Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs 7/7/2015 @7pm Mountain Time *Official SL Game Thread*

[l Abach l]

Favors is 23! The only PF that is better to build around in the NBA right now is AD.
Gobert is the best Defender in the league at any position.
Together they will hands down be the best front court in the league for years to come.
I can't wait to see them go at Duncan and LMA this season.

I didn't know age mattered when building around players. Jazz should've dumped malone when he turned 30, and the Spurs and mavs should've done the same with dirk and duncan... all those players minus millsap, Duncan, and dirk have another solid 5-8 years of elite basketball

 

[Ron Mexico]

So you don't think that any of those PFs next to gobert would provide a better combination than what we have now?

Some of them yes. Ibaka / Randolph / Millsap / Draymond / Love those ones no. Favors is better than those PFs right now and is going to continue to widen that gap over the next few seasons. Some of those could be argued. Others on that list seem silly to me.

I am guessing you are on the we need a pf who can hit threes because that is the only way to space the floor and win camp?

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

I'm just as excited about the Jazz as everyone else is and i see their potential, but I think we're 3-4 years away whereas other people think we're 1-2

People might not be as far apart on this as you think. IMO, if we are not making a run in the next 1-2 years we will start bleeding talent. My expectations are playoffs this year (winning a series would be gravy), winning one or two series next year, and then championship opportunities starting in 3 or 4 years. I'm guessing that's pretty similar to you.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

I'd trade Favors and Hayward for the players listed above them in a heartbeat. Though if we didn't have Gobert, then I wouldn't trade for millsap (I think he's a much better fit next to gobert than favors is)

On the Favors for Millsap thing we disagree strongly. I believe Favors/Gobert will become the strongest defensive front court in the entire NBA and that our entire team identity will be based off that. No way would I trade Favors for Millsap. There are also several players you would trade for in a heartbeat that I would not do (Melo, Thompson, Ibaka, Randolph, Millsap, Bosh, Vucevic, Jordan, Cousins), and several more that would give me serious heartburn. In a pure stats fantasy world I would probably take some of them, but real team building is a different story and team chemistry is so important.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

I'm curious, which wings listed there would you rather take Hayward over?

The only three I'd do for sure are LeBron, Durrant and Wiggins.

 

[stitches]

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-o...tebook-rodney-hood-could-break-out-in-2015-16

Summer League Notebook: Rodney Hood could break out in 2015-16
By Sam Vecenie | CBSSports.com
July 7, 2015 9:53 pm ET

Sometimes, players just show that they're a level above Summer League competition. We're seeing it in Orlando with Aaron Gordon, and we're also seeing it in Utah with Rodney Hood.

Hood, who quietly had a pretty awesome rookie season for the Jazz, scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the Jazz's first game on Monday, leading the team to a big win against Boston. Then, on Tuesday, he scored an efficient 18 points on 8-14 shooting to give Jazz a nice come from behind victory. During the past 48 hours, he's proven he doesn't belong at this level.

He's done basically everything that the team could ask of him this week and more, including getting out in transition, knocking down shots coming up off of pin-down screens or off of pick-and-roll pull-ups, slashing to the rim for lay-ups, and even playing as a lead ball-handler occasionally. But the most impressive part of his game hasn't been the variety, it's been the calm way he's gone about his business. He's clearly extremely comfortable with his game here, getting to his spots with ease and simplicity against the lower level.

It's exactly the kind of performance any team would hope for from a rising second-year player in Summer League. And it's great news for the Jazz specifically, a team that will be reliant on internal development if they want to make the playoffs next season after not making a splash in free agency. Hood becoming a versatile wing that can space the floor and run side pick-and-rolls (something he did very well last year in a somewhat limited sample) could allow Quin Snyder to really bust out some versatile lineups next season. They could roll out some small-ball lineups with Hood and Hayward at the forward spots, or even some ultra big lineups with Hood and Hayward sharing lead responsibilities. These weird lineups that teams haven't seen from them before could be the key to them unlocking enough offense to back their strong defense.

Finding that offense will be the key for the Jazz if they're to make the playoffs in the deep Western Conference next season. Hood has shown signs the summer that he may be the man to help them with that, and that's all the team could have possibly asked for from him this summer.

TREY LYLES SIGNS CONTRACT

Trey Lyles finally signed his rookie contract on Tuesday, thus ending one of the weirder stories of Summer League to this point. The Lyles contract situation became a talking point throughout Utah this week due to the fact that the team has a summer league event at Energy Solutions Arena, and this would have been a perfect opportunity to introduce him to the fans. So why hasn't Lyles played in the team's first two games?

There's not really a sexy, dramatic reason behind it by any means. It's simply a bit of cap finagling by the Jazz front office that has to do with the the rookie scale. New draftees are bound by the rookie scale for their first contracts. Immediately upon a player being drafted, he counts for 100 percent of his draft scale dollar amount against a team's salary cap -- his "cap hold" until he officially signs his deal. However, that's not the dollar amount that most rookies receive.

In actuality, rookies are allowed to sign for anywhere between 80 percent and 120 percent of the scale dollar figure attached to their selection. Most rookies (I'd estimate something like 90-95 percent of them), receive the full 120 percent of their rookie scale. So to attach some numbers to this, Lyles rookie scale for his first season is $1,866,500. Lyles agreed to the full 120 percent that he was allowed to receive today, or $2,239,800. So by not agreeing to a deal until Tuesday, the Jazz were able to preserve $373,300 on their cap sheet, allowing them a bit more maneuverability in the early stages of free agency.

So don't fret or take it personally, Jazz fans. It was simply good business and not any sort of holdout that has kept Lyles off the floor in Utah so far. In an interview on NBA TV Tuesday night, Lyles mentioned that he will play in Las Vegas this weekend.

