Deron's Improved Offensive Game

Post #1 » by **StocktonShorts** » Tue Feb 8, 2011 7:23 pm

Something that's perhaps lost in all the talk of what is wrong with this team is the improvement D-Will has made to his scoring game this year. In my eyes he's taken a big step forward this year, specifically:

1) Hitting a variety of shots driving to the basket. I swear up until this year 50% of his drives to the hoop ended up with him missing the shot and then bitching about a foul that wasn't called. Now he's got that one-handed statue-of-liberty layup and a very-under-control move where he draws the bump and is able to bank the shot in. I think he finally realized that he has to make the shot whether he's fouled or not.

2) Nailing a mid-range jumper off a curl. He's nearly automatic at this shot.

3) Drawing fouls and sinking free-throws. He did this quite a bit at the start of the year but has fallen off a bit lately; still, he's averaging 6.9 attempts per game this year (vs. 5.5 last year and 5.6 the year before) while hitting 85% of his shots (vs. 80% last year). In short, he's MAKING 1.5 more free throws per game this year than last year.

The59Sound · Post #2 » by **The59Sound** » Tue Feb 8, 2011 7:57 pm

I think that's right. I still think his finishing at the rim leaves a lot to be desired, but he's definitely improved that over the years. When Deron doesn't sleep-walk (like he has several times this year), the guy's an animal.

Really glad he and Al Jefferson are figuring each other out, because Deron's made some nifty passes for throw-downs of late. He seems to be finding that balance between scorer and facilitator.

Soul Patch · Post #3 » by **Soul Patch** » Tue Feb 8, 2011 8:12 pm

I've been really impressed with his free throw percentage. That was one of my main gripes about Williams and the Jazz last year. I also really like his scoop shot, it's chocked full of steez.

HammerDunk · Post #4 » by **HammerDunk** » Tue Feb 8, 2011 9:20 pm

Spot on HP. His 3 pointers lately have been off, but he has been pretty good from range too. I wish he could get up to the 40% range, but I think 38% might be his peak. Still not bad.

He had some really awesome passes last night. It seems that his little respite on the bench has done a lot to revitalize his passing game. He is really looking to get the team involved.

He has truly taken over as scoring option 1 on this team, but can also will his teammates into really good games, a la Millsap and Al getting very good passes and shot setups. My main gripe with him is his quickness to argue with the refs. It makes me wonder if the Jazz have a bad reputation with the refs the way games have been lopsided lately. At one point last night, they had 10 more fouls than Sacramento. I was bewildered, but things evened up late, with a few late game fouls to stop the clock.

yonexpro1 · Post #5 » by **yonexpro1** » Tue Feb 8, 2011 10:01 pm

Offensively he is better. But over the last couple weeks he is taking terrible shots and giving the other team transition points by taking the bad shots. I was at the OKC game and all the fans were yelling at how no one gets back on D after dwills terrible 3pt attempt. KOC and I were the only ones not complaining.

No doubt off the screens and when he has time to properly set ... HE IS WATER.

I would like to see better shots going up but hey he does a lot for the team so I can accept 3 or 4 bad shots per game but more than that is unacceptable.

I know his wrist is hurting but why has he been shooting so much since hes been back.

DENVER 9-23 fg 2-10 3pt
OKC 6-15 fg 0-4 3pt
SAC 9-16 fg 0-2 3pt.

16 3's in 3 games? c'mon

If his wrist is hurting why is he shooting more than he has all season?