Jazz have more international players than any NBA team, and more shootaround notes


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PORTLAND — The Jazz held shootaround before their first regular-season game Tuesday, facing the Trail Blazers at 8 p.m. MT. I traveled to Portland for the game, and had the chance to interview Rudy Gobert, Dante Exum, and head coach Quin Snyder.

Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Alec Burks out

Derrick Favors (knee bone bruise/IT band syndrome), Gordon Hayward (fractured finger), and Alec Burks are all out for Tuesday's game against the Blazers.

With the injuries, the Jazz's starting lineup will be George Hill, Rodney Hood, Joe Johnson, Boris Diaw, and Rudy Gobert. Head coach Quin Snyder's not too worried about his team's starters in the first game. "They're going to change throughout the year anyway," Snyder said. "We just have to be solid whoever's in the game."

I get the sense that Favors is the closest of returning of the three: he participated in the non-contact portions of shootaround, and worked out with the Jazz training staff after the rest of his teammates, running up and down the floor.

"We're just trying to keep his activity level at a place where he can realistically be, he hasn't played in a while," Snyder said. "It's going to be a process of him coming back whenever he's able to compete."

But in the mean time, the Jazz are missing a lot.

"There's not a lot of players like him in terms of his ability to rebound and score around the basket," Snyder said of Favors. "He's probably the best rim finisher in the league, by some measure. You miss him on a lot of levels. ... That's why people rank him as one of the top players in the league."

Hayward and Favors traveled with the team, by the way. Hayward received praise from teammates and coaches alike for still being a leader despite the injury, and also did some light, one-handed shooting after the shootaround.

Jazz have the most international players

The NBA released their metrics on the teams' finalized rosters today, and the Jazz finished on top in one category: the number of international players on the roster.

> Most international players ... > Jazz: 7 > Mavs, Nuggets, Thunder, Magic, Sixers, Spurs, Raptors: 6 > Lakers, Timberwolves, Knicks: 5 > > — Jessica Camerato (@JCameratoCSN) [October 25, 2016](https://twitter.com/JCameratoCSN/status/790944304143462400)

That includes Boris Diaw and Rudy Gobert from France, Joe Ingles and Dante Exum from Australia, Joel Bolomboy from Ukraine, Trey Lyles from Canada, and Raul Neto from Brazil.

Snyder's proud of that diversity. "I just think it's a neat stat."

"The globe is now much smaller from a basketball standpoint," Snyder continued. "All of these players grew up playing against each other since they were 15 or 16 in the Junior World Games."

And the players seem to like having teammates from all over the world too.

"I know my first year here, there weren't many internationals," Gobert said. "We're getting more and more every year, which I like."

What's nice about having lots of international players on the roster?

"Just having guys from different backgrounds. We have so much different stuff to share," Exum said. "I know me and Joe have some different stories than some of the guys from France."

Exum then made fun of Diaw and Gobert, standing nearby. "We always talk about the international stuff, which is fun. Like when Australia beat France at the Olympics. I mean, they didn't just beat them, they smacked them."

"Yeah, what medal did you get?" Gobert replied.

"What medal did you get?" said Exum.

Neither France nor Australia medalled in this year's Olympics.

Blazers giveaways

The Blazers are giving away 19,393 red t-shirts and light-up wristbands for their home opener Tuesday, purchased by their arena naming sponsor, Moda.

Jazz have more international players than any NBA team, and more shootaround notes

Those wristbands are pretty cool: they're actually controlled by the arena, so they can flash and light up in patterns during warmups. We'll see just how cool it looks tonight.

The Jazz's home opener on Friday is a "Blue Out" night: the team will ask fans to wear blue to the arena. Fans without blue Jazz clothing can buy a shirt for $8 from the team store. The Blazers' approach of just giving away a free t-shirt is likely to work a little bit better than the Jazz's voluntary request, though. I'm hoping for a wealthy sponsor to start producing t-shirts for Jazz fans to wear too.

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Andy Larsen

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