Mid-Term Report Cards

Posted by Keith Haney on January 21, 2008

‘Making the Grade?’ (Glenn James - NBAE/Getty Images)

The season is officially half over and it hasn’t been pretty. At 23-18, nobody will be giving the Jazz an “A” on their report for their performance to date. I’d give them a solid “C-”. They have been completely average this year. Not living up to expectations earns them the “minus” in my book. At this point, I think there is a serious chance tis team could miss the playoffs. While that would be a major disappoint and setback, I wonder if it could end up being a blessing in disguise by giving the Jazz a valuable trade asset with a high pick and a pressing need to make some changes. The cold hard truth is, if they want to win a championship, it isn’t going to happen with this roster. It’s time to take a serious look at this team’s makeup and figure out where to go from here. These are my player grades for the first half and some thoughts on where to go for the next 41 games.

Carlos Boozer: A

Boozer has played great this year. A lock to play in the All-Star game as far as I’m concerned. His rebounding and scoring keep the Jazz in every game. Everyone points to his poor defense as his main weakness, and it is, but I can live with bad “D” given the offensive numbers and consistent double-double’s he is putting up. It would be swell for him to turn into an All-NBA Defensive Player, but I just don’t see that happening.

Deron Williams: B+

D-Will is still in search of a decent nickname and a role as leader of this team. It’s been fun to watch him improve and carry the team as much as possible this year, but sometimes he seems to put too much weight on his shoulders. His turnovers are up almost a half a point from last year. I’m looking forward to seeing Williams get some rest during the All-Star break and step up his game in the second half.

Ronnie Brewer: B+

No player on the team has exceeded my expectations this year more than Ronnie. The Jazz should be doing one of two things with him - either playing him more so he can keep improving and provide the defense stops and steals this team so desperately needs or trade him in a packaged deal to get a top notch defensive center. If they do the latter, I would have Miles fill the role at 2 and see what he can grow into.

Paul Millsap: B+

I can’t wait for Millsap to eventually signs with another team that can give him the playing time he deserves in this league. That’s all I have to say about him.

Matt Harpring: B

Playing limited minutes, Harpring still is the best offensive threat coming off the bench for the Jazz with Korver competing to steal that title from him. Matt gives you exactly what you would expect every night and fits in perfectly with this team. I would give him an A, but he’s just not playing enough to be as much of a contributing factor as he was in past years.

CJ Miles: B

Besides Brewer, no player for the Jazz has seemingly grown so much this first half as CJ. Where do the Jazz go from here with all of these promising 2 guards they’ve racked up? Remember, CJ is only 20 years old. With Almond, Korver, Brewer, Miles, AK, and Harpring all competing for minutes at only two spots, it’s hard to imagine all of those players being on the team next year. They may not even all be there by the end of this one. Time for some trades to happen. It’s a nice situation for the team to be in. It is going to be hard to figure out who to keep and roll the dice on going forward though. Good luck Kevin O’Connor.

Andrei Kirilenko: B-

AK has been hit or miss thus far, but that’s more than he was last year. At least he has some trade value again though. I still feel he is playing in the wrong position. If the jazz still have the opportunity to trade him for Marion, they should jump on it right away. Who cares if Marion doesn’t want to stay here long term? That will just free up money to sign a younger, better player in a couple years when his contract is up. This deal was a no-brainer before the season and it would be an even better deal now.

Kyle Korver: C+

A definite upgrade from the D- that Gordan Giricek was bringing to the team, I’m not so sure Korver is the awesome pickup everyone says he is. He does provide a 3 point option and has played better defense than expected but I don’t know where he fits in with all the other players as I pointed out above in the CJ Miles section. On top of that, he’s only shot 26% from beyond the arc since joining the team. If that number improves significantly as the season progresses, the team will start winning a few more games and he’ll finish with a much higher grade.

Ronnie Price: C

I wasn’t expecting much from Ronnie this season. I don’t think the Jazz were either. He’s a serviceable backup that isn’t getting much playing time. He hasn’t wowed me, he hasn’t disappointed me either. He gets a C. One question though - do the Jazz really need to be paying almost $2m a year for a third string point guard? Draft a second rounder in the off season and package Price in a deal before the trade deadline.

Jarron Collins: C

I’m probably one of the few Jazz fans who actually likes having Collins on the team. For what he’s paid ($2m) and what he gives (2 pts, 2 rebs, and 1 flop) per game, I really can’t complain. With this season proving thus far that the Jazz are still not contenders, I don’t really see what he’s bringing to the table. He is, and always will be, an average center in the league.

