2016-17 regular season!

[Xiao Yao You]

By now, Gobert has grown accustomed to being overlooked. After all, this is his fourth year in the NBA and his career literally began with a slight, as he slipped to No. 27 in the very weak 2013 NBA draft. Rather than let it frustrate him, the center uses the lack of attention as motivation.

[Xiao Yao You]

http://*********.com/2017/04/11/rudy...peers-respect/

[Xiao Yao You]

http://weareutahjazz.com/lockedonjaz...an-leadership/

Summary: The Jazz win their 50th game of the regular season with a surprising 105-99 victory over the Warriors, despite playing without Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood and Derrick Favors.

Why is it surprising? They had 3 of their 4 best players. Ingles and Gobert almost led them to a win over them earlier in the year with all of their guys playing the whole game

[QUOTE]The first quarter of basketball was high scoring and exciting. That gave way to a more Jazz-paced game and with both teams

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=43828689&nid...ating-warriors

Quin Snyder downplayed the accomplishment, saying "I'm proud of our team for what they've done this season. I'm not as big on 50 wins. I'm big on us improving. I'm glad we're in the playoffs. It's a round number. It's divisible by 10. It doesn't need to be 50 to represent what our players have done this year fighting through a lot of adversity."

And of course, Snyder's right: this milestone is mostly about our society's base 10 number system. The Babylonians, on the other hand, are wildly unimpressed with the Jazz; they can't even get in double digits in their base 60 system. (On the other hand, they'd love the Warriors. 60 wins for three straight seasons? Pretty impressive.)

But given that humans are wired this way, it means something. 50 wins has become a measure of a successful season. That matters as the Jazz try to chase free agents, or to keep their own this offseason. That matters as the Jazz try to get their own young players to work hard on their own development. And that matters for recognition, which the Jazz front office, coaches, and players really do deserve.

In China 12 is important so 48 wins would have been a big deal or 60 which even I would have been able to appreciate.

very year since hiring Quin Snyder, the Jazz have improved in significant ways. That's meaningful, and again, helps bolster the story the Jazz can tell.

And teams around the league notice that. Take Steve Kerr, who, when asked about the loss, simply began by complimenting the Jazz. "Fifty wins, that's a hell of an accomplishment considering where their team was a few years ago. They've done a really good job there building the roster and coaching. That's a really solid team."

Indeed they are, with or without round number bias.

All comes down to Rudy as far as I can tell. Lindsey would probably be in the same position as Hennigan in Orlando without him. They would have traded Hayward before he left. They would have had some higher picks the past couple years and maybe Kanter signed to a huge deal ut no Gobert.

One thing Hill does pretty well that the other healthy Jazz point guards struggle with is up-close ball pressure, while still not getting beat on straight-line drives. That ball pressure makes everything for an opponent harder. Getting into screens, moving to where you want to go, even calling plays becomes a non-trivial task when the ball is pressured. That reduces the number of actions that the opposing team can run, leading to late-shot clock attempts. Even better, it also can lead to turnovers.

Neto does it and even starts it in the backcourt sometimes

Joel Bolomboy played the fewest minutes of any Jazzman tonight, and yet I thought he was one of the Jazz's best players on the floor during his minutes. He ended up with two points and six rebounds in 15 minutes, so that's not impressive, but he really showed what he can do and contributed in a real way to the team concept.

6 boards in 15 minutes is impressive. A joke they haven't played him all year!

The biggest problem for him right now is that his screens are awful: they don't create any advantage for the Jazz at all. Gobert had the same problem early in his career, but he's improved upon that to become one of the best screeners in the NBA. If Bolomboy can improve that aspect, he'll become a consistently positive impact player. Not bad for the 52nd pick in the draft from Weber State.

Needs to get stronger. He certainly looks like the guy that could be starting next to Rudy as early as next year.

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=43830585&nid...yward-audition

Rudy Gobert and George Hill left Oracle Arena with a stunning 105-99 victory over the Golden State Warriors

[QUOTE]The two have proven themselves as upper-echelon players in the Western Conference, and are a third star away from the coveted big-three combination NBA front offices seek to build a championship contender. The Jazz have a slew of draft picks over the next two season, plus young talent they could package to bring in another star to support Hayward

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/gallery...n-state-041117

[QUOTE]Curry can't stick with Hill, but can Kerr put Klay Thompson on the Jazz point guard? Where do you hide Curry in that scenario? Both Dante Exum and Shelvin Mack

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8...ar-season.html

[QUOTE]Although the Jazz don

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8...-playoffs.html

[QUOTE]If nothing else, the win said the Jazz

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8...Utah-loss.html

[QUOTE]Bolomboy appreciated the chance to play. Showing his good attitude, the rookie even politely corrected a reporter when asked if playing in a win over the Warriors helped make up for a rough year of going back and forth from the D-League.

[Xiao Yao You]

https://theringer.com/utah-jazz-2016...d-9ecb093c7a41

Because they missed the playoffs in 2015 and 2016, they have never been the plucky upstart happy to win a few games in the first round. Utah has skipped a bunch of steps in the team-building process.

I thought they don't skip steps?

[QUOTE]Hayward

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/5166408...s-return-bodes

Dante Exum played very well at shooting guard.

I guess except for the actual shooting part of it. Rather see Burks

Joel Bolomboy showed his upside as a future rotation player.

Showed he should have been in the mix this year. I think he's got a chance of starting once they move away from Favors next year. Hopefully Trey can still be a back-up but Bolomboy is more of a starter

[Xiao Yao You]

http://www.clipsnation.com/2017/4/11...6-17-utah-jazz

Gobert has a great nickname and is French and has a 48 foot wing span and still somehow manages to be kind of boring.

Not sure how anyone could watch Rudy play and say it's boring.

[QUOTE]Is Gordon

[Xiao Yao You]

http://purpleandblues.com/2017/04/12...around-league/

Jazz fans have known for quite some time how impactful and downright special of a player Rudy is

Not sure they have. The media and the announcers still want you to believe hayward is the straw that stirs the drink when it hasn't been the case for over 2 years.

[QUOTE]I love the fact that Durant admits that Gobert has exceeded his expectations. I guarantee that

[Xiao Yao You]

https://twitter.com/RTHoopsTalk/stat...30846779691008

First Team All NBA:

G - James Harden
G - Russell Westbrook
F - Lebron James
F - Kawhi Leonard
C - Rudy Gobert

Daniel‏ @wetsweatshirt Apr 11

I know he's great but 1st team?

who deserves it more?

[Xiao Yao You]

http://purpleandblues.com/2017/04/11...ay-aggressive/

In many circumstances, Mack has tended to settle for jumpers this season rather than attack the basket, which is not the style of play Jazz fans want to see out of him.

Don't think he's settling. His job is to take what the defense is giving you. And it the other team has scouted the Jazz they will leave Mack open so he can't get to the rim