Jazz Draft Night Grades

[StocktonShorts]

Utah Jazz: The Jazz reached into the hype machine and pulled out Gordon Hayward, the darling who took those plucky Butler Bulldogs all the way to the bright lights of the Final Fours. (Insert a few fluttering eyelashes and a "Wowee!" or two into that sentence for effect.) Maybe I'm wrong, as I haven't assembled teams who are regular Western Conference contenders as Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor has. But ... whaaaaaat? Hayward, given the team's needs (at least one big, a dead-eye shooter -- which Hayward is not right now)? Pfft to that. (And no, second-round pick-up Jeremy Evans of Western Kentucky doesn't save it.) Final Grade: F.

Hayward falls somewhere between a reach and an OK pick. Paul George or Luke Babbitt would have been better choices to fill a void on the wing, but Hayward should do well in Utah's system. Outside of Ryan Reid, Evans was probably the most surprising pick of the draft. A relative unknown, the springy Western Kentucky power forward is under 200 pounds and averaged just 10 points and 6.9 rebounds per game as a senior. Grade: C.

Gordon Hayward is simply a risk. He's a 6-foot-9, 207-pound toothpick who parlayed a strong sophomore season and a fantastic NCAA Tournament into a lottery selection. But for all the praise heaped on Hayward for his shooting, he knocked down only 29.4 percent of his threes last year. Still, he's going to the right system. He's smart, tough and should thrive -- and get a whole lot of open looks -- in Jerry Sloan's offense. He can't go one-on-one, but how many of Sloan's players can say they can? Second-round pick Jeremy Evans is athletic but not much else. Grade: B-

Anyone have what Chad Ford graded the Jazz?

Edit: removed the dupe.

[JDubJazz]

ESPN Insider:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft201 ... des-100625

UTAH JAZZ GRADE: B

Analysis: GM Kevin O'Connor agonized over whom to take at No. 9. Utah's target had been Greg Monroe, but the Pistons took him at No. 7, leaving the Jazz to decide between a group of players they felt were pretty even.

In the end, Hayward won out. The Jazz needed a wing since Kyle Korver is hitting the free-agent market, and they believed that of all the players left on the board, Hayward has the most upside. His versatility, basketball IQ and defensive ability convinced O'Connor that he can be a star, though to reach his full potential, Hayward will have to rediscover the shooting stroke he had as a college freshman. If he does, he could be special.

As for Evans, his playing weight in college was 190 pounds, which is very slight for a power forward. He's put on weight in recent weeks while training with Tim Grover, but even this far down in the draft, he seems like a stretch.

[Fido]

Fox Sports and NBADraft.net are reprints--its hard to consider them 2 different grades...

[UTJazzFan_Echo1]

The Jazz FO must have known some of those guys were going to go undrafted beacuse our 2nd round pick is more of a reach than our 1st. Lots of big guys left of the board and some good talent but yet we get someone who is nothing but a good athlete. I'm hoping that they are pushing really hard to bring some of those undrafted guys in for training camp and get them through FA.

Here are my grades...

1st round: Gordon Hayward
Not a great pick, maybe not even a good pick but it is what it is. A big time reach but who was left on the board that was really going to help push us over the top to a championship? Hayward is a great kid and is going to work his butt off but I don't know how good he can be at the NBA level.

Grade: C-

2nd round: Jeremy Evans
Who? Don't know who this kid is but from what I have seen he is a huge reach and could have been picked up in FA if we really wanted him that badly. Plenty of talent was left on the board by the 55th pick and we missed on all of them. Feels like a pick where the Jazz FO and scouting is trying to get too sneaky/creative and they think that they know more than they do. Should have taken a solid prospect instead of a complete unknown and unproven risk. Would have been nice to see them try and move up and take someone like Alabi or some other big instead of another twig. Good athlete but nothing else, feels like another waste of a 2nd round pick.

grade: F

Overall grade: D+
We needed size and we drafted two pencils. Can't be too upset with what happened but I can't be too pleased either. I will try and reserve my judgement on the Hayward pick until I see him play and I will even wait a couple of seasons to see how he develops but I can't say that we improved drastically or improved at all through the draft but it is what it is.