It's Fesenko time!

[Montanajazz]

It's time for Sloan to let Fesenko play 20-25 minutes a game. Play okur less and start thinking about trading him at the draft or before the beginning of the 2010-11 season for a draft pick. Draft a big man who can play some defense with hte NY #1. There then would be money to re-sign Boozer! Maybe, even re-sign Fes if he finishes the year strong!

[QuantumMacgyver]

Fes started the season better than he is even playing lately, and Sloan still benched him. I don't see Fes making the rounds on a consistent basis. Then again, with Memo really disappearing maybe he'll have to. Seems unlikely tho.

[Efernand]

I would be happy if he played 15 minutes a game

[carrottop12]

The problems appears to be that he doesn't work hard in practice, and therefore I understand the precaution with playing him. If he gets the idea that he doesn't have to work hard and he will still get minutes it will severely hamper his development. However not playing him doesn't seem to work very well either so...

[HammerDunk]

This is all on Fes IMO. The kid needs to work harder in practice and not piss off sloan. If he can do that, he should get 15+ minutes a game. If not, he's not worth the time.

[HolyToledo]

Fess does help in the Jazz biggest issue which is interior Defense, so I cannot understand why Sloan doesnt give him some minutes per game (even 10 min per game would be good enough for me). Those minutes would be hard to find but Memo's minutes need to go down.

[Fido]

David Locke spent some time on this issue the last day or two on his show. Sloan is using Fesenko in situations where he has a favorable matchup--and he is performing well. When the opponent puts in guys who may be able to take advantage of his weaknesses, Sloan pulls him out and goes with other options (Boozer, Okur, etc.). If Sloan played him regardless of the matchup, you would see him do much worse. However, he does appear to be progressing in his maturity and focus.

So let him grow and improve--but don't think he is at a place to just jump in and put up numbers and be effective regardless of the matchup or you will be disappointed.

[outerspacefella]

....So let him grow and improve--but don't think he is at a place to just jump in and put up numbers and be effective regardless of the matchup or you will be disappointed.

That's exactly why I think he needs playing time...

I'm convinced the Jazz cannot beat the Lakers or Nuggets in a playoff series without more size defending the paint and wihout a big body that force Nene, Bynum, Gasol to guard him near their basket.

No combination of Boozer/Okur/Millsap can make Jazz offense work well against Nene/Andersen or Bynum, Gasol. Besides, Jazz need to make the Shannon Browns and Ty Lawsons of this world to think twice when trying to repeat the huge bunch of easy layups they've made against our weak paint D.

[MeestR]

if you're gonna trade okur, you dont bench him or decrease his minutes. that decreases his value. you play and show off the guys you wanna trade. but now the trade deadline is over, it's all about playoffs.

the time for developing and showing off is over.

[jazzfan1971]

Fes is a little overly aggressive defensively IMHO. I don't know why the refs are allowing it, but, I guess if they will let it go he may as well play that way.

I think he's going to have to learn to pick his spots more as time goes on though. No need for him to be swiping at the ball 23 feet from the basket.

[Soul Patch]

I'll take overly aggressive over apathetic any day.

[hoops4life]

One problem I have with his over aggressive nature is that he challenges EVERY blooldy shot. I like that he is defensive minded and tries to block shots but there are some that are way to out there that will be impossible for him. It puts him in a bad position and he gives up the rebound. It seemed like that was a huge problem in Portland and led to most of their offensive rebounds.