Game 69: Utah Jazz (33-35) @ Miami Heat (36-33)

[Crunch 99]

https://www.rotowire.com/basketball/nba-lineups.php

[Crunch 99]

This game will be a bigger challenge for THT. After 3 consecutive 20+ games, THT will be figuring prominently in the Miami game plan. I wouldn't be surprised to see THT find himself spinning in to double coverage from time with Miami attempting to strip the ball or force a bad pass. Miami gives up the second fewest points in the paint, and both Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler are good at help defense. I am guessing Clarkson is not playing, but if he plays, that will relieve some pressure on THT.

I hope Markkanen has a bounce back game.

I use to end my game thread posts with "Go Jazz", but I kinda liked that 8th pick we were lined up for two games ago. Two games later we have fallen all the way to the 14th pick . I still can't outright root for the Jazz to lose, but I've moved to neutral. Lol.

[red4hf]

Simone going for 50 tonight!!!!!

[Inigo Montoya]

Nice game by Fontechhio. He finally looked like the player I thought the Jazz got when they signed him. He looked more confident out there and wasn't afraid to put up shots.

Markkanen was good and I think he was was robbed of a 3-point play in the fourth quarter. It looked like an and-1 to me and instead the Jazz had an inbound play.

Agbaji would like to have that last play back, I'm sure. I thought he'd go for a thunderous dunk and he also had a good lob opportunity to Kessler and instead it looked like he didn't decide what to do and ended up with neither. I can't be mad at him though, we needed that L.

Dunn finished with 9-6-8 in 21 minutes.

[Crunch 99]

I am not particularly surprised that we got poor shooting percentage and high tovs from THT in this game. Miami gives up the second fewest points in the paint and forces the third highest number of tovs. It's not easy for guards to drive in to the paint and score against Adebayo and the Heat.

I still like Dunn a little better at PG than THT, THT's explosive game against Charlotte notwithstanding.

Markkanen was having a phenomenal bounce back game, hitting nearly every shot through three quarters, but cooled off a bit in Q4.

[FranchisePlayer]

Dang. THT came to this game thinking he was Michael Jordan and got exposed real bad. AST/TO ratio was ok I guess but forcing those shots when they weren't going in... *smh*

[Crunch 99]

Dang. THT came to this game thinking he was Michael Jordan and got exposed real bad. AST/TO ratio was ok I guess but forcing those shots when they weren't going in... *smh*

His AST/TOV ratio at 8/6 was not OK. The Jazz coaching staff must feel that young THT is talented enough to learn to play PG with much fewer tovs on average, but developing THT in to a legit, starter-level, NBA PG is a pretty big challenge imo considering he did not play PG in high school, college or the NBA prior to this season (to my best knowledge). Regardless, with this experience, he is hopefully getting better at passing and handling the ball overall, and is gaining valuable playmaker/passing skills that he can utilize from time to time at whatever position he ultimately ends up playing for the Jazz.

[FranchisePlayer]

Dang. THT came to this game thinking he was Michael Jordan and got exposed real bad. AST/TO ratio was ok I guess but forcing those shots when they weren't going in... *smh*

His AST/TOV ratio at 8/6 was not OK. The Jazz coaching staff must feel that young THT is talented enough to learn to play PG with much fewer tovs on average, but developing THT in to a legit, starter-level, NBA PG is a pretty big challenge imo considering he did not play PG in high school, college or the NBA before (to my best knowledge). Regardless, with this experience, he is hopefully getting better at passing and handling the ball overall, and is gaining valuable playmaker/passing skills that he can utilize from time to time at whatever position he ultimately ends up playing for the Jazz.

Well fair enough, to each his own I guess.

I'm not eager to frantically debate about it. I'll just point out that for the season THT is averaging 3.3 AST and 1.8 TOV. While a player named Sexton is averaging 2.9 AST and 1.8 TOV and he has loads of experience playing PG.

So let's not raise the bar too high or at least keep it at the same height for everyone.

[BigJimFinn]

Dang. THT came to this game thinking he was Michael Jordan and got exposed real bad. AST/TO ratio was ok I guess but forcing those shots when they weren't going in... *smh*

His AST/TOV ratio at 8/6 was not OK. The Jazz coaching staff must feel that young THT is talented enough to learn to play PG with much fewer tovs on average, but developing THT in to a legit, starter-level, NBA PG is a pretty big challenge imo considering he did not play PG in high school, college or the NBA before (to my best knowledge). Regardless, with this experience, he is hopefully getting better at passing and handling the ball overall, and is gaining valuable playmaker/passing skills that he can utilize from time to time at whatever position he ultimately ends up playing for the Jazz.

Well fair enough, to each his own I guess.

I'm not eager to frantically debate about it. I'll just point out that for the season THT is averaging 3.3 AST and 1.8 TOV. While a player named Sexton is averaging 2.9 AST and 1.8 TOV and he has loads of experience playing PG.

So let's not raise the bar too high or at least keep it at the same height for everyone.

