Report Card Time (team grades)

[fishonjazz]

Its about that time..... I have seen enough. I do this thread every year and I have a little time right now so I'm just going to do it now rather than wait 4 more games. Expectations will play a little part in the grades, injuries will not.

Dennis Lindsey: A- I know that he signed Rudy a while ago but Im still going to give him some credit for the great contract that we have Gobert on right now and that effects his grade. Getting udoh, thabo, and jerebko for so cheap was great. Trading for Crowder was a good move especially financially and team culture wise. Speaking of culture, this team has phenomenal work ethic and toughness, is fun as hell to watch and root for, and has good chemistry.... all under a pretty nice price tag. He has preserved future flexibility and we can make a run at superstar type player in a couple years. The Spida trade was maybe the best thing that ever happened. Also love that he signed stockton.

Quin Snyder: A The team is exceeding expectations and Quin has done a great job developing guys and fitting them to a system that works. The players buy in. His work ethic is reflected by his players. The Jazz, and Quin, never quit. Tough as nails. Rotations are on point.

Donovan Mitchell: A+ Superstar. Perfection on and off the court. Doing historical ****. Team leader already.

Rudy Gobert: B+ Only doesn't get an A due to my lofty expectations... but dude is the best defensive player in the league, best screener in the league, great rebounder, improved his free throw shooting, and is efficient on offense. He effects so much on the court that doesn't show up in the box score. All star caliber. Great attitude and brings everything he can every night. Still has issues with his hands.

Ricky Rubio: B+ He has had his shaky moments and to be honest, had a stretch where he was miserable and I wanted him to be traded for anything and everything..... But he might be the hardest worker on the court and has only gotten better and better as the season has went on. Is finishing the season at an all star level.

Joe Ingles: A- I didn't think he was worth the contract we gave him. I was wrong. 2nd best defender on the team, leads the team in assists most games lately as he has developed a wonderful pick and roll game with all our bigs. Most likeable guy on the team (sorry Donovan), one of the best three point shooters in the league and the ultimate glue guy to boot.

Derrick Favors: B+ Wow what a comeback year for him. Most unselfish player on the team. Dude is in a contract year and is a better player who could show more than we use him for and he still doesn't complain. What a bonus to have him healthy and what a luxury to have when Rudy isn't on the court. Thanks for working on the three ball to improve your game as well (even if it will never work). Getting all the offensive rebounds and dunking everything on everyone. Mid range game and floater has been consistently good. Defensively solid like usual. Wish he was a better free throw shooter.

Royce Oneal: C+ Came from out of nowhere and endeared himself to Quin with his work ethic, hustle, and tenacity. Had a stretch where he was ok offensively.... I miss those days but at least he is low usage. Plays fantastic defense consistently.

Jonas Jerebko: C Does what is asked and what is needed from him. Has had moments of being more than that at times.

Jae Crowder: B Probably the hardest guy for me to grade. I think he tries to do too much on offense sometimes but then again, our bench needs someone to score. Seems like a great team player. Plays good defense and stretches the floor. Grade would probably be lower but im giving him a break due to having to be the new guy and learn everything on the fly. Its a testament to him that he fits in and didn't screw up what we had going when the trade happened.

Thabo: A- I thought he was phenomenal compared to expectations. I miss his play. Brought way more offense than i could have imagined. Likes teh pot

Dante Exum: A- Looks better than ever before even after such a long time off. Still fast as hell and lengthy (and goofy lol). Seems stronger and smarter and more fearless than before.

Neto: B+ Played as good as you could hope for. has great handles and a huge improvement from 3. Steady. tough pesky defender.

Burks: D My expectations were for him to be a nightly subway sub of the game. Had a few good stretches but never worked out. Never complains and always seems to have a smile on his face (though you can tell that it hurts him to ride pine... dude loves to play basketball) figure he is pretty much done with his career in utah. RIP

(not gonna do grades for the rest of the guys who never play though it was cool to see stockton score a few points.)


Team overall grade: A- what a fun season....... hopefully the best is yet to come.

 

[Et tu Brute]

Good ratings I reckon.

I can't bring myself to not give Rudy an A though. He leads the team in net rating and wins games on the defensive end consistently. Probably going to be top 2 again in DPOY. (Also, I know their roles are different and Neto has been solid - but Rudy and Neto can't walk away with the same grade )

Pretty hard to fault anyone else - and the explanations are on point.

 

[latin jazz]

Thabo: A- Likes teh pot

A+ to Thabo for this lol.

Thanks for this thread Fish. Agree with most of your grades. Maybe a B+ for Exum (not to be picky but I would like to see him hitting some off the dribble jumpshots...like in preseason).

