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Thursday October 7th Portland (Insert caveman Joke no one gets but me) @ Jazz

Positves:

Compare Jazz rookie box score to rookies around the league. Impressive.
Seemed like pretty good passing and chemistry for first game.

Negatives:

CJ can't foul that much, he has to stay in the games because the other SGs are Haywerd or Bell.
Bell might have taken the sting out of losing Mathews in July. But in October he made it hurt worse.
Al was asking his teamates if he looked lost or confused which means he was.
 
mellow said:
Positves:

Compare Jazz rookie box score to rookies around the league. Impressive.
Seemed like pretty good passing and chemistry for first game.

Negatives:

CJ can't foul that much, he has to stay in the games because the other SGs are Haywerd or Bell.
Bell might have taken the sting out of losing Mathews in July. But in October he made it hurt worse.
Al was asking his teamates if he looked lost or confused which means he was.
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Why cant people spell this mans name???????????????????
 
Would've liked to seen a bit more from AJ but he is still getting used to not having to be the man in Utah. Can't wait till AJ and Sap are destroying opposing frontlines.
 
I generally liked what I seen out there. The starting five looked great. Jefferson had some struggled but that was because he was facing a double team a lot of the time and he isn't acustomed to the pick and roll yet, when he sets his picks he keeps moving and this will have to be fixed soon or he'll be fouling out 8 possessions into the game. For a moment there I thought Fess had finally turned into that player we'd all hoped for then he became the big dumb idiot we're use too. Still, he's better than he was last year and losing the weight has made him a little more nimble.

I love the athelticism of this team. This season will be like nothing we have ever witness before as Jazz fans. This team is quick and freakishly athletic and after watching him in both the game and the scrimmage there may be a place on this roster for Evans. Dude has some freaky hops and actually has some talent. He wont ever be a scorer but the kid could be a Ben Wallace type

All in all I was impressed with what I saw.
 
I was there for the first half (I hate preseason basketball) and will share my thoughts on one half:

Williams and Millsap looked good. Nothing out of the ordinary either way. Millsap made an incredible jackknife shot and was very active.

Jefferson looked confused at times and really impressive at times. He made some moves in the paint that were amazing.

AK and Bell played. Not sure what they did. Too long, didn't read. AK sounded like he picked it up in the second half.

CJ was awful. Shot too early and fouled too often.

Price was worse. Didn't run the offense and jacked up some early shots.

Hayward hung his head a bit when Fernandez hit some shots, but he hung in there. Has a nice shot and a decent handle. I think we'll be happy with him.

Jeffers played and was active. I am still not sure he can make more than a dunk or layup, but he seems to always be around the ball.

The hype for Evans' jumping ability is not too much. The guy is amazing. Deron's quote about Evans jumping three times before someone can jump once is not far off. He needs to work on his free throws, but he should make the team.

Fesenko....Fesenko...His first basket was a fantastic move. A pivot spin, drew the foul, and made the free throw. His next basket was a long "jumper" from the left elbow. Nothing but net. Then he blocked a shot. And then he became Fes. Fumbled passes, threw the ball away, and then made another great move and got rimchecked. Fes.

Take this with a grain of salt. I saw what I wanted to see (the arena, the uniforms, my new seats, Jefferson, Hayward) and left. Maybe beantastic or someone else can give a second half recap.
 
Portland runs about the most creative offense I've ever seen.

Guards, run around with the ball while big men come out and set picks. Guards either chuck up a jumper or dribble out the shot clock while trying to get their shots. sigh.....

It just makes me so much more appreciative of teams that actually have some offensive structure.

Until Portland actually installs an offense to take advantage of some of their players, they'll always be second fiddle to us in the division. There's no reason why Aldrich shouldn't be a 25/10 guy.
 
It seems to me (like it did last season, as well) that the wrong 3rd string PG has the guaranteed contract.
 
The Thriller said:
Portland runs about the most creative offense I've ever seen.
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WHAT?!?!?!

Guards, run around with the ball while big men come out and set picks. Guards either chuck up a jumper or dribble out the shot clock while trying to get your shot. sigh.....
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Whew. Sarcasm, okay.

There's no reason why Aldrich shouldn't be a 25/10 guy.
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I can think of a significant reason; he has no *****.
 
lol.

Oden didn't even play.

Drafting him instead of Kevin Durantula (IMO the second best player in the league behind only Kobe). Greatest blessing for the Jazz franchise. Otherwise, the duo of Kevin and Roy would be wrecking havoc in the NW division.
 
