LazyD, I don't disagree with your assement of effort, but I want to that I heard two related and disturbing conversations after the Houston loss. The first was the interview with Enes Kanter, he was asked what the difference was between the first and second half, what had Houston done differently? Enes just shook his head and said I don't know what they did but nothing worked the second half.
A few moments later they were interviewing Dwight howard and asked him about Enes Kanter and why Enes had got off to a great start and then struggled in the second half, was it more effort or strategy,? Dwight looked right at the reporter and said, oh it was strategy in the first half asik was playing off of him and giving him space, at halftime coach told him to get up into Kanter when he caught the ball.
Dwit knew and recognized the strategy/technique change, but Enes was completely clueless. It caused me to wonder if the jazz coaches also recognized the change and if they tried to coach a clueless Kanter or if the Jazz coaches missed out on the change.
I know Kanter is a little new to basketball, but I think he has experience enough to know the difference between when a player is playing close to him or not, and probably enough to know how that would change his game to some degree. He shouldn't need a coach to point that out. Now, does Kanter have enough skills at this point to play well against a closer defense? I don't know.
I do know that taking what players say in interviews as their most honest assessments is risky to begin with.