And what about Udoh? He was great when Rudy was injured. Extremely limited offensively with his rocky hands but what a player defensively. Cheap contract and great teammate. B+ for him.

 

[JAZZGASM]

Its about that time..... I have seen enough. I do this thread every year and I have a little time right now so I'm just going to do it now rather than wait 4 more games. Expectations will play a little part in the grades, injuries will not.

Dennis Lindsey: A- I know that he signed Rudy a while ago but Im still going to give him some credit for the great contract that we have Gobert on right now and that effects his grade. Getting udoh, thabo, and jerebko for so cheap was great. Trading for Crowder was a good move especially financially and team culture wise. Speaking of culture, this team has phenomenal work ethic and toughness, is fun as hell to watch and root for, and has good chemistry.... all under a pretty nice price tag. He has preserved future flexibility and we can make a run at superstar type player in a couple years. The Spida trade was maybe the best thing that ever happened. Also love that he signed stockton.

Quin Snyder: A The team is exceeding expectations and Quin has done a great job developing guys and fitting them to a system that works. The players buy in. His work ethic is reflected by his players. The Jazz, and Quin, never quit. Tough as nails. Rotations are on point.

Donovan Mitchell: A+ Superstar. Perfection on and off the court. Doing historical ****. Team leader already.

Rudy Gobert: B+ Only doesn't get an A due to my lofty expectations... but dude is the best defensive player in the league, best screener in the league, great rebounder, improved his free throw shooting, and is efficient on offense. He effects so much on the court that doesn't show up in the box score. All star caliber. Great attitude and brings everything he can every night. Still has issues with his hands.

Ricky Rubio: B+ He has had his shaky moments and to be honest, had a stretch where he was miserable and I wanted him to be traded for anything and everything..... But he might be the hardest worker on the court and has only gotten better and better as the season has went on. Is finishing the season at an all star level.

Joe Ingles: A- I didn't think he was worth the contract we gave him. I was wrong. 2nd best defender on the team, leads the team in assists most games lately as he has developed a wonderful pick and roll game with all our bigs. Most likeable guy on the team (sorry Donovan), one of the best three point shooters in the league and the ultimate glue guy to boot.

Derrick Favors: B+ Wow what a comeback year for him. Most unselfish player on the team. Dude is in a contract year and is a better player who could show more than we use him for and he still doesn't complain. What a bonus to have him healthy and what a luxury to have when Rudy isn't on the court. Thanks for working on the three ball to improve your game as well (even if it will never work). Getting all the offensive rebounds and dunking everything on everyone. Mid range game and floater has been consistently good. Defensively solid like usual. Wish he was a better free throw shooter.

Royce Oneal: C+ Came from out of nowhere and endeared himself to Quin with his work ethic, hustle, and tenacity. Had a stretch where he was ok offensively.... I miss those days but at least he is low usage. Plays fantastic defense consistently.

Jonas Jerebko: C Does what is asked and what is needed from him. Has had moments of being more than that at times.

Jae Crowder: B Probably the hardest guy for me to grade. I think he tries to do too much on offense sometimes but then again, our bench needs someone to score. Seems like a great team player. Plays good defense and stretches the floor. Grade would probably be lower but im giving him a break due to having to be the new guy and learn everything on the fly. Its a testament to him that he fits in and didn't screw up what we had going when the trade happened.

Thabo: A- I thought he was phenomenal compared to expectations. I miss his play. Brought way more offense than i could have imagined. Likes teh pot

Dante Exum: A- Looks better than ever before even after such a long time off. Still fast as hell and lengthy (and goofy lol). Seems stronger and smarter and more fearless than before.

Neto: B+ Played as good as you could hope for. has great handles and a huge improvement from 3. Steady. tough pesky defender.

Burks: D My expectations were for him to be a nightly subway sub of the game. Had a few good stretches but never worked out. Never complains and always seems to have a smile on his face (though you can tell that it hurts him to ride pine... dude loves to play basketball) figure he is pretty much done with his career in utah. RIP

(not gonna do grades for the rest of the guys who never play though it was cool to see stockton score a few points.)


Team overall grade: A- what a fun season....... hopefully the best is yet to come.

You give Quin an A!?!?!?!?! Did you not hear he makes his players practice for 3 HOURS!

 

[Bawse Dawg]

What does Lindsey need to do to get an A? Lol

Best player in the draft at #13 (and he traded for that pick!). Every single signing and trade from last offseason (and mid season) has worked out.

 

[Et tu Brute]

What does Lindsey need to do to get an A? Lol

Best player in the draft at #13 (and he traded for that pick!). Every single signing and trade from last offseason (and mid season) has worked out.

Got nothing for Hayward. Minor blemish.

 

[Bawse Dawg]

Got nothing for Hayward. Minor blemish.