Since YB asked so nice here is what I saw. (also sorry if it is not too in depth my 2 year old moved from the lower bowl with mom and grandma up to sit with dad and grandpa so I was more distracted second half)

The first thing to note and this is true of both halves our starting 5 just looks good. Without even running plays for Big Al they looked really good once he is 100% in the flow of things they will be deadly.

Dwill - He was his usual self he hit shots and made assists nothing out of the ordinary I remember but he looked good.

Raja - His defense was great as expected but his shot was not there. I will chalk that up to some rust from not taking in game shots for an entire season so hopefully he can get his stroke back.

AK - He was struggling offensively, but made sure he was in the right place at the right time to make plays when needed he had a monster back to back block with Paul that was pretty amazing. He cleaned up on the garbage points and had an amazing steal which is 100% the strength training. It was on a free throw I believe and Portland had the rebound everyone else turned to run down court and AK turned grabbed the ball stripped it right out of (insert Blazer name here)'s hands and dunked it. The weak AK probably never could have made that play.

Paul - He was everything that every PM apologist has been saying he will be shot 60% had 8 rebounds had 14 points 3 steals and a block and all in only 22 minutes. He also made a nice steal from Cunningham he stole it made a spin move then made an amazing pass to AK this is in the NBA.COM highlights so check that out for sure. He made every play imaginable throughout the game. As YB mentioned that jackknife was pretty he hit some outside shots got an offensive rebound put back it was fun to watch him so hopefully he keeps it up.

Big Al - I think his biggest problem is that he was thinking too hard about what he was going to do next. He was always looking around to check what all of his teammates were doing before making any time of move or play. The reactions are just not automatic yet but I don't doubt that he will get there. If last night was a preview of his passing then I am excited for what he can do because there were a good few times that he made some really nice passes. I think the thing to really take note of was that his defense was not bad. He only had 1 foul had 1 block and 1 steal. I also only remember 1 time where I thought he really just got beat and made a terrible defensive play. Al did nothing to make him stand out either or bad tonight good first
showing in my opinion.

Another thing to note is that both times our starting lineup was on the floor the lead was built up by 10+ points before Sloan brought in the young talent.

4qtr lineup

Watson - he looked pretty good nothing to make you say "wow" but I will say this... he is NOT the next guy in the Hart/Knight saga. He did not shoot too well but he also did not shoot a lot of shots. He made some athletic plays which is what sets him apart from his veteran predecessors. Though he better keep an eye out for the next guy on the list.

Gaines - I might say he was the best Jazz-man on the floor in the 4th. He was making plays on both ends. He hit two huge 3s and they looked good too. One he jacked up at the end of the shot clock and the other he actually took within the offense, but the big thing was that they went in when things were staring to look shaky for the Jazz. He made a few nice assists and had the game winning steal as well. He looked every bit as good as price if not better and out played Earl while they were on the floor together. I thought he was getting cut for sure but between the open scrimmage this game and everything all of the writers are saying about him I would say he actually has a better shot of making the team than I thought. We will see if he can keep it up though because that is the trick.

Flash Gordon Honzward er... Haywood - He hit a huge 3 when Portland was on a run starting to cut into our lead they had made what I remember as back to back 3s one by his man and had cut it to 4 points Gordon got the ball at the 3 stepped back and made a shot that made me forget Korver's name. In my opinion a huge shot for a rookie to make and make it look so easy no less. Other than that the one thing of note was the fact that he was getting screened off Fernandez a lot and not getting in position to challenge his shots. I am not sure if screens were not being called out or if he was just not strong enough to run through them. I will say though that he played good defense for the most part and I think learning the little nuances of things like screens will help him out a lot with things like that. He brought the ball down court a few times and had a good handle for his size no doubt.

Jeremy Evans - The guy is a freak (in the good way). His rebounding is amazing and his court awareness is even better. 3 offensive rebounds non of which were him missing shots and getting his on miss (PM and Jeffers cannot say the same) he was high flying and impressive made some good passes and made 50% of his shots. As YB said his FT shooting was not great to start he missed his first three FTs but hit his next three and made them look very good when he did it. So his FT shooting issues may have been nerves or he may have just got lucky on the last three time will tell. Evans also played good defense was long almost always in position only fouled one time in 21 minutes.

FES - Oh FES where art thou? Some times he is at the game some times he is in a dreamland getting cocktails from Kicky. The problem is we never know when he will be on the court and in the clouds. I will say this though he looks much faster at 280 than he did at 305. He made a few nice moves to the hoop and finished a few. I am afraid that ball fake and drive where he hit the bottom of the rim will end up on a few blooper reals (maybe I am wrong). The other thing FES did well was pass the ball he was not perfect but he was making passes I had no idea he could make. He was the one that fed Hayward for his three and he did it from across the court. He also caught CJ off guard with a laser probably because CJ did not know FES could drive and pass at the same time.

