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I think logically, the Jazz should do better than last season.
Posted by: Ryan Tegtmeier on September 27th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.The Jazz’s perimeter shooting and defense were below average last year. I think that Ty Corbin’s experience as a head coach will make him be a better coach this season and even make him excel. I think that the core group of players returning from last year will give that semi-young team some much needed chemistry. To me, a big factor will be how much the players will be allowed to do what they do best and exploit it. I believe that Sloan’s system had eventually, at the end of his tenure as coach, stymied somwhat the players’ ability to use their skills and natural talents, especially on offense, more effectively. Millsap, for instance, has great post moves. Hayward has started to have a little bit better shooting percentage and he should be a key focal point on stretching their opponents’ defenses by finding his shot early. Randy Foye will help with that if his 3-point shooting percentage continues to be good. The whole team needs to shoot considerably better, for the most part, but look for the Jazz to have a stand out year in 2012-13. I see their perimeter shooting, defense, road record, coaching, and unity all being improved. Go Utah Jazz!
Replies: 12
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12 Responses
another thing that I forgot to mention, but was implied, is that the Jazz should be better this season because of their experience playing together and their playoff experience recently.
Also this year there is not any position that has a guarenteed starter as in years past.Even Tinsley could erupt as a starter.With that said competition is a good thing. I would hope the Bell thing is setteled so the Jazz can have a real fifteenth man. With the players competing for minutes there should be no let down with defense pressure and the going offense.
Do not be to disappointed when Foye is not as great as a lot of people think. He has not been a very consistently great shooter. His shooting stroke is crooked kinda like Watson. Last year could have been the Chris Paul, Blake Griffin effect on him
Same with Mo, When he plays with a superstar he is pretty good from 3 but when he does not he is not very good from three. I do not know if this is attitude cause the last year with the Cavs he had some attitude problems.
Interesting thoughts Dallon. Lets look from a positive angle though. Foye has someone to take the focus off his game, which should help. Same goes for MO. The Jazz need someone to step up and lead, so MO may be much more valuable than you think.
Last season everyone focussed on two many guys, Sap and Al. They closed down the paint because there was no outside shooting. The thing that looks positive is this year we have a couple players who can take advantage of freedom on the arc, and it should help Mo and Foye. Likewise it will help Sap, Al, and Favors. Without the paint being so crowded, we should see improvement out of our bigs.
Sound unlikely? Think of it in Football terms. Perimeter game is like the passing game in football, and all paint play is the running game. Last yr all we did is run As you pointed out, Foye and Mo are passing game guys. Everyone knows that with good running you open the passing and with good passing you open the running game. We are no longer limited to one or the other but have both.. So now we have a paint game and hopefully a perimeter game, each building off of the other. If it works as it should Mo, Foye, Hayward should open up the paint, and our already good paint game should make it easier on them at the perimeter as well.
Guess we will see in about 5 weeks if I am right, but I dont see a down side to have either Williams, or Foye on the team.
@ Patrick; I agree with you about Mo and Randy being assets. However, as Dallan stated, Foye needs work on his shooting skills. Foye’s career 3-point shooting average is 36.6% and he shoots about 3 of those per game. In 2007-08 his average was 41.2%; his greater weakness has always been the 2-pointers. His career 2-point shooting average is 41.1%. I liked him a lot when he played for Minnesota, I always wanted the Jazz to have him. I will always say that many diverse things can improve a player’s career, and in the NBA it is especially a player’s happiness in their role on the team and his/her confidence in the team’s chemistry with which to build strong. By the way, Foye is an excellent free-throw shooter. Of course, Mo has been the league longer and has been able to maintain making a consistent impact on games throughout his career; he also has slightly better career shooting percentage averages from every shooting category. And @ L.K. – competing for minutes has always tended to make players better; you are absolutely correct. Utah’s perimeter shooting being a major factor in success has Corbin spending more time on it in practices; he strikes me as a smart coach and I think that shooting is something that he knows needs serious consideration in paying more attention to it. All it takes is practice, as they say. One last thing – to state it a better way, one thing that I like about what Corbin seems to be doing is to give his players ample room to do what they are best at and improve upon essential skills in the NBA. The Jazz staff see the players exceed being allowed more independence on the court, meaning that the staff has more confidence in them. Corbin is giving them more ability to grow as players; even more than the past several years, contrary to what many would disagree on. Their playoff performance, even as many would disagree, was promising and gave them crucial experience for this year. I’m not sure, but I think ESPN.com ranked the Jazz last in the Western Conference before last season began. They proved everybody that they are better than people think. I watch the Jazz a lot and it has been many, many years since they have been allowed to move more freely. I hate to say it, but for the last 6-7 years that Sloan was coaching the team, the player’s freedom became more and more rigid. That is not good, productive basketball.
