Stay Patient Utah Jazz Fans, Soon Enough Derrick Favors Will Make The NBA All-Star Game
Before the beginning of the 2014-15 NBA season there was no player on the Utah Jazz who had more pressure coming into the year than the starting power forward, Derrick Favors.
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The 2014-15 season was a make-of-break year for Favors, and the narrative was already set.
A lot of people thought that Favors wouldn’t make it, and at one point some dope even compared him to Kwame Brown, not physically, but more career-path wise.
Favors was destined to become a bust when he was selected as the third pick in the 2011 draft. A draft that had John Wall (No. 1), and Evan Turner (No. 2) selected before him, and Wesley Johnson (No. 4) and DeMarcus Cousins (No. 5) picked after him.
We got him so young that him, being a hard worker and a good kid, he was bound to improve. — Utah Jazz GM Dennis Lindsay
However, Favors had a different narrative in his mind, and it was the only story that mattered.
Favors has come a long way from when he was playing for his hometown team, Georgia Tech, with Iman Shumpert and unjustly getting the explosive athlete label slapped on him.
Trey Burke finds Derrick Favors on the baseline for the dunk #GSWatUTA #Jazz https://t.co/Nxyz1ipz7n
— Tyler Gibbons (@tylerpgibbons) January 14, 2015
Now the 23-year-old from Atlanta is having a career year as he’s averaging 16.0 points on 54 percent shooting, 8.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game, all of which, besides blocks, are career highs. In addition, Favors is also one of eight players, comprised on a list made up a list of all-stars, that average at least 16 points, eight rebounds, and one block per game.
With that being said, if Favors has numbers like the competition within the league then why isn’t he already recognized with his peers? Favors this season should be getting his bags packed for New York City because this year he’s shown that he is an all-star worthy talent.
Nonetheless, because people haven’t seen that he’s talented quite yet, we’re all going to have to stay a little more patient, until everyone starts to catch on.
All that matters is that Favors is finally starting to reach the beginning of his potential, and it’s looking like Favors is going to become the Jazz first All-Star since 2011.
The Bread & Butter
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When the Utah Jazz play and win games a lot of the glory goes to their small forward, Gordon Hayward, and rightfully so he does a lot for the Jazz and it’s more than leading the team in scoring, averaging 19 points per game. Hayward is the facilitator on the team, averaging 4.1 assists. Essentially, Hayward is the person who the Jazz run their offense through.
Although, if anyone watches the Jazz play then they understand the reason behind why Hayward gets a lot of command in the offense is because he’s the player who sees a lot of single coverages on a nightly basis. The reason Hayward’s in single coverage is because his defenders have to play him honest knowing that they won’t get help side defense.
In reality, defenders don’t give help side defense when a player such as Favors is on the court due to the steady maturation of his offensive game.
What’s glorious about Favors’ shot chart is that he understands what his bread and butter is, and doesn’t stop going to his sweet spots. On the year Favors is scoring most of his points when he’s inside of the paint. In fact he’s shooting 64 percent whenever he catches the ball inside of the paint.
Though Favors does feast when he’s inside the paint, he’s also shown the capability to score when he catches the basketball outside of the paint. Favors is shooting decently from the mid-range, and he kills his opponents when the Jazz run a pick and pop because he has the ability to make the 15-foot free-throw line jumper.
Sorry For the Wait
Here’s a fun fact. What player on the Utah Jazz has a better player efficiency rating than Blake Griffin, Marc Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki?
That answers, ladies and gentlemen is Derrick Favors. With his 23.38 PER, Favors has a better player efficiency rating than most of his frontcourt competition in the 2015 NBA All-Star game.
In fact Favors ranks 12th in the league in player efficiency rating and only trails players such as Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Chris Paul. The tragedy in this is that Favors doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, even though the numbers show that he too is nearing the same plateau that a lot of his peers already is on.
But don’t let it fool anyone, it takes time to make the All-Star Game. Favors might be playing on an All-Star level but it takes a lot of hard work, sacrifice and dedication that gets applied, and the Jazz can wait on Favors. Even though he won’t make the All-Star team his game is going to improve because Favors takes to criticism well.
In an interview with Aaron Falk, Utah Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said this when speaking about Favors:
"“This is a multiyear progression..We got him so young that him, being a hard worker and a good kid, he was bound to improve….The nice thing about Derrick is he can take feedback and not view it as criticism….He’s not sensitive. He took the feedback and said, OK.”"
That same criticism is what drove Favors to have the best season as a professional basketball player. The next step to get him in the All-Star Game will be for him to take his post-up game to the next level.
The second that Favors becomes a pure back-to-the-basket player, and his teammates can just throw him the basketball in the paint, and he’ll be effective, is the day the league is going to get put on notice.
That’s alright though, because the Jazz fan base has seen more than enough from Favors to show that he’s poised to become an All-Star. That, same sentence can get applied to Gordon Hayward as well.
Soon enough the Jazz will have Favors and Hayward in the All-Star Game together.
Patience might be bitter, but it’s reward is sweet.