Training Camp News and Discussion

Slightly off topic, but I sat down with relatives in the SF Bay Area to watch the Stanford v. Arizona football game on the Fox Sports network yesterday, and lo and behold, Boler was calling the game for the Fox Sports network. Hearing Boler's voice made me pine for a regular season Jazz game. For some reason, it seems like it is taking forever this year to get the regular season going. As for the Stanford vs. Arizona game, it was an offensive barn burner with neither team being able to stop the other team until Stanford got an interception in overtime and followed up with a score for the win.

T-Wick wrote:

Hey guys this is zoonie my account didn't auto log in and I forgot my password so I had to make a new account. Anyways I can't go to the scrimmage today because I have to work so I'm countin on you guys to give us some awesome updates on how the jazz are looking. Thanks and I look forward to the update posts

I reset your password and emailed it to you.

Is there no television for the teams first preseason game tonight? I've looked all over & can't find it.

Just read this about Al & Mo missing the scrimmage. Maybe the ice/heat on Al's back was just general maintenance since it was his groin that was injured.

Veterans Al Jefferson and Mo Williams are expected to play in the Jazz’s preseason opener Monday night at Golden State.

Prior to Sunday’s practice, coach Tyrone Corbin said Jefferson and Williams were held out of Saturday’s public scrimmage as a precaution because they were “a little banged up.”

Asked if they would play against the Warriors, Corbin said, “I think they will be fine.”

Jefferson was disappointed to miss the scrimmage but looks forward to the preseason opener.

“I wanted to play,” he said. “But coach told me to take it easy because I kind of hurt my groin in practice. But it’s fine. The coaches just wanted me to take it easy.”


Preseason priorities

Corbin’s No. 1 goal against Golden State will be to watch how his players implement what was emphasized by the coaching staff during camp.

“Just seeing how much of it we’ve picked up,” Corbin said. “You get used to playing against each other. ... Now, with a fresh group of defenders, how do you transfer it from practice into a game?”

Corbin has “an idea” how he will distribute playing time against Golden State but didn’t say who would start.

“You want to give your main guys some minutes but not too many minutes,” he said, “and you want to see how other guys mix in.

“Can they come off the bench and give you this or that? What group gives you a faster lineup or a defensive lineup? You want to figure that out as soon as we can.”


Camp goals met

The Golden State game ends the training camp portion of the Jazz’s preseason, which left Corbin with a positive impression of his retooled roster and appreciative of the effort made by his players.

“I thought the guys came in in great shape and had focus from Day 1,” he said. “We had a lot of practices. Two-a-days are tough. Your body is beat up and you’re tired. ... But they fought their way through it and picked a lot of stuff up. Their focus and effort has been great the whole training camp.”


Briefly

Veteran point guard Earl Watson did not travel to Golden State as he continues to work on recovering from knee surgery in April. ... All-time, the Jazz are 5-3 in preseason games against the Warriors. ... Corbin on the improvement Gordon Hayward has shown during camp: “Every year his growth shows you who he is and what he can do in this league.”

zero24gravity wrote:

Is there no television for the teams first preseason game tonight? I've looked all over & can't find it.

I just checked the SF Chronicle sports page for TV-Radio events today and it lists radio only --- KNBR 680. By the way, in the Kanter discussions it is often brought up that the guys drafted behind Kanter in the top ten are not doing any better. I think Klay Thompson of the Warriors, who will play tonight, and Kawhi Leonard of the Spurs, are a couple of guys drafted in the second ten who stand some chance of turning out to be as or more valuable players than Kanter. This isn't to say I am not excited about watching the Instanbull develop and move forward; it is just recognizing that Thompson and Leonard are a couple of young guys already showing a lot of talent and promise --- IMHO. So since I said that, Klay Thompson will probably have a terrible game tonight, but that is just fine.

Crunchtime1 wrote:

zero24gravity wrote:

Is there no television for the teams first preseason game tonight? I've looked all over & can't find it.

