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Pre All-Star Break Thoughts
Posted by: Jason on February 17th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Thoughts on players and staff in no particular order…
Deron Williams: Recently you have struggled. Is it mental or physical? If you are hurt, don’t hide it, rest and recover. If it is mental, use the week break to fuel your recovery. Continue to lead the team to whatever the end of the road is, which this year could be fighting off Portland, Memphis (yes, we are currently tied with Memphis, and the next game with them they can potentially tie us 2-2), and Phoenix.
Raja Bell: Even though you have been injured a lot, when I go to games I see you giving advice to players. Keep up the great leadership. Return soon.
Andrei Kirilenko: Stop faking injuries. Stop doing behind the back passes. Stop shooting LONG, CONTESTED, TWO POINTERS. Go to the basket, make smart passes, and get active defensively (you used to block shots, remember?)
Paul Millsap: You are the true Jazzman on the roster. Your only real improvement could come on the boards (you had a higher rebound ratio in past years, plus you lead the NCAA in rebounding). Keep doing what you are doing.
Al Jefferson: You have been an interesting case this season. You once averaged 25 points and 13 rebounds. What happened? Here are some ideas: A) Stop shooting fade-away push shots, move towards the basket to make your moves. B) Get more active on the boards, it helps boost confidence. C) Run pick and rolls, you will get better shots (which I saw last night —> the Williams/Jefferson pick and rolls worked great, all two of them). D) Work on your passing out of the post, it will help the offense and thus help you.
Earl Watson – Stop fouling. Smarter passes. Stop shooting. Keep throwing oops to Evans, just make sure they are smart passes (teams have scouted the “Early-Oop” by now).
Ronnie Price – Stop fouling. Once you come back, keep up the energy. You may be our most valuable bench player, even if the stats don’t say so.
C.J. Miles – You are not a 3 point shooter. Drive to the basket repeatedly, and you will CONSISTENTLY average 15 points. Keep up the work on the boards also. 15 PPG, 6 RPG, and 3 APG will get you in the sixth man running. On a side note, your release reminds me of Josh Smith (ATL). He recently worked out quirks in his release and now he releases the ball in a straight line, and as a result went from shooting 25-30% on 3’s to 35% this year. Maybe you should look into it?
Francisco Elson – You kind of disappeared the last month or two. Keep bringing your toughness when you are on the court, and that jump shot.
Fesenko – Develop more post moves, grab the boards and be active defensively. You can definitely average 6+ points off the bench on any given night if you play smart.
Gordon Hayward – Keep bringing the energy. Stop shooting deep 2’s however, they are not high percentage (in fact, they are one of the lowest percentage shots).
Okur – I hope you get healthy. Injuries suck. Don’t rush anything.
Jeremy Evans – Wow, I don’t know what your potential is. It is however, HIGH. Keep taking whatever opportunities you get with the Jazz. Last night, 6 points and 6 rebounds is a pretty damn good stat for a reserve. They say you are just an athletic freak, and you develop a jump shot that works. That’s impressive, and it will impress your coach t0o.
Ty Corbin – There are several here. A) Aim for the playoffs. B) Have a chit chat with Jefferson, and teach him the pick and roll, and run more of it. It is the most efficient offense (See: Phoenix Suns, until 2010). It gets everyone better shots. When we have run it this year, it works. C) Tell CJ to get his act together. D) Tell Earl Watson to stop fouling. E) Design a backdoor cut alley oop for Jeremy Evans. His recent oops have been blocked/resulted in turnovers. F) Play Jeremy Evans more. G) Don’t be afraid to mix up the offense. Try some new stuff.
Kevin O’Connor – A) Trade Kirilenko for a shooter. That’s all we need this year. Kirilenko doesn’t provide intangibles to the team anymore, and his defense is inconsistent. Thoughts: Reggie Williams, OJ Mayo (yeah, I know everyone mentions him), J.J. Redick (just kidding!), or some D-League guy. I actually like the D-League shooter idea, it worked well for the Warriors in the past. B) DO NOT LET EVANS GET AWAY!
Team Thoughts:
Have a team meeting. Talk about what is working and what isn’t.
