HORNS OF FEAR GAME FREE

Hayward and Hood both need to shake shooting slumps but have each taken turns looking awesome, and Ingles is an overlooked contributor with unreal early efficiency numbers.

HORNS OF FEAR GAME FREE

And nothing has changed behind them: the Jazz are still getting nowhere near enough from what we thought was a deep stable of backup bigs.Д«urks has had quite the week: heвЂ™s now UtahвЂ™s top three-point shooter by percentage, and heвЂ™s also getting more free throw attempts per game than anybody else. But these two have been so stellarВ that it almost doesnвЂ™t matter to whom we grant the top spot in a given week. While Favors was slowed by the flu, Rudy had a great week: 10-11-3-2-1. So before you throw blame at HaywardвЂ™s feet for the JazzвЂ™s next shakyВ quarter, half or game, ask yourself this: who else on this team is capable of completely altering the way teams play defensively on a night-to-night basis? Hayward has gotten good enough now that on most nights, how the Jazz play offensively is going to be a function of how an opponent decides to approach #20.

His versatilityВ to checkВ bigger wings, chase zippy guys and even log some minutes defending at the four has been a majorВ part of UtahвЂ™s defensive success. He has also been playing some of the most solid defense on the team.

But all of them had a game plan, and all of those game plans started with, вЂњWhat are we doing about Gordon Daniel Hayward?вЂќДЄnd thatвЂ™s just on one end of the court. Denver tried trapping him high and rotated defenders. Portland cut off his routes early in the setВ so he couldnвЂ™t come to the pass. Cleveland hit him with hard overplays and denied him the ball. He also turned those 10 shots into 18 points. He took just 10 shots that night, which was the right way for him (and his team) to react to the GrizzliesвЂ™В defensive approach. So every time he came off a screen, he saw a wall of dark blue pushing him outside. Their approach was to make sure that Hayward always saw multiple bodies when he was in the middle of the floor, because they fear his driving ability, his increasingly lethal in-between game, and his ability to facilitateВ from there. The Jazz won and Trey Burke scored 24, but MemphisвЂ™s whole defensive game plan revolved around Hayward. In Quin SnyderвЂ™s equal-opportunity offensive philosophy, the right thing for the Jazz to do is to read that coverage and channel their execution to a simpler play, a better shot. But what stat lines donвЂ™t tell you is that Hayward is still the most important player to the JazzвЂ™s execution.В Every single opponent has schemed against him in a way that has shifted defensive fault lines and set the table for Utah. Sure, everyone would have liked to see the versatile forward start stronger, especially in relation to his first four games where he made barely more than a third of his shots. He has looked more like himself over the last three, with 18, 4 and 4 on 49 percent from the field and 42 percent from three, but overall, his numbers are sagging.В A box score watcher or casual game viewer might come away thinking that HaywardвЂ™s first seven games of the campaign represent a step backward. ThereвЂ™s no denying that Gordon Hayward has yet to play his best basketball this season. This is the second installment of the Salt City Seven, a weekly recap of all things Jazz, and we have a lot to get to, starting with a wide angle view onВ UtahвЂ™s star forward.ДЄ fewВ quick thoughtsВ on one macro-level theme. Welcome to Thursday: the warmup act for the weekend, a Jim Croce B-side, and the day for our new tradition of dropping seven nuggets of Jazz wisdom.

Horns of fear game