I just checked the SF Chronicle sports page for TV-Radio events today and it lists radio only --- KNBR 680. By the way, in the Kanter discussions it is often brought up that the guys drafted behind Kanter in the top ten are not doing any better. I think Klay Thompson of the Warriors, who will play tonight, and Kawhi Leonard of the Spurs, are a couple of guys drafted in the second ten who stand some chance of turning out to be as or more valuable players than Kanter. This isn't to say I am not excited about watching the Instanbull develop and move forward; it is just recognizing that Thompson and Leonard are a couple of young guys already showing a lot of talent and promise --- IMHO. So since I said that, Klay Thompson will probably have a terrible game tonight, but that is just fine.

Well sure, you could easily add burks to that list as well. And count me as one of the people who thought leonard was a top 10 player, and was disappointed when the jazz didn't take him. But I think it is important to put hindsight on draft picks in perspective. Any of those other guys would have been a huge reach at #3.

I'm getting really exited about hayward and favors though. Very interested to see if they have elevated their games mentally as well as skill wise, especially hayward.

Also very interested to see burks getting run at point.i think out would be very interesting if they built the second unit around burks at the point. I hope if they go that route the will just let him do his thing and expect him to be a traditional pg. he's more westbtrook than d-will, and if they are going to put him at point with the second unit they should give him the green light to do what he does.

Crunchtime1 wrote:

zero24gravity wrote:

Is there no television for the teams first preseason game tonight? I've looked all over & can't find it.

I just checked the SF Chronicle sports page for TV-Radio events today and it lists radio only --- KNBR 680. By the way, in the Kanter discussions it is often brought up that the guys drafted behind Kanter in the top ten are not doing any better. I think Klay Thompson of the Warriors, who will play tonight, and Kawhi Leonard of the Spurs, are a couple of guys drafted in the second ten who stand some chance of turning out to be as or more valuable players than Kanter. This isn't to say I am not excited about watching the Instanbull develop and move forward; it is just recognizing that Thompson and Leonard are a couple of young guys already showing a lot of talent and promise --- IMHO. So since I said that, Klay Thompson will probably have a terrible game tonight, but that is just fine.

I agree that based solely on last year Thompson and Leonard looked really good and had better seasons than Kanter. However, I think it is premature to talk about longer-term player development. By all accounts Kanter has added a lot to his game over the off-season and like Hayward expect that he will show his true promise in year two, come back even better in year 3 with more confidence and game knowledge, and then voila, the Jazz's new post duo of Favors/Kanter will be a force to be reckoned with. Not many people talk about it but I think his offensive game is going to blossom and he will be a scoring, rebounding, defending stud.

TheMagnus wrote:

Also very interested to see burks getting run at point.i think out would be very interesting if they built the second unit around burks at the point. I hope if they go that route the will just let him do his thing and expect him to be a traditional pg. he's more westbtrook than d-will, and if they are going to put him at point with the second unit they should give him the green light to do what he does.

Hadn't thought of that possibility with the second unit. I kind of like it but if that were the case who is he running with on the wing? Seems like those guys will also need to know how to initiate some sets. Since I assume you see Foye as the starting 2 in this scenario, who do you see starting 2 in the second unit? Or are you assuming Hay is going to start at 2 so Foye will run with the second unit? That could be intriguing though I'm not sure, overall, I know what the advantage of Burks running the point is. Are you looking for more slashing and/or quick pull-up jumpers?

Burks won't be running the point unless Foye and Tinsley both go down.
However, his ballhandling an passing certainly can provide huge help as a second ball handler and initiator from the wing for both Foye and Tinsley.

MTJazz wrote:

TheMagnus wrote:

Also very interested to see burks getting run at point.i think out would be very interesting if they built the second unit around burks at the point. I hope if they go that route the will just let him do his thing and expect him to be a traditional pg. he's more westbtrook than d-will, and if they are going to put him at point with the second unit they should give him the green light to do what he does.

