2015 training camp!

[Xiao Yao You]

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysi...view-Utah-Jazz

the Jazz could be ready to battle it for a postseason spot in the uber-competitive Western Conference.

should be talking about one of the best teams in the league not battling for a spot. Thanks front office!

[quote]With numbers like that, it

[Xiao Yao You]

http://weareutahjazz.com/lockedonjaz...training-camp/

[QUOTE]This was the 5th practice of camp and the first without a two a day. At some point in every camp there has to be a lull but from the mood of Quin Snyder when he met with the media he showed no signs that this was the case today/

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.slcdunk.com/2015/10/1/942...-5-rodney-hood

The team's best shooter and possible steal of last year's draft clocks in at #5 today. Will he be able to make a sophomore year jump this season?

He probably should be their best shooter. Hardly had been thus far. Made his jump after the break last year.

We covered Burke extensively in the last installment as well as the comments. Feel free to click his post last year to see what type of mindset we had about how the best rookie of the West was going to perform his 2nd season and you'll quickly see why many felt underwhelmed by his performance.

best rookie in the west? Really? He was underwhelming as a rookie too as were most rookies and the Jazz especially.

Here's to hoping that he bounces back and gets a jump in performance and confidence this season and that he can play like the player the Jazz expected when they traded up to draft him.


Now, on to this year's hopeful sophomore:
#5. Rodney Hood, 2nd year, 23 years old, 6'8", 215 pounds, SG/SF (Last year's rank: 8)



Source: USA Today
Backstory:

Last season I had positive yet modest expectations for Hood. For the most part, he performed close to what I projected:



G MP PTS AST TRB FG% 3P% FT% PER WS/48 Hood Projected 77 22.0 9.7 1.8 2.7 0.450 0.390 0.800 17.2 0.134 Hood Actual 50 21.3 8.7 1.7 2.3 0.414 0.365 0.763 12.3 0.098
Yet, even those his stats last season may not have been overly staggering, the eyeball test with the composure and maturity Hood displayed on and off the court have instilled a certain level of confidence into many Jazz fans of his skills going forward.


I mean just look at his leadership skills on full display here:



But seriously, Hood stepped us his game in a big way for a rookie last season. I think I would have projected Hood over Exum for this season after looking at their stats again.


Hood's rookie year really was a tale of 2 seasons. Take a look at his pre- and post-All Star Break numbers:



G MP PTS AST TRB FG% 3P% FT% Ortg DRtg Hood Pre-ASB 24 18.2 5.3 1.2 2.500 0.317 0.286 0.703 91 112 Hood Post-ASB 26 24.1 11.8 2.1 2.200 0.464 0.420 0.814 113 102

Pre-All Star Break Rodney Hood played terrible, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. We were better off playing D-League players over him at that point.

He should have been in the D-league. Could see he was a player in Summer League but he wasn't ready.

But then, Hood improved no less than our whole team seemed to improve after the All Star Break last season.

For whatever reason, whether it be improved team chemistry, Hood finally getting over those pesky injuries or just Hood finding confidence in his game on the NBA-level Hood stepped up. If Hood played like that all season, Hood would have been in the running for All-Rookie first team.
Even with his lackluster first half of the season, Hood still averaged the 6th most points out of rookies and was one of the best 3 point shooters from his draft (Joe Harris and Shabazz Napier were really the only other rooks on his level from long distance last year).


Now this may be small sample size theatre, but Hood played at least 30 minutes in 7 games last season (Memphis, 2 vs. Sacramento, Houston, Detroit, Golden State, and Portland). His stats in those 7 games: 33.3 MPG, 19.3 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 2.7 APG! Holy smokes! We have 2 stellar options for shooting guards this year in Hood and Burks, this is going to be fun, so long they stay healthy.

Be even more exciting if they're at the 1 instead of Trey!

One last interesting graphic I need to show you:





This graph is not just offset by out-liars of games either. If anything, the small sample size months were in his worst months and injury-impacted months. Games by month: 2 in October, 5 in November, 15 in December, 2 in January, 5 in February, 14 in March, and 7 in April.


Whether Burks or Hood starts, both are going to have a huge role this year!

What if they both start or both come off the bench which I think are possibilities.

What to Expect This Season:




With our point guard position being our weakness this year

Remains to be seen. If Hood and Burks are the pg's than it could be a strength.

, we're going to need both of our shooting guards to carry the backcourt to a level that will allow us to march right into the playoffs.

Our shooting guards were plagued with injuries last season, it may still be a factor this season but hopefully that hex is behind us now.


Expect more of the magic that Hood sprinkled our team with post All Star Break. If he manages to keep up those averages he's already going to be getting notice as a sharp sophomore on the rise. It is too early to tell whether Hood or Burks will be starting, or if Quin will choose the route that have been many-a-Jazz-fan's wet dream and start both of them (don't bet on it).


Regardless of who starts, expect Hood to be posting stats at around this level:


G MP FGA FG% 3P% FT% TRB AST PTS PER WS VORP 72 26.0 9.5 0.450 0.390 0.790 3.0 2.0 12.0 16.0 4.5 0.8


Rodney will likely either be playing our sixth man role or be our fourth best starter. I fantasize about a Hood buzzer-beater in a playoff victory someday, please come true soon!


Hood was featured as a shooter in the draft, and he is a solid one at that, but he is also good at penetration and making plays for himself. He also played within the system very well for a rookie last season and has good size for either wing spot.