Sexton is not a starting NBA point guard either, nor Dunn or Clarkson. All of the current Jazz guards would be more effective off the bench, Agbaji has at least potential to be a solid starter.

[FranchisePlayer]

His AST/TOV ratio at 8/6 was not OK. The Jazz coaching staff must feel that young THT is talented enough to learn to play PG with much fewer tovs on average, but developing THT in to a legit, starter-level, NBA PG is a pretty big challenge imo considering he did not play PG in high school, college or the NBA before (to my best knowledge). Regardless, with this experience, he is hopefully getting better at passing and handling the ball overall, and is gaining valuable playmaker/passing skills that he can utilize from time to time at whatever position he ultimately ends up playing for the Jazz.

Well fair enough, to each his own I guess.

I'm not eager to frantically debate about it. I'll just point out that for the season THT is averaging 3.3 AST and 1.8 TOV. While a player named Sexton is averaging 2.9 AST and 1.8 TOV and he has loads of experience playing PG.

So let's not raise the bar too high or at least keep it at the same height for everyone.

Sexton is not a starting NBA point guard either, nor Dunn or Clarkson. All of the current Jazz guards would be more effective off the bench, Agbaji has at least potential to be a solid starter.

I know but I get objections on that opinion. lol

IMO Clarkson has evolved during this season and has much more playmaking ability I could've thought. And Sexton has SG written all over himself.

I'd even prefer Dunn before Sexton in starting PG role but I agree, #1 PG has to come outside of the current roster if Ainge wants this team to be a contender and not just a pretender.

[Crunch 99]

Dang. THT came to this game thinking he was Michael Jordan and got exposed real bad. AST/TO ratio was ok I guess but forcing those shots when they weren't going in... *smh*

His AST/TOV ratio at 8/6 was not OK. The Jazz coaching staff must feel that young THT is talented enough to learn to play PG with much fewer tovs on average, but developing THT in to a legit, starter-level, NBA PG is a pretty big challenge imo considering he did not play PG in high school, college or the NBA before (to my best knowledge). Regardless, with this experience, he is hopefully getting better at passing and handling the ball overall, and is gaining valuable playmaker/passing skills that he can utilize from time to time at whatever position he ultimately ends up playing for the Jazz.

Well fair enough, to each his own I guess.

I'm not eager to frantically debate about it. I'll just point out that for the season THT is averaging 3.3 AST and 1.8 TOV. While a player named Sexton is averaging 2.9 AST and 1.8 TOV and he has loads of experience playing PG.

So let's not raise the bar too high or at least keep it at the same height for everyone.

Yes, but your initial post on ast/tov ratio referred to this Miami game, not the season.

All of our attempts at statistical looks on how various Jazz players have done at PG have a lot of weaknesses, with the biggest one always being small sample size. We don't have very many games with anyone besides Conley starting and playing point guard. A weakness for the season look at ast to tov ratio for Sexton and THT is that much of Sexton's time and THT's time coming off the bench was not as pure point guard. Sexton often came off the bench as a heater-scorer in the old Clarkson role, while sharing the floor and PG duties with Conley, THT or NAW. Another limitation for including all of Sexton and THT's bench time is that starting and playing against other starters is a higher level challenge than playing off the bench against bench players.

I posted THT and Sexton's stats as starting Jazz PGs in the Kris Dunn thread. Very small samples though.

[PaKii94]

His AST/TOV ratio at 8/6 was not OK. The Jazz coaching staff must feel that young THT is talented enough to learn to play PG with much fewer tovs on average, but developing THT in to a legit, starter-level, NBA PG is a pretty big challenge imo considering he did not play PG in high school, college or the NBA before (to my best knowledge). Regardless, with this experience, he is hopefully getting better at passing and handling the ball overall, and is gaining valuable playmaker/passing skills that he can utilize from time to time at whatever position he ultimately ends up playing for the Jazz.

Well fair enough, to each his own I guess.

I'm not eager to frantically debate about it. I'll just point out that for the season THT is averaging 3.3 AST and 1.8 TOV. While a player named Sexton is averaging 2.9 AST and 1.8 TOV and he has loads of experience playing PG.

So let's not raise the bar too high or at least keep it at the same height for everyone.

Yes, but your initial post on ast/tov ratio referred to this Miami game, not the season.

All of our attempts at statistical looks on how various Jazz players have done at PG have a lot of weaknesses, with the biggest one always being small sample size. We don't have very many games with anyone besides Conley starting and playing point guard. A weakness for the season look at ast to tov ratio for Sexton and THT is that much of Sexton's time and THT's time coming off the bench was not as pure point guard. Sexton often came off the bench as a heater-scorer in the old Clarkson role, while sharing the floor and PG duties with Conley, THT or NAW. Another limitation of including all of Sexton and THT's bench time is that starting and playing against other starters is a higher level challenge than playing off the bench against bench players.

I posted THT and Sexton's stats as starting PG in the Kris Dunn thread. Very small samples though.

THTs role has changed throughout the season so yeah the season long stats aren't relevant. THTs AST/to ratio is horrible as a starting PG and I think sexton's is still better