Hadn't thought of that possibility with the second unit. I kind of like it but if that were the case who is he running with on the wing? Seems like those guys will also need to know how to initiate some sets. Since I assume you see Foye as the starting 2 in this scenario, who do you see starting 2 in the second unit? Or are you assuming Hay is going to start at 2 so Foye will run with the second unit? That could be intriguing though I'm not sure, overall, I know what the advantage of Burks running the point is. Are you looking for more slashing and/or quick pull-up jumpers?

I think outerspace might be right about Tinsley, but not so sure about Foye. I think the fact that they are working him at PG means that they are going to be playing Foye at SG and are looking for minutes for Burks.

Hypothetically, lets say Burks was the PG for the second unit, what are the options? Well for starters on the wings you've really got three options, you could be starting Foye/Hayward, Haward/Williams, or Hayward/Millsap. I don't think Corbin wants to start the Big3 lineup so lets scratch that one, adn I actually think it's more likely that they start Williams and move Hayward over to the 2. That being the case, I'd probably go to Foye at the 2 and Carroll at the 3 with the second unit. I'm not necessarily looking at advantages at various positions, I'm just looking at the best utilization of Burks. Whether he's PG or SG I think he's going to be best with the ball in his hands and a green light to attack the basket and look for his shot. Of course that still needs to come within the offense, but Burks is a high usage volume scorer, and I think that is the role they should expect him to play, especially with the second unit, whether he's PG or SG. I actually think he would be great with a lineup of Foye, Marvin Williams, Millsap, and Kanter. Foye and Burks could share the ball handling duties, Burks is the primary weapon attacking the basket from the wing, Foye and Williams spot up or come off screens, and Millsap and Kanter move without the ball and do what they do in the paint. I'm sure who starts at the 2 in that scenario, but I think that group could be pretty nasty.

- Kanter have just pulled down 9 boards and blocked 2 shots with 4 points in 12 minutes... I don't dare to put it per 36 minutes... it scares me

- Lee and Landry seems to have kind of toyed with us a little bit...

outerspacefan wrote:

- Kanter have just pulled down 9 boards and blocked 2 shots with 4 points in 12 minutes... I don't dare to put it per 36 minutes... it scares me

- Lee and Landry seems to have kind of toyed with us a little bit...

Only caught the 4th. how did we only manage to score 12 in the second?

starters like 4 for 30? Ok maybe not that bad, but bad! Kanterman is gonna be a stud! Bag millslap and favors and give us Enis.

Love how they keep saying GSW look like they want to win this game, More than they could say coming down the stretch last year. Win preseason but throw off when the playoffs are on the line? Idiots

Richardale wrote:

starters like 4 for 30? Ok maybe not that bad, but bad! Kanterman is gonna be a stud! Bag millslap and favors and give us Enis.

Actually Sap played well but Kanter is clearly a beast on the boards to be reckoned with, not to mention but the ball in the hoop. M. Willilams looks like he is worthy of the start at 3 and DC showed more game. The Hayman had an awful shooting night, Favors and Burks, ho hum. I'm sure we will see more sorting out but I gotta say, given all the guys that got good tick, overall awful shooting performance led by Mr 0-6 Foye, that ain't gonna get it done in regular season.

MTJazz wrote:

Richardale wrote:

starters like 4 for 30? Ok maybe not that bad, but bad! Kanterman is gonna be a stud! Bag millslap and favors and give us Enis.

Actually Sap played well but Kanter is clearly a beast on the boards to be reckoned with, not to mention but the ball in the hoop. M. Willilams looks like he is worthy of the start at 3 and DC showed more game. The Hayman had an awful shooting night, Favors and Burks, ho hum. I'm sure we will see more sorting out but I gotta say, given all the guys that got good tick, overall awful shooting performance led by Mr 0-6 Foye, that ain't gonna get it done in regular season.

