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October 22nd - UTAH JAZZ @ portland trailblazers (8pm MST)

Al Jefferson hasn't changed one bit. When he touches the ball, the offense dies. We were up big in the first without him...Then we went to him and the next thing we know, three straight TO's, and Portland is then up big.

Burks isn't that good. He can be, but there is a reason why he isn't playing very much. He can do one thing very well, and that is it. Not good enough.

Favors is amazing defensively and AWFUL offensively.

Kanter is looking much, much better.

We are the same team as last year...black hole AL kills us on offense and defense. Our PG play is okay at times, subpar most of the time...

The only improvement we have is Kanter is better and Marvin is better. The problem with Kanter is, he probably won't get too many minutes once the season starts. We have to get rid of Al ASAP.

Burks isn't that good huh? Well he has outplayed foye in EVERY game so far, and outplayed hayward in a few of them too. Oh and he can only do one thing well? I assume you mean get to the line, but he is also shooting about 75% from 3, rebounding better than any of our wings, playing decent defense, hitting mid range shots, and passing the ball quite well.

About the only thing burks isn't doing well is free throw shooting..... every other part of his game is looking pretty good.

hayward had 1 assist, 0 rebounds and 4 turnovers and has been struggling more than burks throughout the pre-season..... and foye? He has had a much worse pre-season.
 
Portland does play well at home. Jazz shot .519 but Trailblazers shot .575. Utah was .316 to POR .480 from 3, and .667 to .828 from the line. Favors looking better.
 
So far this pre-season, the only big to show that he deserves to start is Kanter. Corbin has noticed ... so Kanter can expect his floor time to rise dramatically to 13 mpg, including that all important first two minutes of the fourth.
 
Kanter is outplaying jefferson..... burks is outplaying foye.

But like seattlejazzfan said in another thread: Its all about how many leaderships per minute (LPM) you can average to get on the court.
Production doesn't matter, veteran leadership does matter.
 
Kanter's offensive game impressed me too but his defensive insticts worries me a lot. He misses his man so often while following the game or behaves so slow when he's gotta show up in pick n roll at defense. Also, he must not just concentrate on the PG in pick n roll positions, he's gotta know there's a man rolling to the rim after the screen too. Last, his shape creates lots of advantages for him on offense but i wonder how he 'll react against big guys like Bynum, Howard,Nene,Pekovic, Bogut etc. It won't be easy for him to push them out of post as last year.
 
Hayward needs to not run over the defender. Go around them.

Very true.

I feel like hayward is so close to becoming what we want him to be, but his jumper is still not quite there yet and he just doesn't seem to have a feel for when to attack and when not to.
 
Hayward needs to not run over the defender. Go around them.

Burks too. In fact, if Burks can play a little more under control and add some craftiness, watch out. ************Homer Alert! ************ If Burks can do both of those things I can see him being better than the beard known as James Harden.
 
Kanter's offensive game impressed me too but his defensive insticts worries me a lot. He misses his man so often while following the game or behaves so slow when he's gotta show up in pick n roll at defense. Also, he must not just concentrate on the PG in pick n roll positions, he's gotta know there's a man rolling to the rim after the screen too. Last, his shape creates lots of advantages for him on offense but i wonder how he 'll react against big guys like Bynum, Howard,Nene,Pekovic, Bogut etc. It won't be easy for him to push them out of post as last year.

Of your list of Centers in the league that Kanter might struggle with, only one concerns me, Howard. Kanter used his size last year and this year he will use his speed. Those other guys will overplay Kanter and will be out of position once Kanter pump fakes.

His defense is coming along. Be patient.
 
Of your list of Centers in the league that Kanter might struggle with, only one concerns me, Howard. Kanter used his size last year and this year he will use his speed. Those other guys will overplay Kanter and will be out of position once Kanter pump fakes.

His defense is coming along. Be patient.


I meant my concern about his post up defense on Howard, Bogut,Nene, Pekovic, Bynum etc. It's good to see him getting faster, quicker and running earliest to the rim on fast break offense but on defense he's gotta make new strategy not to let them get the ball so close to the rim instead of trying to stay strong behind of them. Remember the L.A. matches Kanter playing against Bynum. Bynum just could not move him while posting up but this year it's another story
 
Of your list of Centers in the league that Kanter might struggle with, only one concerns me, Howard.

D. Howard concerns you when Kanter basically handed Andrew Bynum a ticket to the game last season?
Bynum is an offensive powerhouse that Howard can only hope to be.
I have absolutely no worries about Kanter's defense on any center in the league.
Of course Big Al's defense is going to make him look bad though.!
 
Kanter is already so much better than Jefferson it's not funny.

He actually gets to the FT line, plays defense, and rebounds.

Ohhh if only Jefferson would do that...

Black Hole makes Memo Okur look like Karl Malone.

Jefferson is allergic to defense, rebounding, and FT line.

It's like... He's a taller Boozer or something. At least Boozer would sometimes rebound or pass or something...
 
It was a fun game to go to, even though our team decided to not play for the first half. Actually, Portland just wouldn't miss. Between starting out 8/10 on 3s and shooting around 70 % in the first half, and the Jazz not being able to hit Free Throws, it made it look a lot worse that it probably was. I am concerned about the PG play. Tinsley, Foye, and Williams all had a lot of bad decisions and didn't run a very clean offense imo. Portland is a shoot em up team that will live and die by their shooting. Lillard looked good and Batum was on fire.

Kanter was impressive. He had the ball slip through his hands a few times, but other than that was really good. Favors needs to hit foul shots, but his defense was great. Burks did great in the 4th (oh wait, thats all he really played). I feel bad for Hayward. He is out there with a couple guys that just don't care right now, and it doesn't really fit his game. Marvin Williams has been one of the most consistent players on the Jazz this preseason imo, the only problem is he plays the 3, which pushes Hayward to a lot more time at the 2, which takes a lot of minutes away from Burks.

All in all, the sky is not falling, but Milsap and AJ need to pick it up, because they are getting outplayed by Favors and Kanter.
 
The most impressive thing for me about Kanter is his shooting. He has shown a fantastic shooting touch more and more. If he finishes a little harder, I have a lot of hope in him.

KANTER'S STATS
/36
21, 15.75, 1.5, 1.25, 1.25 (57%, 74%)

Actual
12, 9, .85, .71, .71 (57%, 74%)
 
Panic button -----------> 0


Push it


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCadcBR95oU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
Kanter with 18 points on 7/7 shooting, plus solid defense on Hickson when Hickson was reminding Millsap what it means to play hard. No complaints here.
 
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