Pre-season: Jazz Lose to Spurs, the Tank is Back

[Inigo Montoya]

I haven't watched the game yet, but it's a good sign that we can lose to another team that is obviously tanking.

I continue to be very intrigued by Kessler, who seem to have had another good showing. And Butler also continues to perform well, which is nice to see.

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[Hugi Mancura]

Not much positives in that game or at least on first half which I saw. Disjointed offense. There were couple times when ball moved and it actually looked like NBA basketball, but way too many forced shots from guards, Gay and Lauri. It's no surprise none of them shot over 50% from the field, but at least Lauri scored more points that had shot attempts.

And offense was the positive part. Defense was horrible. One screen and Spurs got a wide open 3. Somehow I think only reason why some of Jazz players had positive +- was because they were on the court when Spurs missed those wide open shots. As said didn't see second half, so maybe they were better on that half.

On general, way too much to fix before the opening game to make this team look even decent, so most likely might be a good idea to not watch first 10 games. Maybe after those games team has found some balance on both offense and defense. Honestly don't believe this team will ever be a good defensive team with those players, but at least much better offensive team.

On Kessler. He has eye for defense and to be in right spot in offense, but he just needs to adjust to NBA speed. His position is little bit off, but I think that part is something that will improve. But the part that worries me most is his foot speed. He isn't fast enough to be an 30 minute player in modern NBA. With that foot speed he is probably 10 minute guy. And that is hard to improve if you don't have the natural speedyness. Learning to shoot 3's would increase his usefulness, so he should work on that (and the foot speed).

[dr0welf]

Second half was much better especially 4th qtr. I actually want to see them win in the preseason. It's hard to get a winning mindset when all you do is lose.

Kessler is going to be a good Gobert replacement if he continues to grow. Fons did well in the 4th I thought, forced a shot or two but overall played well and shot well.

[Crunch 99]

I think OKC, one of four teams projected to have a worse record than the Jazz, ends up with a better record than the Jazz --- even considering the loss of Chet Holmgren and considering the possibility that SGA misses some early games. SGA is currently listed day to day.