1. Gordo never takes last second heaves. Not that big a deal, but a sure sign he's putting his stats first.
2. Gordo's been passing the ball to players in worse position to score very late in the shot clock recently.
3. To compound the problem above, Gordo's been passing up open shots recently, putting the Jazz in a lot of low percentage late shot clock situations.
Dude's stat padding to the team's detriment. He's been doing it a lot more over the last couple weeks.
Agree completely. But I think there's even a deeper level to this which relates to Hayward handling the ball so much.
Hayward benefits because nobody bothers to overscout the Jazz, and frankly most teams don't deviate from a basic defensive scheme during the regular season. They defend the PnR, drives in the lane, 3 point shooters, the break, or switching, the same against any opponent -- they're trying to build continuity. As such, Hayward is defended like any other player, the Jazz like any other offense, and the only changes that get made always have to do with neutralizing a hot player in game, not the rare special attention paid to the likes of Lebron, Durant, or Harden before the game.
At some point, however, a team desperate to beat us will scout and gameplan from the jump (we might see this from playoff teams down the stretch jockeying for position). THAT team will overplay the passing lanes, defend Hayward one on one in the paint (not drop), and dare him to score (because all game tape shows he doesn't like to shoot in the lane.)
The great drive and kick players in the league like Parker are dangerous because you have no choice but to drop and overcompensate any time he gets too close to the basket. Parker, like most great players, are deadly from 10 feet in. Hayward is the opposite. He's awful from 10 feet in as the stats show. And if a team ever challenged him to score in the lane while manning up on the perimeter, he would be badly exposed (think Kobe Ronnie Brewer in the playoffs).
Long point short: Hayward's numbers are like Turner's numbers. High minutes, glossy stats, but nobody is really defending either of them, and it's a mirage.