1-4 ideally

He often got outsmarted on the defensive end and would get baited into the cheap ticky-tack fouls, but you could tell that Hood was putting in the effort and his defense was not nearly the liability that his scouting reports were saying about his college career.

sounded like he was going to be there all along to me. Has the length and smarts and desire needed

Looking forward to seeing how many times Hood tops this performance this year:


Not bad for a 23rd pick, thanks for the pick Golden State! Did the Jazz get the biggest steal in the draft in consecutive years? The only other steals last year were Jordan Clarkson at 46 and McDaniels at 32, I take Hood over them every time. The only other steals in the draft of Gobert were....I don't know, Greek Freak at 15, I guess.


In Lindsay we trust.

Maybe if he actually gets to see his guy before the draft. Burke and Exum don't look like good picks.

Conclusion:

Hood may be a dark horse most improved player candidate this season if he's firing on all pistons like he finished last season!


A more modest expectation is that he gets us a double-digit scoring average this season as well as remain the best shooter on this team. Hood is the player that we were hoping CJ Miles would be one day.

CJ was a 2nd round pick and is a soild NBAer. People expect to much.

A caveat to this hype: do not be completely surprised if Hood has another injury this year. The biggest risk factor for Hood this year will be his feet's injury history. Hopefully most of those past injuries were flukes rather than a worrying trend for our Prince of Threes.

only question right now

[Xiao Yao You]

http://saltcityhoops.com/playing-wit...the-utah-jazz/

[QUOTE]When Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder was hired in the summer of 2014, one of the points of emphasis that was consistently mentioned was his desire to see his team

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]Sources around the league say Channing Frye is available now for very little, though Magic officials deny it. Other names will hit the market, but while the salary of someone like Kenneth Faried doesn

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/3017057...to-thrust-into

Outside of a spot on the roster, nothing was promised to Raul Neto on the day he officially signed with the Utah Jazz. Not playing time, not a designation on the depth chart. There was even a scenario where Neto could've ended up in the D-League, as small a possibility as that was.
None of that mattered to Utah's Brazilian point guard. This is a guy who wanted to play in the NBA, who wanted to be in in the best basketball league in the world from childhood. So when the Jazz approached him over the summer about coming over from UCAM Murcia of the Spanish league, there was nothing to think about.






Neto jumped at the opportunity. Forget any
language barrier. No worries about living in a strange place. Neto just wanted the chance.

He wanted to come 2 years ago. Jazz kept him away because he was better than Trey. Neto knew and anyone that saw the summer league knew it. I doubt he's been very worried about Trey and the D-league.
[QUOTE]"The adjustment to the Jazz and to a new country as been good," Neto said. "The Jazz have been helping with everything, the house and the car and the family needs. I've been living alone in Spain for four years, so I'm used to living alone. So the adjustment has been good."


This is where the story takes a twist. Neto is no longer competing for spare minutes. He's no longer a question mark when it comes to even getting onto the court. Dante Exum is hurt, the victim of a torn ACL. All of that means

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/3016263...es-no-faith-in

[QUOTE]Quin Snyder was quick to shoot down an ESPN report this week that forward Elijah Millsap had "lost the trust" of the Utah Jazz coaching staff and was a "long shot" to make the team's roster.


"That's totally false," the head coach said when asked Thursday. "Elijah's played really well. I talked to Elijah like once a week all summer. [Assistant coach] Brad Jones flew out to see him.

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/jazznote...east-hated-nba

Calling the Jazzmen, "patently inoffensive," SI writer Ian Levy wrote: "While plenty of people hate jazz, no one hates The Jazz. They look like a legitimately promising young team this season, with no rough edges to irritate, no dominant style about which to turn up your nose, no offensive personalities at whom to seethe."

Trey? I think guys like Rudy and Millsap could be guys that end up villians because they make people look bad.







[QUOTE]On the other side of the spectrum, the Los


Angeles teams rank at No. 2 and No. 1, with the 21-61 Lakers reigning supreme on the hate index.



Read the full list here.

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8...in-stride.html

[QUOTE]So far in training camp, the 6-foot-10 big man from Kentucky is holding his own in practice. That

[nuraman00]

Nice scoring time lapse chart for Hood that you posted.

[Xiao Yao You]

Yes he should have a big year if he can stay healthy. That's the big question now.

[Xiao Yao You]

Game day!

Looking forward to seeing what the pg situation looks like. The battle between pleiss and withey since lyles isnt in that mix. And ingles and millsap. Id guess they could both be in the rotation if hood/burks play the one. Ingles job to lose and it sounds like millsap has improved offensively.

With johnson probably out might see the young guys going for his spot

[Xiao Yao You]

Alec looked good passing. Neto is better than trey still. Pleiss looked bigger. He banged.

[Xiao Yao You]

Neto might have had a bigger impact on d than exum ever did and hes certainly got more going on offensively. Need to figure out who gets the rest of the pg minutes. Trey looked the same. Alec ran the team well.

Withey looked good at the end. Favors showing the new floater. Post game still sucked. Maxi g showed his new post game. Rudy took over in the 3 rd. Same ol jazz!

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]Michael Scotto: NBA executives & scouts from Orlando, Phoenix, Utah, Denver, NY & Philadelphia on hand here at MSG to see projected top 5 pick Dragan Bender