“Ssssssmokin’! Okay, okay… vapin’, but still!”
One of the most significant draft picks in Utah Jazz history returns to Salt Lake City tonight, as the Jazz prepare to face the Atlanta Hawks (9:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast, ROOT Sports Utah) at whatever Vivint Smart Home is Arena.
That’s right, you know who I mean.
Welcome back to Salt Lake City, Kris Humphries!
There wasn’t an NBA draft lottery back in 1984, when the Jazz took a little-known John Stockton from a little-known Gonzaga. Utah didn’t even need the inaugural lottery the next season, when they took a barely-known Karl Malone out of barely-known Louisiana Tech. Thanks mostly to those two future Hall-of-Famers, and superb coaching by Jerry Sloan, the Jazz would not have to resort to Lottery Fever for 19 years.
The first season without either of Stockton or Malone, the 2003-04 Jazz surprised NBA pundits but, by just two games, missed out on playoff qualifying for the first time since 1983. With the final lottery selection, they took a fresh-faced 19-year-old big man out of Minnesota.
Humphries was taken one pick ahead of Boston’s Al Jefferson, a decision Utah would come to rectify six seasons later. While he was no SLC Punk, Humphries was never going to live up to the shadow of The Mailman, and perturbed Sloan with a tendency to look for his own shot ahead of all other options. Hump was traded two seasons later to Toronto for the great Hoffa Araujo, who lived up to his nickname by disappearing off the face of the Earth.
Three weeks after trading away Humphries in 2006, the Jazz had back-to-back second-rounders. After selecting Dee “Not the Dude with the Pump” Brown from Deron Williams’ Illinois, Utah decided to draw from the La-Tech well again. This time, they brought in collegiate uber-rebounder Paul Millsap.
In the time between the Jazz being D-Will’s Team and becoming Al Jefferson’s team, Millsap developed and ably filled in the gaps. Utah reached the postseason for four straight seasons from 2007 and 2010, Millsap coming alive off the bench in a first-round series win over Carmelo Anthony’s Nuggets. Paul then helped right the ship after the Sloan-Williams implosion left the Jazz barely missing the playoffs in 2011. After making the 2012 playoffs as an 8-seed, Utah fell short in 2013, and watched Millsap leave via free agency to Atlanta.
The Jazz never got to see either Millsap or Humphries playing on their team while reaching their individual NBA career-peaks. Tonight, Jazz fans may get to see them on the floor in tandem, as Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer seeks out the optimal frontcourt pairings to offset Utah’s newest young stars, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert.
Acquired on Draft Night 2013 from Denver for the low-low price of second-rounder Erick Green and cash, Gobert (4.6 Defensive Box Plus/Minus, 1st in NBA; 6.2 Block%, 2nd in NBA) has blossomed into one of the most fearsome defensive players in the league, at just 23 years of age. Meanwhile, the heir-apparent upon Millsap’s departure, the 24-year-old Atlanta native Favors (51.7 FG%, 12th in NBA; post-Break 18.1 PPG and 8.9 RPG) is enjoying arguably his best season.
With Gordon Hayward (career-best 20.1 PPG) and now his former Butler teammate, Shelvin Mack, in tow, coach Quin Snyder and the Jazz are cultivating a mix of youthful but experienced players, and even younger talents possessing superstar potential.
Utah’s “The Kids Are Alright” roster-building plan would be even more obvious if they had guards Dante Exum (out for season, ACL surgery) and Alec Burks (sprained ankle, back in a couple weeks) healthy. Another Draft Night 2013 acquisition, Hawks pick Raul Neto, and 2014 first-rounder Rodney Hood (87.0 FT%, 16th in NBA) have filled in ably in Exum’s and Burks’ absence. Favors and Gobert have missed significant time as well.
Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey would never admit to trying to rub it in, but last month he brought in Green, waived earlier this season by the Nuggets, to join the team for a pair of 10-days, before replacing him with Mack. It’s not the only way that Utah (29-33) hopes to organizationally stick it to their Northwest Division foes.
Making the playoffs for the first time since Millsap’s 2011-12 season would likely come at the expense of either Houston (1.5 games ahead) or Portland (3 games ahead), each of whom owe a lottery-protected first-rounder to Denver this summer. They’d really love to make Denver wait a little longer for the Houston pick to show up, especially if doing so includes a couple extra visits by the Warriors to the Beehive State in late April. It helps that, of their remaining road schedule, just one of Utah’s remaining opponents is presently playoff-bound.