Jason Hart: C-

I debated giving Hart a D+, but chose not to since he’s only playing 13 minutes a game. He was hurting the team early on with his backup play but has improved to a point where I at least don’t kringe anymore when he enters a game now. I still kringe when he has the ball in his hands and there are 10 seconds left in the quarter though. I think he’s 0 - 834 when he shoots in that situation. And he ALWAYS shoots it.

Mehmet Okur: F

Hands down, unequivocally, without a doubt - the biggest disappointment on the team this year. He is KILLING the Jazz. No offense, no defense, no rebounds, no blocks, no nothing. I’m starting it here - with every blog I write for the rest of the season, I’m proposing a trade the Jazz should make involving Okur. Here is todays. If you had asked me before the season to do that trade, I would have laughed at you. Now, I would take it in a heartbeat.

Morris Almond: Incomplete

Scoring 51 points in the D-League is awesome. It doesn’t necessarily translate to NBA success though. The last guy to do it was Clay Tucker. He’s still playing in the D-Leauge so the record is not necessarily an indicator of future NBA prowess. The jury is still out on Almond.

Kyrylo Fesenko: Incomplete

I’m excited by the prospect of K-Fes making a difference for this team in a couple years. I would call him up now just to give him six of the minutes a game that Collins is getting today. Millsap should be getting Collins’ other six.

6 Comments

Chizat on January 21, 2008 said:

Harpring a B? That’s amazing.

http://www.82games.com/0708/0708UTA1.HTM

For as bad as Memo has been this year (you gave him an F) - at least the team scores more points than the other team when he is out on the court.

The opposing team scores 2 points more per 100 possessions when Harpring is on the court. He is - by a wide margin - our worst player on the team, statistically speaking. And you want to give him more minutes, and an A? Wow.

RRR on January 21, 2008 said:

“The opposing team scores 2 points more per 100 possessions when Harpring is on the court.”

As well as three medical calls, two ambulance trips and a partridge in a pear tree!

Outside of that it don’t seem so bad for 1 on 5 play eh? Oh wait, there are 4 other jazz uniforms on the court when Harp is in right?

Linda McFarland on January 21, 2008 said:

I have a hard time with many of your grades!!!! I just can’t understand how everyone decides who is good and who is bad by statistics! They count, but there is a lot of other things that count more. What about a spark that a player gives to those on the court? What about strength, real desire, and smarts? Did you add in the fact that some players who have been hurt have been placed on a certain amount of minutes, that some are playing hurt, How about leadership off the field? We all have different ideas about the different players and about how well and how poorly they play. That is our right and it would be pretty dull if we all thought alike. I think desire counts for something and so do all the things that go on behind closed doors. If we aren’t on the inside with the actual knowhow of what is what, I think grading would be pretty hard to do. I saw some good things in this last game and look forward to many more, not more trades to upset the apple cart.

Brian on January 23, 2008 said:

Uhhgg get ready to get ripped into big time.

First off your a prime example of a person who needs “instant gratification”

Second that trade you put together made me gag!
Brad Miller wowee what a guy with big potential to create space for carlos, wait no he cant shoot outside at all…oh wait maybe he has the clutch play to hit a big shot at the end of a game to win or send it into overtime, or even be a big enough threat to get enough attention to create a good shot for someone else, no wait he cant do that either, dang all of a sudden his low to non existant appeal is gone along with his “F” inside play “F” passing “F” capability to pass when he recieves the ball on the low block and his “F” in team work.

Let me tell you why Matt’s grade is wrong Derron’s is wrong and Memo’s is wrong.

Derron “A” if you cant see why Derron is a ALL STAR player maybe you should refer back to his game winning layup at the start of the season, his non stop down pour of compliments from sports writers nation wide including the hardest man to please in the world Charles Barkley, and his solid stats that I’m sure PLENTY of other teams would kill for right now.

Matt to say that you would give him a glorified “A” and then not to because of limited minutes due to injury is like taking a players stats and redoing them after every game. Of course he isn’t playing a lot right now, thats why you refer to stat sheets, or how about LA’s game where he gave a “A+” effort.

Memo, wow i’m surprised by this, more so then when it cut to memo in mondays game giving someone the #1 sign. An “F” maybe you missed his January 3 game when he had 20 or his last three games where he posted 16, 12, 13. I don’t know what your definition of consistent is but if thats not close you need to open webster. Then to say that Brad “BAD” Miller would be a good trade is completely insane!!! The only thing your boy Brad can do is shoot free throws, thanks but we just traded for an ace from the charity strip!!! Not to mention memo is coming off a shoulder surgery. Give the guy a break I hope he doesn’t read your article.