Ya, Hayward, Foye, and Jefferson really stunk the joint up offensively, but those shots will fall, for all of them. Hayward pulled down 6 boards and had 2 steals, Jefferson blocked a couple shots, Foye actually played a solid game defensively on Thompson.

Locke mentioned that Burks had a tough time defensively with Thompson, I also saw a couple clips where Kanter missed some defensive rotations pretty badly in spite of the gaudy box score. It's important to remember those guys are still so young, but clearly they need some more work to learn how to really play a complete game.

The Williams both sure looked good, very excited to have those two on the team.

Love what I'm seeing from Carroll. I know how excited we are to see some game from Burks, but Carroll is looking like a legit threat to give quality minutes off the bench. If he can continue to his his jumpers, with his defensive presense and intensity I don't see how you can keep him off the court.

Does anyone know, are the Pre-season games all, some or none being televised on Dish Network?

TheMagnus wrote:

Love what I'm seeing from Carroll. I know how excited we are to see some game from Burks, but Carroll is looking like a legit threat to give quality minutes off the bench. If he can continue to his his jumpers, with his defensive presense and intensity I don't see how you can keep him off the court.

Welcome to the rotation, DC. Been really hard not to be impressed with who this man is and what he is doing with his NBA dream, its working.

MTJazz wrote:

TheMagnus wrote:

Love what I'm seeing from Carroll. I know how excited we are to see some game from Burks, but Carroll is looking like a legit threat to give quality minutes off the bench. If he can continue to his his jumpers, with his defensive presense and intensity I don't see how you can keep him off the court.

Welcome to the rotation, DC. Been really hard not to be impressed with who this man is and what he is doing with his NBA dream, its working.

I just noticed I am a "Starter". Look out you bench punks and rookies, I ain't given that up. Unless it makes the team better. Than I am willing to be the 6th man, or when I'm old, number 14 on the roster. Heh! Still got some game.

MTJazz wrote:

TheMagnus wrote:

Love what I'm seeing from Carroll. I know how excited we are to see some game from Burks, but Carroll is looking like a legit threat to give quality minutes off the bench. If he can continue to his his jumpers, with his defensive presense and intensity I don't see how you can keep him off the court.

Welcome to the rotation, DC. Been really hard not to be impressed with who this man is and what he is doing with his NBA dream, its working.

Something interesting about DC's game last season (and I think it went kind of unnoted a little bit) was his ability to get to defend 3 point shooters half a second earlier than any of his perimeter teammates; if he mantains that thing along with his natural game, and on top of that dude adds a consistent jumpshot to it... well... some people could find it hard to get playing time...

MarvinW is the best 3 we have, Hayward seems to be the first dude in coaches minds at the other wing spot... if DC really got some stroke Burks and Roy could be cheerleading for looong stretches...

Speaking of Carroll, I just ran across this article in the Trib:

The Jazz's offseason acquisition of Marvin Williams left DeMarre Carroll in a strange position. Carroll, who stated nine of the 20 games he played with the Jazz emerged last season as a productive rebounder and clean-up kind of guy.

However, Williams added to an already jammed cluster of swing guys. Carroll knew it.

The hole in his game was his perimeter shooting, he acknowledged Monday night in Oakland after the Jazz's 83-80 loss to Golden State, a game in which Carroll scored nine points in 23 minutes. All four of his baskets were on jump shots, and he was 1-of-3 on 3-pointers.

Carroll said he spent the offseason working more on his jumper than anything else, putting up at least 1,000shots a day. And, while he deferred when asked if he took the acquisition of Williams as a challenge, Carroll did smile a little.

"When you know you got shooters around you, it makes you want to work on your game," he said. "I didn't want to get bumped out of the rotation, they kept telling me that something I had to improve so that's something I've been improving."

