unluckyseventeen

As some of you may have seen, in my power ratings, the Jazz are 8th in the NBA with an offensive rating of 111.7 (3rd best behind Dallas and Boston), but their defensive rating is AWFUL, with a rating of 56.0.

Just looking through the offensive statistics, it's crazy what this team's offense can be. Boozer and Williams with 20/10, both shooting over 50% from the field, Deron almost 50% from 3. Brewer shooting in the high 50's, Kirilenko with almost 2.5 blocks per game, with great point, rebound and assist numbers, the team averaging 50% from the floor through 7 games, 111 PPG (top in the NBA)... this squad has shown that they can score on anybody and can do so with tremendous efficiency.

The biggest GLARING weakness is defense. Our perimeter defense and help defense is decent by all accounts. But our interior defense is really lacking, and really needs to be improved drastically for this team to win.

And I'll say it now, if this team picks up all of it's deficiencies on the defensive end, they are a title contender. Hopefully they understand that, too.

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Jazz Editorial
In-depth Jazz analysis and information.

Darkwing Duck

I have this thing called a duhgong. It's like a gong, but when you hit it, it makes a "duh" sound.

I hit it (figuratively of course)when I saw this thread. No offense.

Boy Okur and Boozer are bad at rotating. Boozer is ok man on man, and is good challenging a man at the top of the rim, but that's it. Okur can guard Yao.
That's it.

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anyeong haseyo!

I hate posting when the Jazz lose, so I go missing for days.

WeatherGuy

Agreed, and Duh.

I'm starting to worry somewhat because I (like many others) have high expectations for this year's team, but as each game passes I'm not noticing any improvements in the post defense. I also believe the Jazz may be a little too up-tempo and may not have a good balance of half-court execution-- there will be those games and those teams where that execution will be needed for victories. The Jazz are beating the lower echelon teams but, so far, have lost to playoff talent.

Does everyone agree we are seeing a kinder, softer version of Sloan this year? I don't remember him dishing out so many positive comments and it doesn't seem he's defining any new explicatives for the officials. The Jazz need his toughness and high defensive expectations to influence their interior D and not be worried about hurting the feelings of All-Stars!

Speaking of which, Andre is filing the stat sheet as well as ever-- flirting with a triple-double three consecutive games now. It was great to see Memo go inside a little against the Kings. Offensively, Booz and D-Will are tearing it up, and the bench, although a tad inconsistent, can be one of the strongest in the league.

The ingredients are there, we need strong coaching making the right decisions. Unfortunately, I don't see Sloan as being a great in-game coach, he doesn't seem willing or know when to make adjustments: time-outs to stop huge momentum swings, varying from planned rotation schedules, or identifying weaknesses during the game and altering the type of play (i.e send Memo inside, have Deron shoot more/less, have Gordon stop chucking the ball the second he touches it) or finding a bench player who is "on" (i.e Milsap) when other is having an "off" night.

Anyone disagree about Sloan? I'd be interested to hear why. It's easy to point things out from my living room

Darkwing Duck

The Sac game had better rotation for about half of it. Memo really got bad in the third, which is probably why he was benched. He was fairly decent the first half.

Boozer was average, but he's more of a consistent average. Memo is better at times, a lot worse at others.

Still something we have to live with if we want their offensive awesomeness.

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anyeong haseyo!

I hate posting when the Jazz lose, so I go missing for days.

AK-47

If you are #1 in PPG, your defense most likely won't be in the top 20.

unluckyseventeen

Boston is currently #1 in offensive FG%, and WAS #1 in defensive FG% (I don't know if they are still there now, but it seems likely).


I think Sloan has been a lot better of a decision-making coach this season. Seems that when he sees the offense struggling, Boozer and Williams are off the bench in a hurry.


One guy that has been surprisingly sporatic is Millsap. He has a career high one night, then the next barely shows up.


Also, has anybody else noticed how amazing our ball movement is this season? It seems like guys are always looking to somebody else to get a better shot - hence the great FG%.

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Jazz Editorial
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Darkwing Duck

Ugh, nothing like a horrible offense and missed shots to make your defense look good. Guess you know what you're getting with Okur and Boozer. Will see if their offense shines over the muck that is the defense. Hard to do in the playoffs, really.

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anyeong haseyo!

I hate posting when the Jazz lose, so I go missing for days.

unluckyseventeen

By the way, the Jazz's defense against Cleveland was atrocious. Absolutely horrid. I could smell it through the TV. Smelled like dirty underwear.

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Jazz Editorial
In-depth Jazz analysis and information.