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Tavan Parker
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Will they bounce back in the 2nd half like last season?
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The Utah Jazz had just won 4 of 5 games. They were scoring the ball and defense looked good again. It seemed like the players were having fun again. Had they finally figured it out?
No.
No they had not.
Back to back ugly losses to the Spurs and Thunder show that this team still has some learning to do. When the schedule lightens up will all this worry have been in vain? Do the Jazz just not have enough talent? I honestly don’t know what the answer is. And I’m not jealous of the decisions that Dennis Lindsey has to make.
I’m curious what everyone here thinks. What is your #1 solution for the Jazz this season?
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This is a week old, but I don’t think things have changed too drastically since then.
The Efficiency Landscape, what jumps out? pic.twitter.com/BPfYRTTLCq
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) December 3, 2018
The last few seasons, the Jazz have relied on their elite defense to win them games. This worked great until suddenly this season. The defense has slipped significantly and it’s quite confusing. At this point last season Rudy Gobert had played in so few games, so it made sense that the D wasn’t quite the same without the DPOY. This year, however, the struggles have continued even with Rudy healthy. (That being said, a lot of the HUGE runs Utah has given up are when Rudy are on the bench.)
I do think this team figures things out eventually. Adapting to the new league rules is taking longer than I thought, but Quin Snyder has been too good at adjustments so far in his career not to figure this one out. I look forward to when the Jazz D is like the world’s worst dentist again.
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We’ve got a handful of fan posts to highlight this week, so let’s just get right to it!
wwwocls12 thinks its time for Donovan Mitchell to go full Russell Westbrook:
We saw last year that Donovan has the ability to both take games over offensively AND play top notch ball running the point. It’s time for him to stop deferring to others and go full Westbrook Beast Mode. Run the offense, pass the ball, rebound, shoot, take over.
RHJazz wants to see the Jazz play to their strengths or make some significant changes:
The Utah Jazz are currently bad. 14th in the Western conference bad. Yet it seems like the coaching staff and management haven’t figured out how to get the best out of this Jazz team that went to the second round of the playoffs just last year.
This is going to be a short fanpost/rant, I seriously think that the Jazz either try to play to their strength, or just tank and blow this whole season up.
notajazzfan writes about Joe Ingles: the Underdog:
Who is Joe Ingles? The Australian-born NBA player is becoming a star. Among the most recognizable players for the modern Utah Jazz roster, this top-shelf baller has more success coming his way.
Beginning of the 8 Mile Road
In his early years, Ingles grew up in Adelaide, Australia. As a kid, he dropped his two other sports, cricket and Australian rules football, in order to fulfill his dream to play NBL basketball for the Adelaide 36ers. When he received an offer at just 17, the 36ers organization misspelled his name, which turned Ingles away. Now he begins making a name for himself...
Fesenko for President has started to look towards the 2019 NBA draft:
It’s obviously extremely early to be looking at the 2019 NBA draft, but the good news is that the draft seems to be chock full of talented young small forwards, stretch-4 power forwards, and combo forwards--positions for which the Jazz reasonably appears to have a need. In fact, Duke’s trio of forwards--Williamson, Barrett and Reddish--not only look like the first three picks in the draft, but also all look like future all-stars.
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I’m not sure if this was reported here in a downbeat or not, but I thought this was a pretty funny event last week.
Sorry, @UtahGov. Donovan is a little busy right now. Please try again in July. pic.twitter.com/p3SQBXMNnU
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) December 6, 2018
Can you imagine your friendly neighborhood Spida Man sitting up on a jury? Fortunately but unfortunately we’ll never get to see it because it would appear that he’ll get off the hook this time around.
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Donovan Mitchell continues building his brand and endorsements, this time signing a deal with Stance socks.
Donovan Mitchell signs as Stance socks brand ambassador, joining @DwyaneWade, @KlayThompson and @JHarden13 as the 4th current NBA player. His @stance socks will launch this season. “I’m excited to partner with the best sock company in the game,” he said. https://t.co/fHtOzVf4Jt
— Eric Woodyard (@E_Woodyard) December 9, 2018
On the one hand, it’s just socks. Not a big deal right? Sort of. But notice the list of other players that Stance has worked with: James Harden, Dwyane Wade, and Klay Thompson. Those are big time names and now Donovan is included. Could this be a foreshadowing of further endorsement deals to come for the Utah guard?
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