Last season, Carroll averaged just one 3-point attempt per game, and was a 36 percent shooter. If he emerges as a reliable outside threat, it adds a whole new dimension not only to his game, but the Jazz's as well.

"If I can shoot the ball and play defense, and hustle," Carroll said, "Bruce Bowen got paid for it, why can't I?"

Carroll made his first three shots against the Warriors, all 19-footers from the left elbow extended.

"He's taking good shots," Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. "He's making shots. He did a good job tonight, all that added with his hustle on the floor will add to what we want to do."

— Bill Oram

It is always interesting to see what the press in other cities are saying about the games, and here in Bay Area, the new GS rookie Center, Festus Ezeli, got some real high marks for his defense in games against the Jazz and Lakers. The Jazz game wasn't on TV here either, so don't know whether Jefferson was off or Ezeli was really that great.

SFChronicle wrote:

Ezeli altered Randy Foye's attempt at a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer Monday and, more impressively, helped limit Utah center Al Jefferson to two points on 1-of-8 shooting. "He has a gift," Jackson said. "He's going to be a big-time shot-blocker and a big-time presence in the paint." "Going back and watching film, he's been spectacular," Jackson said. "He's the real deal. He's absolutely the real deal."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/Warriors-Ezeli-takes-pride-in-learning-3933982.php#ixzz29153UoW3

As we all know, Mark Jackson sometimes likes to exaggerate, so guess we will find out down the road whether Festus is "the real deal".

Crunchtime1 wrote:

It is always interesting to see what the press in other cities are saying about the games, and here in Bay Area, the new GS rookie Center, Festus Ezeli, got some real high marks for his defense in the game against the Jazz. The game wasn't on TV here either, so don't know whether Jefferson was off or Ezeli was really that great.

SFChronicle wrote:

Ezeli altered Randy Foye's attempt at a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer Monday and, more impressively, helped limit Utah center Al Jefferson to two points on 1-of-8 shooting. "He has a gift," Jackson said. "He's going to be a big-time shot-blocker and a big-time presence in the paint."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/Warriors-Ezeli-takes-pride-in-learning-3933982.php#ixzz2914YLlVG

That is interesting, but seems like a false conclusion if you ask me. I mean Jefferson did shoot 1-8, and Ezeli did block 4 shots, but none of those blocked shots were on Jefferson, and if Jefferson has proven one thing, it is that the only guy that really stops Al Jefferson from doing his thing is Al Jefferson. That's not to say that I love what he does, I'm just saying that it is is pretty tough for one guy to do much of anything to change it.

Well here we are three games into the pre-season, so what have we learned?

Gordon Hayward is being A LOT more aggressive offensively, attacking the basket, shooting his shots, drawing a ton of fouls.

Marvin and Mo are looking really good right now. Mo is running and hitting his shots, and most importantly, LEADING the team. Marvin just looks great out there, solid on both sides of the ball.

Big Al is still Big Al. Millsap appears to still be Millsap.

Favors doesn't appear to have made any progress offensively, but still looks to be a dominant defensive presence.

Foye has been brutally bad shooting the ball (1 for 17 so far), which is a problem, since that is what he's supposed to be best at.

Tinsley sure has looked good at backup point, been quite impressed with his play so far.

Carroll has shown some flashes, as has Burks, be interesting to see how those two and Foye end up splitting the minutes after Hayward and Marvin get theirs.

And finally, Big Turkey. What can you say about his play so far? Guy is putting up some ridiculous numbers, obviously there's things beyond the box score to talk about, but that is hard when the box score is so amazing....

TheMagnus wrote:

Well here we are three games into the pre-season, so what have we learned?

Gordon Hayward is being A LOT more aggressive offensively, attacking the basket, shooting his shots, drawing a ton of fouls.

He is being aggressive and taking lots of shots, not making many though. 10 from 29 shooting in 3 games or 34% only.
Somehow he starts seasons slow and then tunes his shot later in spring. Lets hope he will do it when it matters - mean playoffs.