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Paul Millsap – Problem or Solution?
Posted by: Jazz Man on January 21st, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.I love Paul Millsap. There are few players in the league with his work ethic. The highlight of this season was watching him go for 46 against the big three. He showed us that night, just how capable he really is.
“It shows you what he is about. When it gets tough, he doesn’t stop working. That’s what he been doing since he’s been with us, and works at his game to make himself better…” – Jerry Sloan
In games that we win, Paul is averaging over 18 ppg. In games that we lose? Just 15 ppg. When Paul scores 22 or more in games we are 7-1. He’s proven to other teams that he can be a real scoring threat, so why don’t the Jazz see him as one?
The power-forward position is key to the Jazz offense, 2nd only to the point-guard position. By his 5th season, Karl Malone was averaging 31 ppg and was the go-to-man on the Jazz team. So far this season, I have seen only a handful of games where Millsap has been the go-to. Louisiana Tech does more then produce rebounders, we need Paul to score.
Paul Millsap needs to become more aggressive. He needs to demand the ball earlier in games, and look to put it in the hoop. The Jazz need to call more plays for him on offense and get him going early. We can’t forget about him until the fourth quarter of games and expect to be an elite team. Enough with all the team basketball talk. If the Jazz play such a team game then why is Malone 2nd on the all time scoring chart? Playing team basketball means that everyone knows and executes their roles on the court.
Millsap has five years with the Jazz. He is every bit a leader of this team along-side Deron. It’s time for Paul to show us more of his Louisiana Tech blood. Malone and Stockton are past, it’s Williams to Millsap now.
Replies: 8
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8 Responses
I’m with you on this post. I’d like to see them spread the floor and he and Dwill run the pick and roll. I think Jefferson should be the second option since Millsap is a better passer in the post. That’s one thing Boozer did well compared to Al-his ability to pass to cutters in the post. I’d like to see more of that out of Al with AK/Millsap cutting. I think everyone knows the ball isn’t coming back out when it goes to Al, so they just stand there. So, if we can get the pick and roll going and have Big Al know to look for cutters in the lane, the Jazz will solve a lot of their offensive issues.
Solution
Excellent post.
The main problem I see is that you have two power forwards playing on the floor at the same time, and no true center. A pairing of Millsap and Okur, or Jefferson and Okur, is preferable to Millsap and Jefferson. We need Okur’s size, and rebounding ability, and we need to shift Jefferson back to his true position. That would mean using Paul off the bench as the team’s sixth man, where he has flourished in the past. You could soften the blow to Paul’s ego by still playing him starter minutes. The Jazz need more size in the starting lineup. They both can’t be the “man” because you can really only run the offense through one player at a time. When Malone, and Boozer were here, it was clear who that player was. The Jazz need to decide who is the second option on this team. Is it Paul or Al? I love Paul Millsap. He’s my second favorite Jazz player. But I say, start Memo, and run the offense through Jefferson. Then bring Paul in off the bench to be the leader, and “go to” guy with the second unit. Jefferson would have the size advantage over most other power forwards, where as noe, sometimes he seems a bit undersized trying to guard some of the taller centers. I’m also open to the idea of bringing Jefferson off the bench, and starting Memo and Millsap. We really need a true center on the floor with the first group though. Teams can just jump over our back for rebounds.
Ya Jefferson is often undersized but I don’t see Okur as that “true center” you say we need. Jefferson is a better defender than Okur imo and I don’t trust Okurs ability to stay healthy. But who knows… maybe with time Okur will land himself a spot back in the starting lineup. Time will tell.
@Jason
I think I agree with you, except that I would like to see conditional starting line-ups: against bigger frontlines [MEM Gasol & Randolph; LAL Gasol & Bynum; WAS McGee & Blatche; POR Camby & Aldridge, etc.] go with Okur & Jefferson, because Millsap just isn’t big enough to guard those giants (look at their stats against him); against most line-ups I’d probably stick with Jefferson & Millsap, with Okur creating match-up problems from the bench. In any case I wouldn’t want to see Millsap’s minutes cut by much.
I’m in agreement about playing Millsap and Jefferson at the sametime. Our offense is designed for a pg-pf 1-2 punch. Deron spends half the game trying to figure out which big man to go to. All the while Millsap and Jefferson are putting themselves in the role of Powerfoward.
Last year it was all D-will and Boozer. That left Okur knowing his place. It left him to help set screens to set up the offense for Boozer to get inside.
When you have to big men trying to play the same position they don’t help each other and Deron is trying to read two books at once. D-will needs one go to guy and the other to do the dirty work setting that guy up.
They just need time to know each other’s skills and weakness, you don’t build a performing frontcourt in 3 months….. and like JazzMan i don’t think Okur is a true Center, just a very big SF….