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The Report Card |
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After an up and down season, with more downs than ups, the players will finally head home and the �experts� will judge their play of the past season. Well I may not be an expert but I will give my opinion of the Utah Jazz players. And don�t expect it to be very positive on everyone just because I�m a Jazz fan because when someone deserves it, I will crush him. So who will be proud enough to show this report card to their family and who will try to sneak upstairs to their room without having to show it? I will give my opinion plus a grade to every player, the grade on a scale of 1 to 10.
Let me begin by saying that I�m not going to give a bad grade to someone because he isn�t playing as well as Tim Duncan or any other NBA star. Let�s take Collins for example. It would be completely insane to give him a 5 because he isn�t even close to Duncan�s level. He wasn�t even supposed to make the team so how can you expect him to be at Duncan�s level? Karl Malone on the other hand should be at least close to Duncan�s level so it could be that I give Collins a better grade than Malone. I won�t, but it could be. We will start with the point guards and work our way to the big guys. |
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How many e-mails will I get when I give Stockton a 5? I�m not going to try it because I would lose all credibility. John Stockton, even at the age of 40, has played like someone from outer space. Point guards half his age can�t copy his passes and his shots. When he is on the court you will see a better team than when he is on the bench. The fg% of the team will go up and the Jazz just play better. But before we give him a grade we must also look at some things that didn�t go the right way. His three point shot isn�t what it was a year ago when he was second in the league to only Brent Barry. It also |
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| looks like he makes more bad passes than in the past and he had more problems than in his previous years on the defensive end. The first thing you notice when you look at his stats is that his ppg went up and his apg went down (ppg from 11.5 to 13.4 and his apg from 8.7 to 8.2) But when you look at it a little bit better it is actually better for the team that he shoots more. Because he scored 1.9 ppg more than last year while his apg only went down with 0.5. Even if that half assists proved to be a three-pointer every game than the Jazz would still get 0.4 ppg more than last year. Stockton has helped the young guys to get better and has guided the Jazz to another play-off. His grade is therefore a 9. Only because nobody can be perfect, not even John Stockton. |
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I just love that guy. If you have given some minutes of your without a doubt valuable time to read some of my articles then you will see that I just love this guy. He only played 41 games but in those games he was fantastic. He had a career year in almost every statistical category, like ppg, apg and rpg, and sometimes you could hardly notice the difference between him and Stockton, although that of course only lasted several seconds. He proved to be deathly from beyond the arc and in 19 minutes he averaged 3.4 assists. . He was a great back up until he got injured and because of that injury his |
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| grade will not be as high as it would have been without the injury. But he played great when he played and even though he isn�t the best point guard in the world I will give him an 8. |
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Before you give a grade to Rusty LaRue you must take into consideration that he came in late in the season and even though he played with the Jazz in the pre-season he had to learn the style all over again. That takes time even for a NBA star and I think it is pretty obvious that LaRue isn�t a NBA star. He isn�t a great defender and he makes a lot more bad decisions than John Crotty. LaRue does have a great looking shot but even if you have a great looking shot you don�t immediately have a great shot. He shot 40% from the field and 34% from beyond the arc. In 16 mpg he got 2.2 apg and 5.8 ppg. |
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| That isn�t very bad if you consider he wasn�t on the team until late in the season. So I will give him a 6 because of the circumstances. And you will say why only a six if he got reasonable stats? Because the team didn�t play that well when he was on the court and when I look at how the team plays with him and I look how the team plays with Crotty than I must say that the team runs so much better with John Crotty. |
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It hurts me too. Believe me. But Bryon Russell just had his worst year in his career. He shot lower than 40% from the field, 38% to be exact, and he shot less than 35% from beyond the arc. He also averaged less than 10 ppg, 9.6 ppg, and he has made more turnovers than ever. He got injured and didn�t completely recover from that but that doesn�t mean he has to make some mistakes he made which hadn�t anything to do with an injury but just with his mental condition. Karl Malone once said that he never saw anyone as self-confident as Russell but unfortunately we only saw that self- |
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| confidence when he stood at the three-point line and because of his self-confidence he decided to launch another three-pointer. He had some great games and he helped the Jazz come out of a slump in December/January as he, just discovered from his injury, played great off the bench but, unfortunately, he started to play worse. I�m sorry but he hasn�t played very well and he is a starter and his stats are disappointing not only for a starter but also for Russell himself. A 5, and then he is very lucky. |
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He got several starts from coach Jerry Sloan but he wasn�t able to play on an acceptable level. The last few games he played reasonable but the rest of the season was very bad. He didn�t even play all the games as he was stashed on the injury list for several months. He did however have a career year (?) as he improved his stats. He had more ppg, apg, spg and he had a better fg%, 45%, than in his first two years. Unfortunately his stats aren�t the stats of a good or even reasonable shooting guard. He failed to help the team but because he improved his play I will give him a 6. But that�s just because |
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| I�m a nice guy but that isn�t good enough to come back. I also want to remind you that this doesn�t mean he is better than Russell because he isn�t but he at least improved himself and Russell wasn�t able to improve himself. |
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The Jazz want Stevenson to become a combo guard, which means he has to play the point-guard-position. They tried that but the result was so bad that the Jazz signed LaRue after just a couple of games. I personally think that you have to be able to shoot when you play shooting guard and he can�t shoot from beyond the arc and his mid-range jumper is very inconsistent. I saw the Portland-Jazz game in which Stevenson hit 5 mid-range jumpers, and they weren�t that easy to make, but unfortunately he is only able to do that in some games. He is only 21 years old and he has still time to |