 

[Cappy_Smurf]

Lyles agreed to the full 120 percent that he was allowed to receive today, or $2,239,800. So by not agreeing to a deal until Tuesday, the Jazz were able to preserve $373,300 on their cap sheet, allowing them a bit more maneuverability in the early stages of free agency.

Imagine that.

 

[LogGrad98]

Kjzz needs to fire someone. That is a freaking joke.

What happened?

 

[Jaymz]

What happened?

The feed cut out for 30s, twice. Overreaction really.

 

[Coach Ellis]

I think Hood is going to be the starter at SG next to Hayward and Burks is going to be a 6th man of the year candidate. Hood's shot, length and scoring ability are a good fit between Hayward and Exum, while Burks gets to wreak havoc from the bench. Plenty of minutes to go around.

 

[fishonjazz]

Vucevic ahead of Gobert.
Lololol

 

[homeytennis]

Here was my take. Hood impressive except for the last defensive play. Hanlan won't make the team. Cunningham had more poise than him. Chris Johnson workman like. The other Johnson looked awkward at times but did some good things. O"Brien hit a big 3 and did some good things. Kind of makes you wonder why Krysko ran him from the U? Cotton looked like a DLeaguer. Motum plays like his back hurts. He needs to get to a chiro or physio before the next game. Still scored in double figures, had a nice assist to Rodney and hit a 3. Cooley again a beast but fouls too much.

 

[Orlandomagicfan]

I agree that Rudy is better, I would rather have him (because his defense is excellent). However, Rudy's offensive ability and what he is asked to do offensively is nothing compared to Vuc. I don't think the gap between the two is as large as your comment implies (admittedly they are very different players).

 

[l Abach l]

Because the rest of the roster was the statistically worst pg and a bunch of d-league players. Although I am not quite sure we have top 5 at all of those positions it is debatable and close to top 5. Enough that its not crazy to argue it. Where would you rank them? out of the top 10 at their positions? or are you ranking them top 6 or 7 and just claiming its homer to have your rankings slightly different by 1 or 2 spots?

3 things to clarify in response to commentary in this thread:

1) There is a wide separation in the talent among the top 5 players lists. The difference of talent between Lebron/Durant/Harden and everyone else is very large in the wing category. Just because a player is a “top 10” player in their respected position doesn’t mean that they’re on par with players better than them. There are a number of tiers within each group, and neither Hayward, Gobert, or Favors are in the 1st tier in their positions.
2) Highly ranked players on your roster need to mesh in order to = success. Quote from KD’s Framily: “We have a top 5 SF, top 5 PF, and top 5 C on our roster, are you kidding me”. Even if our roster had 3 top 5 players on it, that wouldn’t mean jack. case in point - 2012-2013 Lakers: This team was STACKED with “top 3 players”. Kobe/Nash/Howard. They didn’t mesh well together. Let’s take a few of our players for example and place them on last year’s Warriors team. If Hayward or Favors were on that team, both of them would be the 4th best player on their team, behind Curry, Thompson, Draymond, and Iguodola. Again, it’s all about how well players mesh. I’m not attacking our players; I just believe that there are better possible combinations of wings/PFs to go alongside Gobert to maximize our success.
3) Yes our post-kanter trade W/L performance was awesome last year, but if you look at a lot of the wins, MANY of those wins were against teams that were either locked into a playoff spot (resting starters), or were in full on tank mode. Just took a quick glance, and between the Playoff spot teams (Portland and Dallas) and Tank mode teams (2xDenver/NYN/Philly/LAL/Minn/2x Sac), that’s 10 wins that really aren’t all that impressive.

Again, I HOPE the Jazz vastly improve next year and make some noise at getting that 8 seed, but setting my fandom aside, I’m not expecting anything to happen over the next 2 years in a very heavy west.

 

[seattlejazzfan]

Pretty bizarre what the Jazz are doing with Hanlan. OH has only played point his entire life and the Jazz are almost exclusively playing at the two. If they are going to judge whether or not he makes the team based on his play this summer, that puts him in a pretty tough spot making him play out of position the whole time.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

The feed cut out for 30s, twice. Overreaction really.

First world problems.

 

[stitches]

Lol @ Vucevic ahead of Gobert! That's ludicrous! Vucevic is a glorified version of Enes.

 

[green]

The only three I'd do for sure are LeBron, Durrant and Wiggins.

I'm not sure I'd do Wiggins for Hayward straight up. Hayward is pretty dang good. Hayward is better than Wiggins right now. The question is how good does Wiggins get? He looks fantastic. But he's not a home run aka Shaq and LeBron.

 

[green]

Here was my take. Hood impressive except for the last defensive play. Hanlan won't make the team. Cunningham had more poise than him. Chris Johnson workman like. The other Johnson looked awkward at times but did some good things. O"Brien hit a big 3 and did some good things. Kind of makes you wonder why Krysko ran him from the U? Cotton looked like a DLeaguer. Motum plays like his back hurts. He needs to get to a chiro or physio before the next game. Still scored in double figures, had a nice assist to Rodney and hit a 3. Cooley again a beast but fouls too much.

Krystokowiak came in and was a lot more discipline oriented. A bunch of kids left right off the bat. O'Brien didn't leave right away but kept looking at other schools. K said that he needs to commit to Utah or leave. He kept waivering so K kicked him to the curb. Came out and said he only wants players that want to be at Utah. It is too bad he left, seeing how well K develops players. O'Brien, Wright and Poeltl would have been very good last year.

 

[green]

Why is Hayward never compared to Pippen? Hayward is a better shooting Pippen. He is very undervalued.