Meet
FES!!!!!
Posted by: Steve on February 17th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.So i posted the other day about a roster shakeup, and i suggested maybe we should start Fesenko next to Jefferson and bring Milsap off the bench. But everybody and there grandma replied about how pathetic Fes is and how he is an embarrassment to this franchise… hmm… a bit harsh and uncalled for i believe.
I found this reading an article from John Hollinger, a writer for espn talking about our beloved Fesenko…. haha
I’m not sure whether he’s in Utah’s long-term plans, given the immaturity issues he has shown and his glaring lack of offensive skill, but Fesenko can help the right team for one single reason: The dude is huge. And because of that, he has had a tremendous impact on games defensively.
According to basketballvalue.com, Utah gives up 97.53 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the floor … and 109.78 when he isn’t. That 12.26 point differential is by far the greatest on the team and leads one to wonder why he hasn’t been paired more with either Al Jefferson or Paul Millsap — perhaps even as a starter. He’s an unrestricted free agent after the season, so if the Jazz aren’t interested in using him, perhaps somebody else can make it work.
Wow… i was honestly shocked to read that, but he’s good at something and thats being BIG!!! Which makes a difference even if it doesn’t show up in the box score!!
Replies: 7
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7 Responses
The problem with starting Fes is on the offensive side. I’d say his best pairing would be with Al, because Al has better post moves than Millsap. But you know Fes’ defender is going to always be jumping over to help on Al, making it even harder to score down low. At least with Al/Millsap, the defenders have to respect both players.
We need to get healthy, get some confidence back, and close out games. Jazz need a 2nd guy who can win the game at the end. With the Warriors last night, we saw that they have two guys who can carry the team and make the plays down the stretch: Curry and Ellis. The Jazz have Deron, and if he can’t do it, then the Jazz fail at closeout time (see: Last three games).
I’m all for giving Fes a shot, because I think a Watson-Millsap-CJ 2nd unit looks WAY better than a Watson-CJ-Fes 2nd unit, it would let Al match up on the other teams PF instead of their center, Millsap would destroy the other teams backup PF, and CJ would be scoring option #2 instead of scoring option #1 off the bench, which I think he would do better at. The downside is that the first unit would be less effective scoring, and that’s already been an issue. Who knows though, it might establish Al and Millsap as the go-to-guys better instead of now where they’re not sure if they’re ‘the guy’ or not.
The trouble with Fes is, he just isn’t that good. When you put him in, somebody else has to come off the floor and it’s going to just about be guaranteed they are a better player.
That being said, Ostertag wasn’t very good either, and I believe Fes’s ceiling is higher than Tag’s was. Tag was good enough to start in the finals. In other words I can see Fes getting more minutes, but I wouldn’t start him until he earns it, which he certainly hasn’t.
Don’t know if that helps, but that’s where I’m at on Fes. I thought this year would be the year he made his presence felt, but he still has a long way to go. I kinda feel like he’s been wasted in the sense that a guy can’t learn basketball by sitting on the bench. He should have been D-leagued.
HE CANT LEARN IF HE DONT PLAY. You can scrimmage in practice all you want but you have to play to get better. He needs a true center to guide him. Memo is not a true center either but he can score.
If you watch Fess playing he does more harm than good. He plays just a few minutes. With his fouls, turnovers, and dumb plays he is not worth it. Houston wanted him, trade him for Courtney Lee.
I’ve said this countless times. Fes is a blob. He’s big and huge, true. But he just walks back and forth and does nothing but take up space. He doesn’t pass good. He doesn’t rebound good. He doesn’t shoot good. He doesn’t defend good. He’s a blob. Believe me, Jerry Sloan and Ty Corbin aren’t idiots. They know how big he is. But they also know that he doesn’t play very well which is why they both wisely keep him on the bench for most of the game and give him few minutes. If he actually knew how to play basketball, believe me, he would be starting and getting huge minutes. Not rocket science here, buddy. Don’t be fooled by his size.
If you recall the pre-season games – there he showed (against some weaker opposition, of course) some real moves.
I am going against the crowd here and say: Challenge him. Start him and give him extended minutes so he has a chance to toughen up (nothing makes you fitter than being on the court day in day out) and become smarter on defense (right now he gets way too many fouls). Get his mind set to be an important contributor.
Right now Ty doesn’t have to lose much. How about this starting line-up:
Watson, Williams, Millsap, Jefferson, Fesenko.
It’s slow and defensively you’d opt for a zone, but you’d have a lot of rebounding in there as well as scoring options.
No one sees more or knows more about each individual player than the coaches , they want to win and I am sure they play each man according to what they see on a daily basis, no one is better suited to pick the line ups than the coach, so be a fan and don’t try to coach the team.