Meet
Ranking the Jazz Player-by-Player
Posted by: Ryan Martinez on August 17th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.First off, let me just say, that this is all my opinion, and I won’t be offended if anyone disagrees.
So the first thing I did was come up with 4 categories to grade the players on. Offense, Defense, Energy, and Potential. Next I came up with the grade scale. F=0 D=1 C=2 B=3 A=4 A+=5. Then I compiled the grade each player received in each category, and came up with an average.
Let’s start with the guards:
Player………………….Offense….Defense….Energy….Potential…Total
Mo Williams B C B C B-
Jamaal Tinsley C C C C C
Earl Watson C D C C C-
Randy Foye B C C C C+
Alec Burks B C A B B
Raja Bell F C F F F+
Gordon Hayward A A A A A
Now the Frontcourt:
Player………………….Offense….Defense….Energy….Potential…Total
DeMarre Carroll C C A+ C B-
Marvin Williams B B B B B
Jeremy Evans C B A+ C B
Paul Millsap B A A B A-
Derrick Favors B A A A+ A
Al Jefferson A C C B B-
Enes Kanter B B A A A-
Replies: 20
Views: 810
20 Responses
Very nice. I love that you went off speculation and your own opinion and feelings. I agree with pretty much all of it.
I’d give Watson an F on offense, Burks an A for potential, Bell a D on defense, Foye a B for energy, Hayward A- for offense and potential, Marvin an A- on defense, Evans a C+ on defense, Millsap a C on defense and B- on potential, Favors a B- on offense and B on energy, Jefferson a B- on offense and D on defense and D on energy.
Are you basing the offensive rankings off of the system we run or the ability on offense overall no matter what offense? This is a serious question I would like to know. I am not putting you down.
I think Offense and defense need to count more than Potential and Energy to show how good someone is which is shown by Carrol’s score
Tinsley and Watson don’t really have much potential, I am a big fan of Hayward but he is all A’s just yet.
Its a good system for comparing Jazz players against each other as you have done, but wouldn’t work against the rest of the league.
@Zach: I didn’t want to do + and – in the initial grades, just when i averaged out the score(except for A+, because I wanted to show where some excelled). I agree that some of my grades are probably off, I was kind of tired when I did this.
@Dallan: I just did offensive ability in general.
@Dean: I agree that offense and defense should count for a heck of a lot more than energy and potential, but I thought those were important qualities, and I was a little too tired to figure out how to weigh it all.
This wasn’t meant to determine players as best-to-worst, or too compare them against other teams, but to determine how valuable the player could be to a Jazz team on the verge of contention.
@Dean I would have to say though it has to be what role you play on the team. For the role that Carrol plays I think that is accurate. I think just like anything else you look at what minutes/role they play and then look at stuff and put it together
@Ryan I would say overall on offense then the numbers I would change. Almost everyone would change if they were in an appropriate situation for them.
I would say Burks is an A, Gordy A- to B+, Demarre more of a B, Jeremy a B-, Favors and Kanter both A-
But like I said that woud be what I think they would do in an appropriate system for their skills. I think a motion offense would do everyone on this team wonders. A system like the Spurs run. That woukd be ideal. Cause whether the coaches want to agree to it or not the game has changed and they say they do not want to shoot three’s which is ludicrous to me.
@Ryan, are you measuring them against the NBA or within the team??
If its within the team, then ya absolutely Hayward deserve As all around. Hayward can drive, shoot, dish, so hes the offensive standard for the Jazz cuz he can get his shot, creat a shot for others, and fish at the rim or make a spot up shot. Id say A- until he develops a post game. Hayward guarded Parker, Ginobili, Durant, Wade, Kobe, LBJ…enough said, A+.
What Watson is on offense, Al is on defense: D-
Id give Watson an F, but he can pass, so that creates offense, Al interior defense is a C, help defense D, P&R F–, so overall a D-
Interesting Ryan, If you took the top graded players and made them the starters. The starting five would be Burks, Hayward, Millsap, Favors, Kanter.
Not a bad lineup
I thought one of the main reasons we brought Mo Williams in was because we got burned by Tony Parker in the playoffs and just about every other point guard in the league and we needed an upgrade on perimeter defense. Isn’t Mo Williams pretty well known for is tough defense and he got a C?
Mo Williams was an upgrade on Harris, but there are still lots of better point guards.
I would say his defense is a B for the toughness he brings but I do not know if his one on one defense is really that great. The problem was people were ok blaming Harris for not guarding Parker but it was the big (Al) who did not step out enough which caused bad defense on the PG. so it made it look worse then it actually was and I guarantee we see better from Harris in the ATL.
I think Harris is 90% responsible for (not) guarding his man. Al should only receive maybe 10% of the blame. What you said is correct, he should be stepping higher in the key. But it was still Harris letting him by. Mo will be a big upgrade on defense I think, even though like Dallan said….I bet Harris does a great job in Atlanta.
I agree overall he will be an upgrade on defense. I think Harris struggled one on one. I do think you are still going to see some of the same deficiencies we had last year though.. Defense works inside out. Weak on the inside weak on the outside.
I agree with Dallan’s assessment on weakness inside creates weakness on the outside. Al is slow and not as mobile a defender. Favors is an obvious upgrade on defense and hopefully Kanter in the future. That why I believe in trading Jefferson. Not personal as some people like to think. Just business.
Does anyone tweet lockedonsports???
I heard one of his podcasts and he was talking about how Utah, statistically, one of the best teams at forces opposing teams take bad shots, yet we were one of the worse teams at defending those bad shots once we forced opposing teams to take them.
Lockedonsports couldnt really figure out why that is….so can someone maybe ask him, if he thinks the reason for those two stats to be true could be because the Jazz were such a bad P&R defending team that we would over rotate because we allowed guards to penetrate with ease and kick to WIDE open shots. So technically a defense would want teams to take a ton of outside shots, yet when those shots are wide open because everyone has to overrotate to cover poor initial @P&R defense, cough cough Al, those shots are actually practice shots.
That would make sense as to why we can force teams to take a lot of outside shots, but are unable to put a hand in the shooters face.
I liked Raja’s grades lol.
ummm…..no.
@Omar
lockedonsports is David Locke, and he is an arrogant jerk on twitter. Almost everytime you ask him a serious question, he responds like he’s god and everyone else are morons.
@ Kevin Maybe you were being an arrogant jerk first. Ive never had any bad experiences with him. I think he actually does a pretty good job. I get sick of NBA beat writers and ESPN know nothings that beef up high profile players leaving out real talent around the league. Lock has a solid Gauge on the NBA and what players can and cant do. Teams need stats to win and he is one of the better stats guys in the business.
@ Omar. From what I got out of what he was saying, is that we actually put other players, especially wing players in lower shot % zones. Meaning they took shots from where you would want the opposing teams to take their shots from, because they are statistically low % shots overall. Like we pushed players to the baseline last season, closing their lane opportunities etc. He said that for some reason opponents did still score at those spots that we pushed them to. He thinks jazz have set a formula for a good defense last year and now maybe we are getting better defensive personal to do the job. Which I agree.
Locke doesnt really bash Al, but he frequently makes clear how many possesions Al uses compared to the rest of the league and the stars like Durant that he compares to with offensive touches.