That’s all.
Replies: 12
Views: 585
12 Responses
The comment about Raja Bell may be the biggest factor that has kept him from being an enormous disappointment this year
im not sure why everyone is hating on AK this year. he has been the glue that has held our defense together and he still brings loads of intangibles to the team. of course he has been injured but I would say he is faking it… did you see how bad he rolled his ankle in the phoenix game?
AK’s style of play makes him injury prone … an NBA team cannot afford to have 20 players of this type paid 17 M$ per year. I say trade him to the Nets for Troy Murphy and Anthony Morrow (it works). If he really wants to play in Utah, he will sign back for what his yearly playing time is worth(6 M$ or so) or extend to the Nets for twice this money.
Andrej is one of the best Basketball players on the team in terms of Basketball IQ. He’s not as strong as some of the “jump-out-of-the-gym” players in the league, but the way he sees things is eerie (passes, interceptions, opportunities to block).
I’d really like to see him back next year – with an adjusted contract that allows the team to get another scoring option, course.
The problem is, AK’s pay for the past 5 years. Not how good he is or isn’t. He’s good. He’s a good player. Andrei does things no one else can do. Andrei is a good help defender. Andrei is a good passer. Andrei can hit a shot if he’s wide open. Andrei can slash to the basket. ANdrei blocks shots. Andrei’s long arms disrupt passing lanes. It’s all true.
HOWEVER, he’s not worth $17M. a $17M player is a Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki, etc etc. $17M is THE superstar on a contending team. For $17M we should have a player that can singlehandedly win games for you like the above players. Andrei, in spite of being good, is not in the same category as other players making $17M. THAT is the problem with AK, and it’s not Andrei’s fault, it was all timing and Jazz management. It means we could make a trade and return the same amount of salary and become a better, deeper team. If Andrei was making $8M I would LOVE to keep him because there would be no way to make a trade to get better value back.
Andrei is the 7th highest paid NBA player. He’s also the highest paid player on the Jazz. He’s about the fourth best player on our team.
Waiting and re-signing him for less next year means you lose the opportunity you have now to make your team better through trading him. Yes, we’ll save money. Yes, his salary will be more in line with his talents and skills. Yes, he’s a fan favorite and everyone will feel warm and fuzzy if he’s still around. But in the end we’ll be a worse team because AK is declining, and the chance to make our team better by trading him will be gone.
AK has the best skill set on the team. Don’t judge him by his salary, judge him by his play. He’s helped this team a lot this year and without Deron, he could quite possibly be good for 20 points a night. If he wasn’t making so much money, he wouldn’t be constantly thrown under the bus. Just judge him by his play, which has been great of late before the injury. I disagree that Millsap is the “true Jazzman” on this roster. He just can’t be consistent enough and being undersized hurts his rebounding and post moves. I think Al has more to offer because he if played at his true position, PF, he’s a consistent inside threat like a PF is supposed to be.
My thoughts: We kinda blow………….
Zach is right. Who cares how much the Jazz pay someone if they have a diverse skillset? Money’s no issue with the Jazz, and a good player is a good player, whether they’re making $4M a year or $17M, right?
I am sure the Jazz will hold an emergency team meeting and carefully go over your post.
I keep telling myself that daily. 2010 Phoenix Suns
Also I agree with Zach… we kinda need AK. He is the highest energy guy we have. When He’s in we move the ball much better, his shooting is poor though. I’d trade CJ, Price, Watson, Elson, or Fez. I know we couldnt get squat out of those last four but throw CJ with Fez and get Mayo and Thabeet.
Grizz are lookin to get rid of both of them.
@Zach: I totally agree that AK has the best skill set on the team. The problem is that he is either injured or inconsistent. Basically we get his good play 1/3 of the time, which is my biggest problem with him. Look if he would play and put up a moderate amount of points, rebounds, assists, and blocks I’d completely advocate keeping him. But, i’d rather get 2 players with his salary.
@Kelton: I like your trade there. I think it might take a little more to get Mayo, though. I still have hope for Thabeet.
@KCJones: Agree about your post about AK’s salary.