Not sure what he’s supposed to do about that. It’s not like Hayward was pulling a Dwight. Should we have traded him midsession or something?

 

[fishonjazz]

A+ to Thabo for this lol.

Thanks for this thread Fish. Agree with most of your grades. Maybe a B+ for Exum (not to be picky but I would like to see him hitting some off the dribble jumpshots...like in preseason).

And what about Udoh? He was great when Rudy was injured. Extremely limited offensively with his rocky hands but what a player defensively. Cheap contract and great teammate. B+ for him.

Good call on udoh.
I totally forgot him but he deserves some love

 

[fishonjazz]

What does Lindsey need to do to get an A? Lol

Best player in the draft at #13 (and he traded for that pick!). Every single signing and trade from last offseason (and mid season) has worked out.

I would have traded hayward for a top draft pick.
Udoh, thabo, and jerebko are good cheap pickups but nothing special.
He has been nearly perfect. Not perfect though imo.

 

[Bawse Dawg]

I would have traded hayward for a top draft pick.
Udoh, thabo, and jerebko are good cheap pickups but nothing special.
He has been nearly perfect. Not perfect though imo.

You would have traded Hayward in the middle of the season when we were playing great, for a draft pick when there was no reason to assume that we didn’t have a good chance of keeping him???? Really??

Good cheap contracts giving us good minutes. What free agents would have been better pickups at similar deals?

 

[David Stern]

I don't think I'd give DL anything higher than a B for the season. Here's how I'd grade him out:

Drafting: A+
Free Agency: C
Trading: B

I still think Quin has done a masterful job with a fairly flawed roster. Obviously the Mitchell pick was franchise-altering, but that's really all he's done this year that was a home-run.

 

[jope]

Good ratings I reckon.

I can't bring myself to not give Rudy an A though. He leads the team in net rating and wins games on the defensive end consistently. Probably going to be top 2 again in DPOY. (Also, I know their roles are different and Neto has been solid - but Rudy and Neto can't walk away with the same grade )

Pretty hard to fault anyone else - and the explanations are on point.

I think the grades are how the player performed relative to Fish's expectations before the season. Rudy is amazing! but some us expected him to make another offensive leap this season, hence, the B+

 

[Jack Strop]

Lindsey did the best he could in the summer having to wait for Hayward's manifesto to go to press.
I give hin a B for his indeciveness at the deadline. You either go for it, or you dont. He messed up not trading a pick for Mirotic. Could have got that deal done before Cousins got hurt.
And he limits his ability to go after a big ticket free agent by bringing in Crowder and tieing up those dollars.
Jae's a good player, but Utah has that in Thabo and O'Neale. Utah needs an impact player at the 4 and another wing who can shoot.

Donovan gets an A-. Amazing year, but he shoots too many 3's at a low percentage and is often a bit reckless (ie. Turnovers) down the stretch. Not throwing shade, just that an A+ means amazing in everything.

Exum has to be either Incomplete or lower. He's had some very good games, but also some sub-par ones.

Rest of grades seem fair enough. Crowder may be a bit high, though. Reminds me of Trevor Booker. We love the attitude and toughness but he cant shoot.

 

[SoUjazzfan]

I pretty much agree fish, with the exception of Crowder and Jerebko. I think Jonas fills his role really well and we expect more than his talent allows, hence a B from me. Crowder is way too quick to shoot the three early in the clock with someone in his face. I think he'd be better suited to pump and drive more often. I'd grade him down to a B- because he does generally bring some tough defense. Plus when someone goes after one of our guys he's right there. On second thought, that would keep him at a solid B to B+

 

[fishonjazz]

You would have traded Hayward in the middle of the season when we were playing great, for a draft pick when there was no reason to assume that we didn’t have a good chance of keeping him???? Really??

Good cheap contracts giving us good minutes. What free agents would have been better pickups at similar deals?

Well we do have one glaring hole/weakness. Bench scoring. Could use a lou williams/Jamaal crawford/Rodney hood type player. I think that's enough to go from an A to A-

As for hayward I was never that high on him and wanted the jazz to trade him before last year for a top pick. (I remember mentioning Jamaal murray, buddy heild, and a few others) I know you will think that is dumb so will just stop you there. What DL could have done with the hayward situation is read hayward better (he was around him quite often I would assume) and go after someone else knowing hayward was gone.

Anywho, A- is a pretty good grade imo. Nothing to make much of a fuss about really but I can edit the OP and give him an A if you are unhappy with my explanation and really want me to give him an A. I'm fine with that. I see it as splitting hairs really.

