The oldest player on the Utah Jazz is a 27-year-old rookie from Monroe, La.
When the Utah Jazz called up shooting guard Elijah Millsap from the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA’s Developmental League, they couldn’t have had a clue that he would become one of the best players on their team.
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Millsap’s only been playing in the league for two months but his impact defensively on the perimeter is more significant than any other player on the team.
Millsap already looks like he’s the Jazz best perimeter defender, and because of his lateral quickness, he gives the Jazz a much-needed lockdown defender. Even though Millsap has only played in the league for a short amount of time, the question that needs to get raised is if he should start at the shooting guard position for the Jazz.
In an interview with Jody Genessy of Deseret News, Elijah Millsap said this:
“I don’t care about numbers,” Millsap said. “I just care about wins.”
That’s the type of attitude that the Jazz need to have. Too many times on the court their team lacks leadership. At the end of the day there’s only so much that Quin Snyder can do. Eventually the Jazz are going to have to take responsibility on the court if they want to start to turn around their season and start to become a winning organization.
The fact that Millsap who’s beloved in the locker room is speaking from his heart and talking about how the team’s success is more important than his own is truly humbling. We can see where his true treasure lies, and it’s in winning with the Jazz franchise.
The person on the Jazz who’s been impressed the most is Millsap’s coach, Quin Snyder. Coach Snyder has started trusting Millsap more, and it shows on the court.
For example, during some of the toughest games of the year Snyder started putting Millsap on the opponents best offensive player on the perimeter. Snyder’s decision to let Millsap take the most difficult covers haven’t damaged the team, in fact Snyder’s decision has done the opposite, it’s been yielding great results.
To illustrate, when Millsap had to face a number of great offensive scorers including Portland’s Damian Lillard, Dallas’ Monta Ellis, and New Orleans’ Tyreke Evans, Millsap shut all three of them down. All three of the aforementioned guards were held to 35 percent shooting, going 6-for-17 when being guarded by Millsap.
The fact that Snyder has a defensive option like Millsap off of the bench at his disposal is a wonderful weapon to have.
But don’t let the game fool you, Millsap might be known for his defense, but offensively he’s not a slouch either.
The best game that Millsap has played in the NBA came against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.
Millsap was very active offensively as he kept finding openings in the defense and getting making the proper cuts to get easy scores. In addition, Millsap started to use his ball handling ability to get to the free throw line as well.
Furthermore, because of the pressure defense that Millsap applied he even forced a steal (it got credited to another teammate) and got an easy fast break dunk. Millsap finished with 17 points on 5-for-8 shooting, seven rebounds and one assist.
The Jazz are improving on defense, but if they want to take a real step forward Millsap should get inserted into the starting lineup. Too many times in Jazz games have they seen a number of guards have a big night against them. The Jazz aren’t the best team when it comes to guarding the pick and roll, and having Millsap on the floor gives them the best chance to win.
Soon enough the Jazz fans are going to see another Millsap in the starting lineup, and it’s well deserved.
Next: Have The Utah Jazz Finally Turned The Corner?
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