They’d also love to be humble-bragging about that other Draft Night 2013 trade, the one with the Timberwolves that netted them guard Trey Burke. Sadly, Burke’s development seems to have cratered again (post-Break 34.4 FG%, 29.6 3FG%, 6.5 PPG and 2.0 APG), justifying the Jazz brass’ search for a postseason-tested and well-rested guard that could quickly acclimate himself to Snyder’s gameplans ahead of a playoff charge. It’s Mack, the former third-stringer Hawk, that is filling the bill.
Shelvin has started for Utah in the last seven games at the point, and has averaged 11.3 PPG (44.3 FG%, 30.0 3FG%) and 3.8 APG. It won’t be much of a stretch for Snyder, a former lead assistant under Budenholzer, or Mack to prepare a game plan for Atlanta’s Jeff Teague and Dennis Schröder.
Both of Atlanta’s lead guards did just a fine job of leading on Saturday night against Chris Paul’s Clippers in Los Angeles, absorbing the Clippers’ best offensive punches in the opening quarter before stifling them the rest of the way. Teague (22 points, 3-for-4 3FGs, 7 assists, 2 TOs @ LAC) played smart defense and hit big shots at the other end, while Schröder (6-for-10 FGs), moving right up the list of the league's top sixth-men, provided offense that kept L.A. on their heels for much of the night.
Helping to keep their hosts at arm’s length, Schröder and the Hawks’ starters missed just one free throw while taking advantage of Clipper center DeAndre Jordan’s Achilles’ heel (7-for-17 FTs). Will we see a similar Hack-a-bert approach by the Hawks (35-28) tonight against Utah? It’s quite likely to happen, albeit to a more judicious extent.
Gobert (78.2 FT attempts per 100 FG attempts) gets roughly the same proportion of his scoring (28.8%) as Jordan (27.9%) from free throw line trips. While DeAndre’s 43.2 FT% pales in comparison, Rudy’s 59.1 FT% (post-Break 51.6 FT%) is still fourth-lowest in the league among shooters with 100 or more attempts. Favors’ 71.0 FT% (10th-lowest among current NBA qualifiers) is just slightly better.
The Jazz big men are at their competitive best when opponents allow them to camp around the rim in search of dunks, swats, and putbacks. A rested and more acclimated Humphries should help Atlanta keep the likes of Gobert, Booker (10th and 9th in NBA for O-Reb%, repsectively), Favors and Jeff Withey at bay. Edy Tavares is in Austin with the Lil’ Spurs, putting off the possibility of the league’s longest-limbed competitors for another day.
The Hawks’ offense will try to spread out the Jazz defense, with pick-and-pop jumpers from Al Horford and Paul Millsap dragging Gobert and Favors out of their comfort zones. Help from Hood and Hayward will further open up Atlanta’s wing shooters, as Kyle Korver and Kent Bazemore (each 2-for-5 3FGs @ LAC) continue to comb out their offensive kinks. Persistent penetration by Teague and Schröder, and weakside cuts by Thabo Sefolosha and Bazemore, should have Utah’s defensive bigs in pick-your-poison mode for much of the contest.
Despite their youthful energy, Utah is the league’s slowest-paced team by far (93.4 points per 100 possessions; 8.2 fastbreak points per 100 possessions post-All-Star-Break, 29th in NBA), and it will be up to the Hawks to get the lead out. Hayward, Burke, Favors and Mack will soak up as much of the shot clock as they can, so Atlanta defenders need to pressure them into hurried shots and unwise decisions whenever they put the ball on the floor.
The Hawks (51.6 eFG%) are a shade-behind Cleveland and the East’s most-accurate shooters from the floor, but rank last in the NBA with four or fewer seconds to go on the shot clock (33.9 eFG%; 11.9 TO% 2nd-worst in NBA), which is right where Utah wants them.
Halfcourt discipline by Teague and Schröder should lead to wise first-shot opportunities early in the possession, and fastbreak options are available when Utah’s bigs get caught cherry-picking too frequently. Learning to dictate the tempo in Utah will be good practice for the Hawks, who face similarly deliberate yet more seasoned and successful teams (Toronto and Memphis) in their next two games.
Let’s Go Hawks!
~lw3