 

[fishonjazz]

Lindsey did the best he could in the summer having to wait for Hayward's manifesto to go to press.
I give hin a B for his indeciveness at the deadline. You either go for it, or you dont. He messed up not trading a pick for Mirotic. Could have got that deal done before Cousins got hurt.
And he limits his ability to go after a big ticket free agent by bringing in Crowder and tieing up those dollars.
Jae's a good player, but Utah has that in Thabo and O'Neale. Utah needs an impact player at the 4 and another wing who can shoot.

Donovan gets an A-. Amazing year, but he shoots too many 3's at a low percentage and is often a bit reckless (ie. Turnovers) down the stretch. Not throwing shade, just that an A+ means amazing in everything.

Exum has to be either Incomplete or lower. He's had some very good games, but also some sub-par ones.

Rest of grades seem fair enough. Crowder may be a bit high, though. Reminds me of Trevor Booker. We love the attitude and toughness but he cant shoot.

I agree about crowder. Probably my toughest one to grade. Sometimes I cringe when he is in and other times I have confidence in him.
I probably should have gave him a C. I just gave him a break due to the new team adjustment.

 

[Bawse Dawg]

Well we do have one glaring hole/weakness. Bench scoring. Could use a lou williams/Jamaal crawford/Rodney hood type player. I think that's enough to go from an A to A-

As for hayward I was never that high on him and wanted the jazz to trade him before last year for a top pick. (I remember mentioning Jamaal murray, buddy heild, and a few others) I know you will think that is dumb so will just stop you there. What DL could have done with the hayward situation is read hayward better (he was around him quite often I would assume) and go after someone else knowing hayward was gone.

Anywho, A- is a pretty good grade imo. Nothing to make much of a fuss about really but I can edit the OP and give him an A if you are unhappy with my explanation and really want me to give him an A. I'm fine with that. I see it as splitting hairs really.

I mean they are your grades. Maybe I overreacted, if so, sorry. But it does seem weird to me that Lindsey takes blame for Hayward, it sounds like it was basically 50/50 so what can you really do except hope he chooses you? Maybe now it's easy to say we should have just gotten anything for him, but it's not like we knew that we'd be getting a superstar to replace our star. Our team was made around Hayward, we had to try to keep him.

I also give him credit for what he didn't do. No huge contract for Hill, no desperation Gallinari signing. Thank god for that.

 

[JAZZGASM]

I mean they are your grades. Maybe I overreacted, if so, sorry. But it does seem weird to me that Lindsey takes blame for Hayward, it sounds like it was basically 50/50 so what can you really do except hope he chooses you? Maybe now it's easy to say we should have just gotten anything for him, but it's not like we knew that we'd be getting a superstar to replace our star. Our team was made around Hayward, we had to try to keep him.

I also give him credit for what he didn't do. No huge contract for Hill, no desperation Gallinari signing. Thank god for that.

I think Hill dug his own grave. There was a large offer on the table for Hill. He wanted more. And the Gallo trade was already in place/occurred the same day Hayward left. Can't give Lindsey credit for much of which he couldn't control. Can't blame him for the Hayward fiasco either. He was put in a tough position due to Hayward's timing, and did pretty good with the hand dealt to him.

 

[RJF]

Lindsey did the best he could in the summer having to wait for Hayward's manifesto to go to press.
I give hin a B for his indeciveness at the deadline. You either go for it, or you dont. He messed up not trading a pick for Mirotic. Could have got that deal done before Cousins got hurt.
And he limits his ability to go after a big ticket free agent by bringing in Crowder and tieing up those dollars.
Jae's a good player, but Utah has that in Thabo and O'Neale. Utah needs an impact player at the 4 and another wing who can shoot.

Donovan gets an A-. Amazing year, but he shoots too many 3's at a low percentage and is often a bit reckless (ie. Turnovers) down the stretch. Not throwing shade, just that an A+ means amazing in everything.

Exum has to be either Incomplete or lower. He's had some very good games, but also some sub-par ones.

Rest of grades seem fair enough. Crowder may be a bit high, though. Reminds me of Trevor Booker. We love the attitude and toughness but he cant shoot.

Thabo is 33. Crowder is 27. Crowder has room to grow and will give more to this team than even a healthy Thabo could.

 

[fishonjazz]

I mean they are your grades. Maybe I overreacted, if so, sorry. But it does seem weird to me that Lindsey takes blame for Hayward, it sounds like it was basically 50/50 so what can you really do except hope he chooses you? Maybe now it's easy to say we should have just gotten anything for him, but it's not like we knew that we'd be getting a superstar to replace our star. Our team was made around Hayward, we had to try to keep him.

I also give him credit for what he didn't do. No huge contract for Hill, no desperation Gallinari signing. Thank god for that.

Fair enough. I do still see a lack of bench scoring as a hole on the roster but all in all im blown away by everything about this team. I thought everyone would be saying all my grades were too high lol.