Oh, I've liked Udoh from the start. I just worry about him being good value at #9. I guess if he became the ninth best player in his draft overall, he'd be worth it, but there's a lot of talent in this draft. It's hard to see Udoh being the ninth best in the draft.
I'm glad to see that we're still on the same page with Udoh.
You'll notice I made no mention of in game strategy. There's a reason for that. Actually, strategy isn't the thing I'd use. I'd use adjustments. It's so odd since I see a lot of per game adjustments that are great. They just don't tend to show up in game.
It's funny that you mention "adjustment" because I contemplated adopting "InGameAdjustments" as my screen name, but it did not seem to incorporate the fullness of my mantra, which is that the overall strategy (analyzing matchups, putting out lineups that would most likely handle the matchups the best, finding minutes to develop young players) is paramount and sets the stage for--and includes--adjustments (making optimal substitutions, calling timeouts, keeping players appropriately motivated and focused).
The thing with Sloan is that he doesn't care if you take shots within the offense. Most of CJ's bad shots came off of curls and down screens. CJ would often take the shot no matter how well executed or defended it was, oftentimes leading to bad shots since he would generally be heavily guarded. That's why the slack was there. Compare to Giricek, who would take bad shots OUT of the offense. Same with Okur. If shots are taken inside the offense, Sloan can accept the results.
I don't agree that CJ's bad shots mostly came off curls and screens. He regularly launched up long shots and out-of-control fancy plays. Sometimes there wasn't an alternative to CJ on the bench, but whereas Giri and others got buried on the bench, CJ kept getting minutes, even though he was a subpar defender and was sometimes shooting at a higher rate than Deron or Boozer. This year, Miles ended up with almost exactly the FGA rate as D-Will. Maybe the SG needs to be shooting a lot, and he's improved in his shot selection, but he was still a chucker that was immortalized in a JazzFanz nickname some time ago.
Koufos, on the other hand, hadn't (or has yet too) understand how the offense works. The plays are actually quite simple, it's the options off the play that are complicated. If the defender jumps a route, the wing will slip another way, and the pass from the high post has to be there. Stuff like that like. He hasn't gotten a handle of that, something that will show in practice. Compare to Matthews, who has a great grasp of how the offense runs and does the proper cuts and options based on the defense. In that particular case, working hard in practice doesn't mean much when you can't run the offense properly. Age in this case probably has something to do with it, with Matthews I think being three years older than Koufos. It shouldn't be that surprising.
OK fine. I agree that KK2 and KF have both failed to grasp the offense. Yet. But big men take longer to develop, including offensively, and KK2 needed those on-court minutes. Sloan's fatal flaw with Kouf was not continuing to give him minutes when he was doing OK up to February and then got little time, apparently for no particular reason, after that. And that's in his rookie year, whereas the argument has been posed that bigs need years, not months, to develop. Maybe there are other issues going on, but it's easy to infer that his confidence has been crushed, and he regressed as a result. I simply don't agree that running routes in practice is the same feel as in the game, especially if the Jazz are like other teams and let some of their starters rest from practice. Players--and bigs first and foremost--need time in games, on the court. And I don't believe that Sloan tried hard enough to find those minutes, preferring to give them to Millsap. Giving Millsap 25 or 30 or 35 minutes, though, is less valuable than giving one of the bigs 5 or 10 minutes at all. And sure enough, Utah lost vs. the Lakers largely because Fes took a couple of crucial playoff games to develop and did OK on defense but didn't contribute much on offense (and because they really didn't slow down Kobe, either). If Fes had gotten more burn during the regular season, chances are that he could've contributed more because he did become less lost as the playoffs went on.
The play-by-play analysis shows that when Fes was in the game, the Lakers scored significantly less inside than when he was not. And they Jazz outscored or matched the Lakers in every game during that time that Fesenko was on the floor, raw offense and all. Years ago, Sloan should've picked up on the importance of having someone clogging the paint, even if he doesn't score much. Boozer certainly didn't clog the paint. and CB + PM lost the game more than once.
The AK injury also clearly weakened the Jazz, but Utah had the ability to at least win a couple of games without him, and they didn't.
