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SALT LAKE CITY — The Jazz held shootaround ahead of their matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Vivint Arena. Here's some notes on what's going on around the team.
Will Antetokounmpo play?
The Bucks are led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who leads the NBA in minutes per game and nearly in points, scoring 29.8 per contest. But he was held out of the Bucks' last game against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday due to right knee soreness.
Antetokounmpo did participate in Bucks shootaround Saturday, though was not made available to the media to discuss his injury or anything else. He sounds likely to play, but I would bet that the Bucks will see how he's feeling after game warmups before deciding for sure.
But if he doesn't play, the Bucks' lineup is very shallow. Look at their minute distribution on Wednesday:

DeAndre Liggins played 41 minutes! Former Jazzman Joel Bolomboy had 20 minutes (and put up zero points, five rebounds, by the way), and he played in three minutes all season long before Wednesday. Gary Payton II actually started.
In other words, the Bucks need Antetokounmpo desperately. If they're without him, they get in trouble quickly.
Jazz gold jerseys
The Jazz debut their new gold jerseys on the court Saturday night.
I'm curious what they'll look like in person, on the court. In mockups and photographs, they haven't been my favorite, playing a little bit too close to Lakers gold for my taste. I'm also curious how they look against the lighter wood shade of the new Vivint Arena court.
Raul Neto over Trey Burke?
Trey Burke was the star of a feature by the Deseret News' Eric Woodyard Friday, and while Burke wasn't made available to the media by the Westchester Knicks, his father, Benji, wasn't afraid to make some comments.
“We loved the people in Utah. It’s a slow pace,” Benji said. “For a rookie, I think it’s a great place to start your career. Horrible place to end your career. And that’s just my opinion, because it’s just slow. They want you to be a certain way, they almost don’t even want you to have a tattoo. “That organization is just a little different, and when Snyder came in, he just changed the whole process where he started (Raul) Neto over Trey,” he added. “It didn’t even make sense. The dude wasn’t even averaging two points a game or two assists a game so logically it didn’t make sense.”
Well, first of all, Raul Neto started his very first game as a Jazzman, so he wasn't averaging anything. He did average 6.2 points per game and 2.5 assists as a starter that season over Burke, certainly not good numbers, but better than what Benji suggests.
But honestly, the biggest difference is that Neto could defend so much better than Burke, which was and is the most important thing to Quin Snyder. Neto also played within the offense. Neto took five shots per game that year, making 43 percent of them and 39.5 percent of his threes. Burke shot 10 times per game (in the same minutes) and made 41 percent of them, and 34 percent of his threes. With Burke on the bench, those extra shots weren't taken away from Gordon Hayward, they were taken from Chris Johnson.
And then, of course, there's the present: Neto is still in the NBA and has earned his way into an NBA rotation this year. Burke is shooting well in the G League after a season in Washington where he disappointed the players, fans and decision makers alike, eventually losing his backup PG role.
I don't mean to drag old history back to the forefront again, but the record shows it: benching Burke there was absolutely the right decision by Jazz management.
Rodney Hood having twins
Rodney Hood's wife, Richa, made the announcement on Instagram Friday: the Hoods are having twins!
That means the Hood twins will be the third pair of twins on the Jazz's roster, alongside Derrick Favors and Joe Ingles' kids. In addition, Dante Exum is a twin, so was former Jazz player Gordon Hayward.Congratulations to Rodney!








