Utah Jazz midseason review

SALT LAKE CITY — Welcome to the middle of the season for the Utah Jazz. It's technically one game past, but still this is a great time to look back at the first half.

Before the season, I set out some grading criteria and revisited it 21 games ago. This is another chance to see how the Jazz are doing.

The Jazz are a completely different team from their first 21 games. They are now playing .500 basketball, and the players are starting to show off their various skills.

While a lot of the stats used will be from the last 21 games, the grades are still looking through the entire season. The basic idea behind the grading scale is still there, but this report card is a little more lenient. In the third edition, there will be a final grading system, which is a way for every player to get an “A,” but that is another discussion.

Here are the grades for the players and the team overall.

Gordon Hayward

Hayward was easily the best player on the Jazz over the first 20 games, but now he is taking a slight backseat to Trey Burke and Derrick Favors. He still leads the team in scoring, third in rebounding, second in assists and leading in steals.

His greatest deficiency has been his inefficient scoring. He has scored a lot, but he's shooting 41 percent from the field and 31 percent as a 3-point shooter. Since the last grading article, he has started shooting a little better, but not by enough. His workload has gone down a little, but his production has stayed about the same.

Grade: B-

Derrick Favors

Favors has passed the eye test over the last 20 games with a lot of really good games and an expanding offensive repertoire, however his numbers are basically the same as they were after the first 20 games. He is scoring 13.5 points per game and grabbing 8.6 rebounds.

What is most important is that he is staying on the court and mostly out of foul trouble. He is still top-10 in the stat, but he is only averaging 3.8 fouls per 36 minutes played. He averages 4.7 per 36 in his career and was at 5 last season.

He still has moments where he looks lost, but for stretches of the season he could be considered the best player on the team.

Grade: B+

Trey BurkeBurke has been great at some points and very average at others. He is averaging 14.4 points and 6.5 assists over the last 21 games. He is second in points and assists among rookies and is one of the best free-throw shooters in the NBA.

He has a claim as the best player on the team right now. His next biggest step is becoming consistent. He has the skills to be a good player in the league, but he can't go from 20 points to 9 from one night to the next, or 20 then 3, 30 then 2. Since the start of December, he has six 20-point games and five single-digit games.

He's still in the discussion for some Rookie of the Year votes, and that means his season is still very successful so far.

Grade: A

Enes Kanter

Kanter has had a rough season but is starting to pull out of his nosedive. In January he has scored 13.8 points per game and grabbed 6.8 rebounds. He is playing 21.4 minutes in that time, which is actually down from his season average.

Kanter is still a bit of a mystery. His 25-point, 11-rebound game against the San Antonio Spurs was pretty amazing. He is shooting 57.7 percent this month. Using the grading system from before the season started, he is sitting at a C, up from a D in the last grades, but his turnaround from the start of the season will get a little better.

Grade: C-

Alec Burks

Much like Kanter's season Burks has started to look good this quarter of the season. He is scoring 14.2 points with 3.5 rebounds and 3 assists in that time. He is shooting better from outside than he has in his career.

He is a 43 percent shooter for his career and is up to 48 percent over this span. He is also shooting 37 percent from beyond the arc, up from 34 percent in his career. Since Burke has returned, Burks has become a better player.

There were high expectations to start the season, and it's starting to show. Still his greatest problem is consistency. In January, he is averaging 14.9 points, but he only has two games within two points of that, 13 and 16 points, other than that they are anywhere from 3 to 34.

Grade: B-

Richard Jefferson

Jefferson had a pretty rough offensive start to the season, along with most of the team, but has been hot over the last quarter of the season. He's a career 37.6 percent 3-point shooter and is shooting 52 percent in the last 21 games.

#poll2

He's actually the eighth best shooter in the league, sixth best with a limit of 110 3-pointers. He is actually shooting better from beyond the arc than his normal field goal shots. He's also doing this with fewer minutes than he's used to and giving a great defensive effort.

A “C” in my earlier post was shooting over 40 percent, which he is doing and then some. He's getting a better grade because he is doing all of this in a reduced role.

Grade: B-

Marvin Williams

The first player who got a new grade in the last report because of his stellar play, Williams has kept his starting role and is still a very good player. His shooting has fallen off just a bit, but he is still playing well. He is still shooting 39 percent on the season and 38.2 percent over the quarter.

He has played great defense and is a leader in the locker room. His scoring is down a little, but everything else in his game is still good.

Grade: A

Jeremy Evans

It's honestly hard to pick apart Evans' game that much. Entering this season he was more of a novelty than a contributor, but when he plays he is a solid piece of the team.

He's cooled off a bit from when he was shooting over 75 percent, but Evans is still very efficient. On the season he is averaging 6.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while only playing 17.3 minutes. He is shooting 52.4 percent on the season and has played 19 minutes per game. The points are down a little, but that is right where he should be.

Related

Jazz Beat

On today's podcast we recap the Jazz road trip and where the Jazz program is halfway through the season. We also debate who the best player on the team could be: Derrick Favors, Trey Burke, Gordon Hayward?

*Grade: A-*Rudy Gobert

The big rookie is an interesting case because of how often he's been sent down to the NBA's Developmental League. When he was in the D-League he was destroying the competition, and his per-36 numbers are very good in the NBA.

In the D-League he was averaging 13.9 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3 blocks per game in 27 minutes of game time. Oh, and as a cherry on top he was shooting an astounding 74.1 percent from the field. That's a great line for eight games. It's hard to find him minutes, but he has shown that he can do some work when he gets time.

He's getting his grade based on his D-League performance. The “A” grade was three blocks per game, and that's just what he did.

Grade: A

Pass/Fail

Diante Garrett

Garrett's main job is to give Burke some time on the bench, and he has done it very well. He has become the clear-cut backup point guard by playing in all but three games since he joined the team. His numbers have gone up while John Lucas III's have gone down.

Grade: Pass

Brandon Rush

The veteran wing is starting to get healthy and becoming a weapon on the second unit. Rush still needs more time to show that he is back and ready, but he is shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc, which is a success according the original grades, but his lack of playing time still is concerning.

Grade: Fail

Ian Clark

Much like Gobert, his time has been best spent in the D-League where he has been great. He hasn't been as good as Gobert, but he will be graded by his time there more than his time with the Jazz, which has been sparse.

Grade: Pass

Andris BiedrinsIt's hard to give him a failing grade when he is clearly the last big on the roster, but he's just a roster spot. He's only played in six games all year, so he can't really get a passing grade.

Grade: Fail

John Lucas III

The one-time starting guard is relegated back to the reserve spot and lead towel-waving position. He fails because he isn't shooting well and he's been relegated to random spot duty and emergency work.

Grade: Fail

The team

The Jazz's shot at getting the top pick is getting very dicey, although as it stands now the Jazz are both competing and still in position to get a top pick. The team is no longer the worst team in the league, and it looks better than a lot of the teams with records around them.

#poll

The team is getting too good for its own good. The early prediction of 27 wins probably won't hold up. The Jazz have gone through the hardest schedule in the league and now their schedule eases up a lot.

The future looks very bright with the current lineup, but the Jazz might miss out on a superstar. They are only three games away from the 10th pick in the draft. As the season goes on, they could play themselves out of a top grade, but for now they are in perfect position to complete all of their goals, but they get a minus on the end to show how close they are to failing to get a star in the draft.

Grade: A-

The original prediction of 27 wins is a lot shakier now. The Jazz will probably win closer to 32 games.

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