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SALT LAKE CITY - Four lottery picks over the past two years for the Jazz should create a bright future, against the Timberwolves it showed it could also be a bright present.
The Jazz got sparks off the bench from their four high picks in order to beat Minnesota 111-105 in overtime. While Paul Millsap stole the show with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 8 steals his performance could have been wasted without the youngsters production.
The biggest night from the young players was Gordon Hayward. He led the team with 26 points coming off the bench while playing 38 minutes. He has spent the previous few games coming off the bench and has responded well.
"You can't control whether you're starting or coming off the bench, it doesn't really matter," Hayward said. "What you can control is how you play out on the court and I'm just out there playing hard."
Hayward's fellow sophomore Derrick Favors led the team in rebounds with 16, including 8 offensive rebounds.
"He did a great job while not scoring a lot of points, he got a lot of rebounds, a few blocked shots in there," said coach Tyrone Corbin. "It shows that you don't have to have a big scoring night to have a great game."
His lack of scoring wasn't from a lack of trying, he went 2-9 and admitted that the rebounding was him trying to make up for an off night.
"I just tried to get every rebound because I couldn't hit a shot today, so I had to do something," Favors said, who set a new career-high for rebounds.
Alec Burks played no minutes the night before in Phoenix, but played 31 minutes while C.J. Miles was sick and added 15 points on 6-8 shooting.
"Alec works very hard every time he gets to," Corbin said. "I've said it before he's not playing because he doesn't deserve to play... it's on me more than him. He showed why tonight, he deserved to get minutes on the floor."
Burks was grateful for the chance to play and said that most of it was Corbin seeing that he was in rhythm so he could have a good game.
Corbin talked about the joys, and struggles of watching these players grow together.
"It's been fun man," Corbin said. "It's frustrating sometimes, because they are young and they make mistakes, but they're growing, they're playing hard, they're studying the game and they are trying to get better and you see the growth because of that."
Enes Kanter rounded out the night with 13 minutes and six rebounds. The four young lottery picks constitute the core for the Jazz and if the game against Minnesota is any indication the future is bright.
"It could be crazy," Burks said. "If we all stay together and keep getting better it could be real crazy."