The last thing that I thought was really significant was the toughness that our 3rd and 4th string guys showed. The lineups for the 4th were as follows Watson-Gaines-Hayward-Evans-Fesenk vs. Bayless-Cunningham-Fernandez-Mathews-Aldridge (I also think Brandon Roy was in for some of the 4th as well) So they have starters and their second string against our 2 rookies our d-leaguer our journeyman PG and our Center that may or may not return to the mother ship at any time. They were able to cut the lead but our guys would bend and not break. You have to love to see that out of the guys that are fighting for either playing time or roster spots.
 
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dwill_mvp said:
Would've liked to seen a bit more from AJ but he is still getting used to not having to be the man in Utah. Can't wait till AJ and Sap are destroying opposing frontlines.
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He only took four shots. That will change.
He's coming in as the new guy. I'm sure he wants to show Paul and AK he's not selfish with the ball, especially since so much has been made of his "lack of passing." I don't see asking his teamates if he looked lost or confused a big deal. Al wants to be in the right spots. He knows it's a precision offense. And I'm sure he's still sorry for the mixup that resulted in CJ being knocked to the floor in the scrimmage. You don't want to hurt your own teammates.

Al kind of reminds me of Memo when he first arrived. It took Okur half the season to work himself into Jazz shape. Jefferson won't take that long, but it's a good bet he runs off most of the weight he put on during the off-season. In any case, whatever the starters were doing last night on defense, I hope they can just keep it up. Only allowing 29 points in the 1st and 3rd?! And 10 steals. And as a team, the Jazz outrebounded Portland 43-33. That's been a weakness in the past few years, even with the double-doubles by Boozer.

I know Sloan will tinker with the lineup. He always does. Next game we'll probably see AK starting at PF with CJ at SF. Or maybe even Hayward starting a game. But it's going to be hard to best the starting lineup he used last night. I think that's what we'll see opening night.

And I agree re: Evans. I think he'll see 8-10 mins/per game. He'll eat into CJ's playing time if Miles doesn't perform well. Hayward may end up getting mins at SG. But I think that's been the plan since they drafted him. Big question is can he guard opposing 2's. Obviously, Fernandez was too quick for him.
 
I was also at the game. I few observations I had:

Jazz starters were dominate against Portland starters. D-Will is clearly the best player on the floor for either team. Millsap looked like the second best player. He was a beast.
Matthews looked really good and really agressive. He abused CJ, but couldn't do anything against AK for the few minutes AK was on him.
Bell shut down Roy. Roy seemed frustrated which was a good thing.
Fess looked ok in the first half, and almost single handedly lost the game for us in the 4th. He was absolutely terrible. (he did have a really nice block though).
I thought that both Price and Watson looked bad. They were clearly outplayed by Gaines.
It's just pre season, but we are going to lose games becasue of free throws. It was terrible. From Jefferson to Evans to Fes, our big men stunk it up at the line.
The offense looked really choppy even with the starters out there, but the defense was far better than it has been for years. (Just one game, but it looked really good)
Evans will make the team. He has it. So does Hayward. He was descent defensively when he stopped going under the screens on the 3 point shooters. But he wasn't reallhy getting beat off of drives.
I think that we are just better than Portland is. It was clear from start to finish. Our scrubs found a way to win with their starters at times and our starters were so dominate.
 
GlassEater said:
I know Sloan will tinker with the lineup. He always does. Next game we'll probably see AK starting at PF with CJ at SF. Or maybe even Hayward starting a game. But it's going to be hard to best the starting lineup he used last night. I think that's what we'll see opening night.
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You might be right. CJ and Hayward may be the future, and there is certainly a good argument to be made for them to start even now because of that and the fact they are already good players. But with AK and Bell, it seems like our starting line-up is much better defensively and also has better size upfront, with AJ and Millsap being the smaller C/PF combo. Also Bell is the best 3 point shooter on the team and can stretch the defenses, while AK brings great athleticism to the line up. So, last night's starting five might just be the best balanced starting 5 we have, with scoring, athleticism, defense, 3 point shooting, and size. CJ may have something to say about that, but he certainly didn't make his case last night.
 
Miles was the only let down I can see from reading everyone's reports.
Cj has got to get it together. He's not scoring like he should, and his defense lacks intensity.
I hope he shows a better effort next time out.
 
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