
Views: 388
* * ½ 3 Votes
9 Responses
Kobe was 7 of 17 when guarded by Raja according to David Locke. That’s 41%. That means he was 7 of 14 when guarded by anyone else…including Hayward. 11 of Kobe’s points were at the foul line where he missed none. And you saw some of those calls….
Overall I think Raja gave a great effort. Yeah maybe Hayward could have done better but then again maybe not. Kobe went off for 48 the night before and the refs are on his side. Jazz fans need to give Raja a break he played his guts out last night.
I agree, Hayward should’ve covered Kobe. At least then he would’ve been covering someone, because he wasn’t doing any of that as things are.
Here’s why Hayward should have been covering Kobe:
Hayward will be on the team in three years with a major role. Raja will be retired.
@Bracken Raja played his guts out last night? Please he could not even stay on the court at the start because of foul trouble and then when he was in you could see all that he was thinking about was trying to shut down Kobe which obviously did not work to his advantage. I have nothing against Bell but we need more production out of our 2 guard is that to much to ask? I mean Kobe just had 88 points in two games. That is going to take Raja half a season to get that many points. We need to find someone that can score having Raja in there for what I hear “good defense” is not the solution.
Who knows how good Hayward would have done (In my opinion probably not much better) but to give him credit he needs to start showing a little more confidence in himself. He should have been the one to shoot the last shot last night but he looks like he is scared and I think that is why he is struggling.
Agreed 40 points on you is not great defense no matter how hard you try. Granted some of those fouls were horrendous. Haywards length and quickness messes with Kobe. No one is scared of Raja Anymore. Bell sucks and is beyond me why he still starts. Cmon Corbin
@KC Jones – I agree completely!
Raja Bell should NEVER have 30+ minutes! ESPECIALLY in a loss. I understand the argument about trading wins for minutes for our young players, but in the case of Raja, more minutes doesn’t give us a better chance to win.
Gordon Hayward is going to continue to be up and down until we get him back to the Shooting Guard spot where he is comfortable. As tall as he is, on paper you would figure he would definitely be a Small Forward, but watch his play whenever he gets moved to the Shooting Guard and it is like he knows what to do, while a lot of times at the Small Forward he looks lost. Further, I think he is by far our best wing defender. He did great on Rudy Gay earlier this year, and should have been matched up vs. Kobe. We went into LA at the end of last year and beat them because we weren’t afraid of their strengths. We threw our bigs at their bigs and threw Hayward at Kobe and figured that we could win the game at the other two spots. That is the only way to win LA, you have to make Kobe guard as much as he focuses on offense. Raja Bell just doesn’t have the offensive game to get Kobe tired, but when Hayward is at the Shooting Guard he is driving and scoring while also being so long he bothers Kobe. For the most part I love what Ty Corbin is doing with the Jazz, but I really think we are missing it with Hayward at the Small Forward.
@Colorado and @KC Jones, give KOC and Miller a call and see if you can take Corbin’s job. Or at least David Locke’s. Because you both disagree with them.
Hayward is better at the 2. But if we start him there then we start Howard at the 3 and have no consistent offense on the 2nd Unit unless Favors is on which is up and down. If you think Raja can’t play defense then why did Ty put him in against Ellis at the end of the GS game? Why not Hayward? Ty must be a basketball idiot? Yes I wish we had more offensive production from any of our wings. But @Colorado comparing Bell to Kobe scoring 88 points in two nights is dumb. I hate Kobe but there aren’t a lot of players better than him in the history of the game. So when you say all that he was thinking was trying to shut Kobe down, what would you like him to be thinking? “Coach wants me to guard Kobe, but I’m just not going to worry about it, who cares if he destroys us”?
I do see your point @Jared about making Kobe tired. That is a great point. I realize Hayward drives more. But this year he isn’t scoring more. And that really shouldn’t matter on position most of the time. His jumper is off. Even when he is wide open. Which makes less space for him to drive. His FG% is way down from last year.
Anyway just my thoughts but I have to disagree on most points with you. I think, for now, Coach Corbin is doing the best he can, and I think he probably has a different plan for the future. Things may change soon, but we had our chance to win the Laker game.
We are talking about a game last year towards the end..smdh.. shut that shyt up… Heyward cannot guard his armpits with rightgaurd much less KOBE the BLACK MOMBA.. OH YEAH WHO IN THE LEAGUE IS STOPPING HIM LOL.. People cut the crap. Heyward is just not that freaking person that everyone thinks is soo good or is going to be. BURKS WLL BE BETTER AND IS BETTER lol.. And BELL was definitely the correct choice.
I just know Hayward showed me a game at the end of last year that Raja will NEVER be able to show us.
But hey, my theory is that Raja is starting and playing so many minutes so that we have a better shot at a lottery pick in this upcoming loaded draft. So in a way its win-win.