Tittle on January 24, 2008 said:

Wow… most people don’t like your grades one bit. I happen to agree with most of them. Memo has been a definite “F” and has been since the middle of last season. Does anyone remember his shooting slump at the end of last year? Sure he played ok defense against the Rockets in the playoffs and that may have hurt his shooting, but what about all the other games. He has not played well this year and his only consistency has been not scoring. I will admit that he had a few nice games after he came back from his injury. He had energy which I have not seen in him for sometime. If he can get his game shot back then his grade should go up. But that is all his game is, an outside shot. Have you ever seen him drive to the basket? I could probably block his shot and I am 5′10″! Anyone with that limited of a game is going to suffer on the grade sheet.

D-Will- His grade is right on as well. He had a great start to the season, but when he gets into a shooting slump it seems to last a while. He seems to lose confidence in his shot. It is evident when he pulls out that killer crossover of his and the defender falls on his arse and he still hesitates to shoot it (which usually results in a miss). It seems like his shot is back. He is a fantastic PG. He struggled a little in December and it showed how important he is to the success of this team. Unfortunately I don’t think he will make the allstar team. Which is ok with me. Take the rest and use the snuff as motivation, like he seemed to do last year.

As far as the rest I don’t feel like writing anymore. But I would like to comment on the instant gratification. That was a ridiculous statement. Isn’t the goal in this league to win a championship? I thought it was! How does the comment Keith made about not making the playoffs this year equate to instant gratification. Seems to me like that is a look into the future and to what could make this team a serious contender. They simply are not at this point of the season. This is evident by their record. What is going to happen to the Jazz if they get Portland in the playoffs? They are going to lose is what is going to happen. What is going to happen next year when Portland has Oden playing as well. The Jazz need to make some changes, not only to win the championship, but to even win the division.

I would also like to add that Brewer has had a fantastic season as well as Milsap. I would definitely consider giving Brewer an “A” and I also wish Milsap got a few more minutes every game. It is going to suck when he leaves (remember Raja Bell).

Keith Haney on January 24, 2008 said:

I’m glad that this has sparked some reaction. I think I would make a hard teacher - I don’t give out “A”s all willy-nilly. The grades that people seem to think are off, I’ve discussed below. Here’s some more thoughts on how I came to my grade conclusion:

Harpring: I gave him a B because he brings a level of toughness and consistency on defense/offense that a lot of other players on the team don’t bring. Players should get a grade based on playing up or down to their potential - amongst many other factors. I originally started wrting out very detailed grades and descriptions for each player but realized my blog was turning quickly into a novel. I was at 6 pages long by the time I had finished my analysis of 3 players.

That said, I strongly feel that if Harpring’s minutes were increased (and it looks like they will be) that he would bring more to the team. Since he’s been limited, he gets a B.

D-Will. He is an All-Star caliber player like Brian points out above, but it’s hard for me to give him an “A” since his play has definitely slipped sinces the first 15-20 games of the season. I’d rank him as the 5th best point guard playing in the West right now (behind Nash, AI, CP3, Parker, and Davis). I’d rank him as the 8th best guard in the league (behind Billups and Calderon in the East) this season alone. He’d be just ahead of Kidd in my book. Remember - this is a grade for players first half of the season this year. Trust me - if I was building a team right now to win championships over the next 5 years - I’d pick Chris Paul first and Williams second. But this first half of the season - he gets a B+ from me. It’s really hard to give anyone an A on this team considering how average they have played.

Okur - Trust me, I know that an F is a harsh grade, but he has just sucked this year. He’s had a few decent games of late so I’m crossing my fingers that he continues that into the second half of the season. Realistically though, he’s the one guy on this team that doesn’t fit anymore in my mind. He’s a one-dimensional shooter that has been figured out by the league. He offers no defense. No rebounds. Nothing - IMHO. And believe me - Brad Miller would not be my first or best choice for a trade with Okur. But here’s my guess - if you offered that deal to Sactown - THEY would turn it down. That tells me a lot about how Okur has played.

I will say this. If there was one grade I think I would change from my original article - it would be to raise Brewer to an A-. He really has played well and exceeded all expectations in my book. Even his jumper, albeit ugly, looks better with every game.

Ultimately, it’s fun to argue about these grades but they are all pretty subjective. At the end of the day, I couldn’t very well give the team a “C-” (and do you really think they deserve better today?) then give out a bunch of As to all of the players.

Anyways - thanks to those who commented. I appreciate you reading this blog even if you disagree with my assessments. I wish I had more time to respond to each and every one of you individually!