Meet
First practice updates
Posted by: brandonbrinton on December 12th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.I figure I’d try and post some updates I’ve found on how players are doing at Jazz Training camp.
Memo said about Kanter, “He works his ass off and he is hungry.” Memo was also very proud to hear that Kanter is a huge Memo fan and Kanter used to wake up at 4 AM to watch Jazz games and just watch Memo play. This made Kanter a huge Jazz fan. Thanks Brian T. Smith from the Jazz SLC tribune for this news. Memo seems really motivated this year.
Jazz renewed a partnership with Delta. Perhaps the Delta center is coming back? Hopefully. Energy Solutions arena is a stupid name. Source Brian T. Smith from the SLC tribune
CJ and Hayward are currently the only two Jazz players fighting for the SF spot. According to Deseret news writer Jody Genessy (he is present at the post practice meetings). Does this mean Millsap is no longer going to play at the SF spot? It looks like it to me. The offer to Howard is still out there too. But Howard is considering multiple offers.
Coach Corbin said on Hayward, “”He’s a perimeter player that can play multiple spots on the perimeter.” Perhaps he will end up at the SG stop?
Raja expects to have a bigger impact this year after a “tough” season.
Corbin said Burks is coming along, and he said this about Jazz’s senior player: “Raja Bell’s been tremendous in camp.”
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700206211/Utah-Jazz-Bell-is-ringing-for-Raja.html
This info makes me think that the starting five will be.
Harris, Bell, Hayward or CJ, Millap, Jefferson.
Any thoughts or more info you have found?
Replies: 7
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7 Responses
I think we should do Harris, Miles, Hayward, Millsap, Jefferson. Just to see how CJ does and if he isn’t improving then I think we should go to Bell. Thats just my thinking though
Milsap and Jefferson just don’t work.
Memo and Jefferson with Milsap and Favors off the bench would be my pick.
I really hope they give J Evans some minutes at the SF though..
1st unit harris, hayward, millsap, favors, jefferson
I think you may be right about the lineup as of now. That’s what I read off of Corbin’s comments. He basically said Raja looked good, and CJ and Hayward were competing for the same thing. So to me that means SF. If it’s SG then we have no one at SF anyway. I really don’t think Millsap is going to play SF. If Raja has really improved, I’m fine with him starting but if he is like last year I would rather him never step on the floor and let Burks and the young guys get they’re feet wet this year.
Keep in mind for the future that Miles and Memo’s contracts are up after this year. So unless Miles or Hayward can prove they are a legit SF, then I highly doubt we re-sign him because we have Hayward and Burks, plus Bell for another year, all at SG. Unless of course Burks is a bust, or we trade Bell.
I’d be lying if I said I wanted to see Bell start, so it better be true that he’s ready to contribute more this year. I could see him as one of those guys that starts, but only plays 10-12 minutes per game like Deshawn Stevenson did for Dallas last year.
The best news here is the one about the partnership with Delta. Hopefully we can go back to calling it “Delta Center” and rid of “Energy Solutions Arena” once and for all
If Millsap were going to be playing any SF then he would have come into camp having lost a lot of weight. He didn’t so he is a PF. He’s a backup PF to be specific, but I doubt that Favors will take the starting job this year with so little time before the first game. Jefferson and Millsap is a bad combo defensively and on the glass (although with Jefferson’s increased athleticism and Millsap’s decreased minutes [which hopefully means more energy on the defensive glass] it may be a better combo than last year), that combined with the fact that we are likely going to be starting either Miles or Bell (both backup caliber players) tells me that we are not likely to be much higher than an 8 seed. I really thought that bringing in a high level wing player would make or break this team and we didn’t make any moves. I think Miles would fit better with Memo, Favors and the second team than Raja would so I bet we end up starting Harris, Raja, Hayward, Millsap and Jefferson. Raja sould be a good compliment to our offense heavy front court and Harris, while Miles ability to get to the basket compliments Memo’s outside shooting and makes up for Watson’s non-existence on the score board.
I believe with the compacted schedule we are going to see a lot of different starting line-ups.
In the beginning it might be safe to say that experience will prevail. That is, those players who are familiar with the systems will start (that would be Harris, Bell, Miles, Millsap, Jefferson), but I’d expect all others to have have a chance to earn “upgrades” to their floor time.
Near the end of he Season that might be Harris, Burks, Hayward, Jefferson, Kanter. (yes, I trust the new rookies to make quite an impact!)