Utah Jazz: A Point Of Contention

Everyone who watched him play at the U-19 World Championships and the Nike Hoop Summit swore he was the second coming.

He was billed as the next Kobe Bryant — ESPN college and international basketball analyst, Fran Fraschilla, even gone as far as to compare the then 17-year-old Dante Exum to the iconic mythical GOAT himself, Michael Jordan (at the same age).

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However, within an 18-month span, the perception and hype surrounding the Australian-born lead guard has all but vanished, as after his underwhelming rookie season with the Utah Jazz — in which the 6’6″ neophyte managed to show some strong flashes on the defensive end, but was passively abysmal on the other — Exum would unfortunately tear his ACL this summer while suiting up for his native country.

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As a result, his injury puts the Jazz in a positional quagmire.

Their point guard of the future was supposed to take a significant leap as a playmaker this year; but, with his year-long ailment, Utah has had to begrudgingly hand the reins back to Trey Burke — a former lottery pick in his own right, however, his diminutive size and questionable shot selection goes against the grain of the team’s incumbent defensive-oriented, slow-paced identity.

More prominently, one of the most understated strengths of the team is the ballhandling and playmaking ability of their wings. 

Spearheaded by Gordon Hayward, a gangly 6’8″ swingman who has quietly developed into one of the association’s most efficacious pick-and-roll initiators at the wing position, in conjunction with their other highly capable creators at the 2 and the 3 in Alec Burks and Rodney Hood, it is imperative for the Jazz’s resident point guard to serve in a Patrick Beverley-esque 3-and-D capacity.

With Burke, while he gives glimpses of brilliance, primarily when operating as the primary ball-in-hand creator, he is a banal spot-up shooter and a cringe-worthy defender.

Specifically, Burke shot just 36.8 percent from the field and 31.8 percent from beyond the arc last season — finishing well below the league median in both categories.

The former Michigan Wolverine’s efficiency rises conservatively, though, as a catch-and-shoot artist, converting on roughly 35.4 percent of such attempts on four tries a game in 2014-15 — nothing out of the ordinary, but solid nonetheless.

On the contrary, the chief issue pertaining Burke’s offensive game continues to be his shoddy decision making and often ill-advised shot selection. More explicitly, the jittery 6’1″ point guard has a troubling penchant of trying veraciously to break his man down by his lonesome and taking an inconsiderate amount of off-balance, contested mid-range jumpshots.

In fact, according to NBA.com’s SportVU Data, 40.6 percent of his field goal tries came after taking three or more dribbles, a concerning number considering the battalion of capable ball-in-hand playmakers the Jazz house on the wings. More alarmingly, 53.4 percent of his shot attempts last season were of the contested variety — defended closely with a defender within four feet of him.

As such, it is easy to envision why Burke has been such an inefficient scorer thus far in his career. If he can play a more conservative style, and leverage his team’s strengths on the wings and the sheer size/length Utah emits on the interior, perhaps Trey can evolve into a solid offensive roleplaying complementary guard down the line.

However, Burke is also far from a fine defender. Inherently, his physical size limits his effectiveness when defending the point of attack. Getting lost in off-ball screens, failing to fight over on-ball picks, and letting his man beat him off-the-bounce, have become regular occurrences.

And for a team in which much of their late-season success was so heavily predicated on their league-best defensive efficiency mark post-All-Star break, Burke’s mere presence hinders their ability to replicate such staunch production.

The J-Notes

Most notably, after the trade deadline, the Utah brass famously promoted Rudy Gobert, a.k.a. the Stifle Tower, into the starting center position by sending away Enes Kanter — thereby, catapulting their D into another stratosphere. However, with Burke on the floor, the Jazz gave up 6.1 points per 100 possessions more when compared to when he was seated on Utah’s bench, per 82games.com.

Having Exum lead their head of the defense secured the Jazz’s newly-established identity. Even though Exum was timid and one-dimensional on the offensive end, his elite length for the point guard position and impressive lateral quicks allowed him to comfortably contain dribble penetration and funnel opposing ballhandlers into their twin tower backline.

With the 20-year old down and out, the Jazz must turn to another alternative to stabilize their defensive synergy.

Enter Raul Neto, a 6’2″ 23-year old “pure” point guard from Brazil. The rookie was a second-round selection of the Atlanta Hawks back in 2013, but spent the last couple of seasons playing in the Spanish ACB — which so happens to be widely regarded as the second-best league in the world.

Neto brings forth two immediate skills that will benefit the Jazz this upcoming season. For one, the stocky lead guard plays with amazing pace, especially out of the pick-and-roll, changing speeds and finding seams, before utilizing his clairvoyant brand of court vision to feed his bigs as he sucks the entire D in.

Secondly, and perhaps, more importantly, the fiery Brazilian is an absolute pesk defensively; a fearless defender who will not hesitate to pick up the opposing point the full length of the court. He possesses quick hands and good anticipatory skills — accordingly, Neto will assuredly generate his fair share of steals and charges.

However, his aggressive style of defense does lend to the occasional blow-by; but for the most part, he has managed to frustrate and contain the likes of Brandon Knight and C.J. McCollum thus far in preseason. For a generic comparison, think a younger, livelier, and stronger Pablo Prigioni (or even Ronnie Price, in an effort to exercise the en vogue activity of cross-racial comparisons).

Offensively, though, Neto has to develop into a more effective catch-and-shoot 3-point floor spacer. As mentioned, he can handle pick-and-roll initiating duties in a pinch, but playing alongside Hayward, Neto’s 20.5 percent shooting from the international 3-point line will simply not cut it.

In addition, although Neto showcases an advanced floater game, his mundane length and lack of explosiveness will surely hinder his ability to finish around the basket at the NBA level.

Moreover, Neto has the tendency of doing his darndest White Chocolate impression, whipping a bevy of no-look, behind-the-passes in traffic. While such forays are fun to watch, I don’t think coach Quin Snyder will find it quite as amusing after a few live ball turnovers.

But, all in all, with his innate feel for the game and understanding of playing with pace and control, in concoction with his ability to handle the point of attack with his highly-irritable brand of D, don’t be surprise if Raul Neto becomes the starting point guard for your Utah Jazz sooner rather than later.

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