Who is better going forward the Suns or the Jazz

[Slava]

Utah fans, is Exum untouchable? I kind of want to see Utah get more of a veteran point guard in the mold of Mike Conley. I think the Jazz are ready to roll right now, and Exum is probably another 3-4 years away offensively.

Yes he is untouchable. Who cares about his offense when as a first year player his defense is already above average? His offense will develop over those 3-4 years and his defense may get better too as he gets stronger.

Offense comes along to players who are making mistakes but show a semblance of skill. Exum is straight up scared to move a muscle in most games.

[NBAfan3024]

Jazz

They have real impact talent

[HawaiianJazzFan]

If you combine Utah's 3-5 with Phoenix's 1-2, you'd have a proper team. Otherwise both teams have holes and Phoenix's frontcourt is much farther along than the Jazz backcourt, which is quite frankly horrible. Its a good thing Hayward got a max otherwise its straight unfair the amount of heavy lifting he has to do to make Hood & Exum look halfway less bad. Exum makes Burke look better in comparison and that's the best compliment I can offer to Burke.

Hood is playing well. I don't think the 2 is going to be a problem for Utah. Rodney Hood is a rookie (6'8 is nice size for a 2 guard) who had to deal with a bad injury to start the season but who has played really well as a starter after the all star break. In March since he was moved into the starting lineup, he is averaging 12.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.9 apg and is shooting 49% from the field and 40% from three. Since the all star break he is shooting 48% from the field and 45% from three. He was terrible against your Lakers (as was our whole team, we had just played one of the toughest games of the season the night before, that ended at like 11:30 pm) but he has been a pleasant surprise and rumor has it that our coaches are super high on him, and he may still be the starter even with a healthy Burks if he can improve this summer.

Also, Alec Burks (only a year older than Hood) was playing pretty well before his injury, and he takes quite a bit of pressure off Hayward as he can handle the ball, and is probably our only other player besides Hayward who can create his own shot (Favors is getting better at that). It was the first time Burks was starting and he didn't play well the first month but in December before he went down he was averaging:
15.7 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.1 apg and he was shooting 40% from three.

The big problem is the PG position. Exum and Burke are both shooting around 36% from the field and 32% from three. Burke is also one of the 5 worst defenders at his position in the NBA. Burke is also terrible because when he is on the court Hayward's numbers drop significantly because Hayward doesn't touch the ball as Burke chucks a ton. Trey Burke comes off the bench and still manages to shoot the second most FGA's on our team.

[Takingbaconback]

I love Gobert as much as the next guy but Suns do have Len who looks to be a special talent in his own right. I do think Jazz will be better. Favors and Hayward are nice pieces and Exum is playing better than his stats suggest in my opinion.

[thamadkant]

3 straight 0 point games for Exum, Jesus that's horrible.

I think Len is underrated, obviously Gobert is making a much bigger impact right now but I see Len becoming a dominant defender and rebounder.

Len needs to be able to play 30 plus minutes a night and he will put up nice numbers consistently.
Gobert is already playing 30+ minutes and his rebounding and blocks are elite.

Len can also put up elite rebound and block nights when he plays high minutes.

[tcheco]

Gotta go with the jazz in this one... It' looks like the suns will overpay for knight, and already have bleadsoe... Len looks good, but he sure loves to get injuries. Hayward proved he's worth his money, favors is a bargain and gobert has the biggest upside.

[lilfishi22]

Suns took a step back with the trade of Goran to go younger (Knight) and add assets (picks) so it isn't a huge surprise to see this result. Prior to the trade, I thought the Suns were in a better form with plenty of options to get better. I thought the trades we made were sub par but necessary after Goran asked out and we had openly shopped Thomas.

Going forward, I'd give the Jazz the edge only because they still have a lot of young (albeit unproven) talent and a decent core. They've done better post ASW because of continuity but overall, I don't think it's Utah by a landslide.

[jbk1234]

The Jazz. It's easier to acquire back court players than SFs and front court players.