The first, inevitable dent to the good vibes has occurred – the Jazz lose a frustrating, hard-to-watch game to the Nuggets in their home opener, 106-117. We all knew that this was not the perfect team, but still… it’s never fun to be reminded like this.
The first quarter was more in-line with the strong quality of play we saw from the preseason opener in Boulder, Colorado; the shots were falling, the players were vibing, and the defense seemed even a bit improved. After this strong start, however,
the game was exhaustingly ugly until the bitter end. Part of this was the fault of the Jazz and their sloppy play, but the 64 combined fouls from both teams led to a stilted gameplay experience – if I hadn’t signed on to write the recap, there’s no chance I would’ve dedicated nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes to a meaningless preseason game. To be sure, most of these were valid calls; it appears to me that the coaching staff have been preaching defensive intensity to a group of players inexperienced with that aspect of the game. They’re trying, but often by putting their arms all over their assignment (the zone defense which often put a guard against Jokic in the post didn’t help) instead of mastering defensive fundamentals.
What made this game more of a struggle to sit through was the lack of truly impressive performances from anyone on the Jazz roster. Darryn led the team in scoring, but I think he played far from a perfect game. I came away from this performance wowed by his talent in shot-making (and, less obviously, impressed by some neat passes), but slightly worried regarding how limited he looks as an athlete when matched up with NBA players. Some of this can be attributed to his handle, sure, but frequently he had to settle for very difficult shots because his preferred driving lane was stone-walled by one of the Nuggets wings. Without the burst to get by or the strength to muscle through, Darryn will be very reliant on screening actions and off-ball movement to begin his career… which is fine! Those are valuable skills for him to learn, and will provide the foundations of stardom if he truly is a Tier-1 difficult shot maker (a cool archetype, but one with very low margin for err0r). However, the way Peterson gets to his buckets is something that I will be monitoring as he continues to develop.
It was the bench unit that really sunk the Jazz in this one. Now, this really isn’t fair to them. 4 key rotation players were out with injury, which led to a few guys being really overtasked. Still, it was a bad look for the bench, because not only did they really struggle on both ends, but it felt like, in the middle of the third quarter, that the frustration overtook them and they gave up. Now, it’s better to give up in the preseason than the regular season, and I’m sure the effort level would’ve been higher if they began falling behind in the middle of December instead of the beginning of October. Nevertheless, when things started to go wrong, the team started to fray at the seams, and that deserves mention regardless of the time of year. I found the main culprit to Isaiah Collier. He began to really force things offensively and take plays off defensively. I’ve been a Collier advocate throughout the Summer, because his particular set of skills is really unique in the greater context of the Jazz roster, but when there are injuries, there may be too much of a creation burden placed on him when he’s playing with bench units.
Ace Bailey was once again impressive to me. The efficiency wasn’t great, but he found ways to provide value even on possessions when the shot wasn’t falling. Defensively, Ace seems to have realized that he is enormous and freakishly athletic. He was flying around the court, grabbing rebounds and generally mucking things up. There was one possession in particular where he was switched onto Jamal Murray and moved his feet like an All-Defense type of player. It would’ve been nice for the shots to drop, but Project MPJ+Defense is still going according to plan.
Among the deep bench players, Harrison Ingram was a breath of fresh air. He brought a burst of energy immediately when he stepped on the court, and demonstrated all of the skills that have the potential of earning him minutes as the year progresses. His rebounding was the loudest positive that he brought to the team – 3 offensive rebounds in 8 minutes is nothing to scoff at, especially from the 3rd largest player in the lineup. His passing was crisp, his hustle was evident, his feet were zooming; this is the skill-based forward archetype that, in theory, the Jazz could really use. No player has ever won regular season playing time off of 8 minutes of preseason garbage time, but it certainly isn’t a bad thing that Harrison Ingram appeared to be the best player on the court for those 8 minutes. His performance in the G-League is something that I’ll monitor closely this year.
Poor defense and stunted offense made this a tough watch, but the young guys showed flashes, which is one of the more valuable data points that we can take from the preseason. What stood out to you after this one? Comment below!