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| learn but this year he was unable to help the team and prove everyone that, when Stockton and Malone retire, he will be one of the leaders of this team. But he did improve and he played better than last year, which isn�t too hard to accomplish. I gave Lewis a six because he played decent in the play-offs and the last games of the season but Stevenson, although he didn�t show anything in the play-offs, mostly because Sloan didn�t gave him one single minute, has played some good games. Because I�m in a good mood I will give him a 6 but if he was 2 years older I would give him a five and a five means that he isn�t good enough to play more than 5 minutes in a game. So Stevenson has to watch out and he must improve. |
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He once was a great player but he is clearly on the downside of his career. Last year he was a very streaky player but this year he wasn�t even streaky, he was just plain bad. Most of his stats were even worse than in his rookie season in which he averaged 8.8 mpg and this year he averaged 14.1 mpg. With the possibility of Stockton retiring and with all the free agents we haven�t talked much about the possibility that this was the last season of John Starks but after a season like this that could be a possibility. Once a great warrior, now down graded to a cleaning lady. A 4. |
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This is exactly what I needed. After all those below average shooting guards I could use someone like Kirilenko. In his first season in the NBA AK 47 has surprised friends and enemies with his great play. He had his share of blocks and steals and despite only starting 40 games he still managed to get 10.7 ppg. He shot 45% from the field and got 1.9 bpg, 1.4 spg and 4.9 rpg. He still has to work on his shot and he had didn�t show up in the play-offs but he had a great year. He played with intensity and he obviously enjoys playing the game and this is the type of player the Jazz want and need. He did better |
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| than anyone could have hoped for so I will give him a 9. |
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He again got injured. But before and after the injury he was very important for the Jazz. He shot 52% from the field and averaged 14.8 ppg and 7.6 rpg. Both improvements from last year. And it would be unfair not to mention his great play in the play-offs in which he not only improved his stats in most of the categories but he also hit some important three-pointers. He has better stats than last season and he helped the team so the grade will be better than most of the players but we also have to look at the injury and the fact he lost his starting job to a rookie. He also didn�t improve like the Jazz hoped he |
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| would, this was his second year in Utah and this time he immediately got the starting job. So it will be a 7. Which means that I will be glad to have him back. |
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Karl �The Mailman� Malone has been one of the best players in NBA history and even today he is mentioned with the best players in the NBA today. But his fg% dropped significantly and he turned the ball over too many times. He still guided the team to a place in the play-offs but in the play-offs he was unable to play better than in the regular season. As a matter of fact his stats dropped in the play-offs and he wasn�t able to hit a free throw in game four of the play-offs while he hit 80% in the regular season. Because he guided the Jazz to a play-off appearance I will give him an 8. And if he can step up |
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| in the play-offs and lower the turnovers he will get the same grade as John Stockton. |
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He was one of the few players who are out of contract this summer to play a lot better than in the previous years. It is obvious that he learned a lot and his stats are better in almost every statistical category. He surprised everyone with his three-point shot and he even led the NBA in that category for several days. He likes to play power forward but he isn�t able to defend power forwards and he definitely isn�t a great defender. He has problems creating a shot of his own but he gets his share of points by being at the right place at the right time. He had a career year but he wasn�t able to play in |
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| the play-offs like he did in the regular season. But because he had a career year I will give him a 7. |
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| The more I saw this kid play the more I got impressed. He may not be a dominant center and he probably never will be a dominant center but he will definitely get 10 ppg and 7 rpg in the near future. I was impressed by his skills and his intelligence. He shot 46% from the field and 74% from the free throw line and that while most rookies, especially centers, have problems with hitting the free throws. Collins wasn�t even supposed to make the roster but he fought his way on the injured list then in the rotation and finally he became a starter starting 68 games. He had a great game against Seattle where |
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| he got 22 points and although it isn�t likely he will average that next season, or any season after that one, it just shows the skills this kid has. For making the roster alone I would gave him a six but he really helped the team to get to the play-offs but he has to be careful with those personal fouls because this year he got them to quick. I gave him an 8. He really helped the team. |
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If I would only look at the play-offs then I would give him a seven or a six. He missed 9 of his 10 free throws but averaged 8 rpg, 6.8 ppg and 1.5 bpg while shooting 62%. Unfortunately there is a thing called the regular season in which he played very bad. Not only did he play bad but he also got into some heated arguments with coach Jerry Sloan. Russell wasn�t the only veteran who had a bad year because Ostertag�s stats also dropped. He never averaged 3.3 ppg and he only grabbed less rebounds than this year in his rookie season. He made less than 50% of his free throws and he seems |
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| to be the ideal player to foul in crunch time but he isn�t worth fouling, not in the regular season anyway. Because he had a good post-season I will give him a 5. |
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| He was without a doubt the biggest mistake the Jazz made this off-season. As a matter of fact you could say he was the worst free agent signing in the NBA this year. He had one good game. One. The Jazz played 82 games and he had 1 good game. He gets 3.2 ppg, 2 rpg and 1 turnover per game in 10 minutes. He had a very bad game and his stats dropped to very low level. I�m sorry John, but you get a 3. The lowest because he hasn�t done anything and he was even worse than John Starks. |
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Here a quick summary:
Stockton: 9 Crotty: 8 Lewis: 6 Starks: 4
Kirilenko: 9 Marshall: 7 Stevenson: 6 Amaechi: 3
Malone: 8 Padgett: 7 Ostertag: 5
Collins: 8 LaRue: 6 Russell: 5 |
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