Utah Jazz: The Bigs
The Utah Jazz frontcourt is likely set for the 2013-14 season. General manager Dennis Lindsey has filled a couple of holes in this area of the roster this offseason. Rudy Gobert was acquired in this year’s draft and Andris Biedrins was a piece brought back in a trade with the Golden State Warriors. It will be interesting to see how coach Tyrone Corbin juggles minutes between an exciting group of bigs, but we can speculate about how things will shake out this coming season.
Derrick Favors should be considered the top big man on the team this season. After all, he began last season as a starter. Unfortunately for Derrick, coach Ty quickly moved him back to the second unit (a move that wasn’t extremely popular with many Jazz fans). Of the big men returning from last year’s Jazz roster Favors certainly played the most minutes, though he only averaged about 23 of them per game. His potential is abundantly clear, evidenced by his selection to the USA select team that trained with the first team over the summer. Favors has extreme athletic ability and is a very large human being, a good combo for a NBA power forward/center. Standing at about 6’10” with a wingspan of 7’4″, Favors is certainly a presence down low. Derrick averaged about 1.7 blocks per game last season, which would have been good for about 2.6 per game if he were closer to averaging 36 minutes per game. It’s likely Derrick could see close to that many minutes this season as Dennis Lindsey has certainly paved the way for the Jazz’s young core to start leading the team. Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap will no longer take minutes from one of the most promising big men in the league.
Derrick’s most likely counterpart down low will be the big Turkish center, Enes Kanter. It’s easy to get excited about Enes’ future when you watch him play. He is near immovable on the low block, but also has great footwork and a very soft touch around the rim. Similarly to Favors, Kanter didn’t get a lot of minutes last season. He only averaged about 15 minutes per game. If you spent enough time watching the Jazz over the past few seasons, the lack of minutes for promising youngsters was a noticeable (and disturbing) trend. Dennis Lindsey seems to agree and has positioned the roster to hand over the reigns to Kanter as the starting center. With Kanter’s low minutes total last season, his stats don’t look like anything special. However if he were to have averaged 36 minutes per game last season, Enes would have averaged an assist, a steal, a block, 10 rebounds, and 17 points on 54 percent shooting. As is always the case, we can’t rely on “per 36″ stats to project what a player like Kanter will do with extended minutes. It remains to be seen how Kanter will produce against other teams starting centers, though if you watch Kanter play, there is a lot to like about his game and many reasons to believe he can significantly improve upon last season.
Most likely the first option off the bench for Corbin will be rookie Rudy Gobert. If Derrick Favors’ size is superhuman, Gobert is otherworldly. The Frenchman stands around 7’2″ in shoes and measured NBA draft combine records in standing reach, 9’7″, and wingspan, 7′ 8.5”. Rudy has been playing pro basketball in France, so it will be interesting to see how ready he is to play in the NBA. It is a commonly held belief that the French pro league is sufficiently fast-paced and physical enough to prepare a player for the NBA. NBA history has been filled with players that have successful careers just by being large and knowing how to use that to their advantage. Shawn Bradley and Mark Eaton, for example, were not tremendous athletes but were able to use their size to help their teams. If Rudy can be a passable athlete and understand the game sufficiently, he could be special.
To round out the bench bigs, Ty Corbin will have the options of veteran Andris Biedrins and Jeremy Evans. Both players are interesting and will play different roles. Biedrins hardly played with Golden State last season and will certainly have some competition this year. Having said that, Andris certainly has value. He has been an important piece of relatively successful teams and is a solid defensive player. However, he is also a liability from the free-throw line, where he is historically terrible. Evans hasn’t seen much time on the court during his career, but is very exciting to watch. The former slam dunk champion brings a different dynamic to whatever lineup he plays in. During the last few seasons Jazz fans have gotten used to his sneaky backdoor cut alley-oops and garbage time highlight dunks. For all his upside, Jeremy just hasn’t been able to add enough strength to play good enough defense against NBA bigs. Jeremy will either need to come into camp with much more muscle or have the ability to play at the 3 if he wants to get any minutes going forward.
It will be a great season for the Jazz to see what they have in their young big men. The team isn’t positioned to see a lot of wins this season, but may be playoff contenders again very quickly as their youngsters develop. The frontcourt will be a very big part of the progression.