by the way, I wish that the Jazz would’ve kept Harris longer. I don’t know if they can’t afford to or what, but they can’t seem to keep a good core of players together long enough to effectively build team chemistry. Harris was playing quite well for the Jass during the last few months of last season. I don’t get it.
@Ryan I agree. I think Foye and Mo could be good but I do not think we should expect miracles. I just always position myself for worse off then I am not disappointed when the season comes haha. I get extremely upset every time we lose. My wife does not like me when we lose.
I think the main reason Harris is not here is we have SG’s and that was what Harris was. He wasnt much of a leader, but he was a heck of a player. Had we not needed a leader for the team, not a “by example leader” as we are chock full of, but a Watson who plays good enough to start, we probably could have kept him.
I just cant wait to see this season. I think they will be better than fine, and will exceed all expectations again. As our young guys become Top teir players, I think they can become the All Stars everyone is looking for. They just need time, and as Ryan said, some continuity.
Positives of Randy Foye:
1. Better than CJ, Bell & Howard!
2. Signed for only 2.5 mil..
3. Should be hungry to prove himself! (one year deal)
4. Seems to have positive attitude.. Cough BELL…
5. Had a lot of practice throwing alley oops as a Clipper. ” Favors & Evans”
Stop being negative!
Anther positive about foye and mo is even if they are inconsistent on shooting they have a great passing eye. Mo was almost up to 4 assist a game backing up paul and foye playing back up sg was almost at 3 a game. They maybe an improvement on shooting or not thats not really what im excited about. Im more excited to see these two guys getting that offence flowing and that ball moving around. Which is what we need more than outside shooting anyway.
But Minnesota improved, Lakers improved, New Orleans improved, Denver got Iggy, Portland got a PG, Dallas re-loaded, Golden State is better (until Curry/Boguy get hurt), the Kings picked up another good rookie for a real tough front court to counter ours. Spurs, OKC should be as good as last year. Memphis too. It’s a tough conference.
So I guess the question is will our improvements (which will come from the development of our young four plus whatever Foye/Mo-Will/Marv-Will bring over Raja/Howard/CJ) be enough to push us further up from our barely-8th-place finish last year among all the improved Western Conference teams?
yeah. @ K.C. – That is a good point. I’m really excited for this season. I think that if they can get a good start and win some games early, that will give them motivation to play more consistent. They have a very tough schedule in November. The first game, which is in October, starts against the Mavs. That game and the November games has a ratio of 9:8 of playoff teams versus non-playoff teams. If they can win 5 against last year’s playoff teams and 7 against last year’s non-playoff teams during that span, their record will be 12-5. That would be a great confidence builder. I am also looking forward to the commentary of the Jazz team and staff during training camp and preseason. I can see them being in good spirits and upbeat before the season starts. One of the most exciting things that I am looking forward to about the Jazz is that many of the core players are returning this year. They have lacked chemistry somewhat for years because of so many roster changes and they should be able to capitalize on knowing each others’ strengths, weaknesses, and ability to play better as a team.