Game 59: Utah Jazz (27-31) @ Atlanta Hawks (25-32)

[Inigo Montoya]

Trae Young is out for a while, which may actually improve the Hawks' defense. Let's see how it goes, Hardy vs Snyder.

[FJS]

Both teams are sucking... so you don't know what to expect.

[JazzyPhinz]

Need to pull Keyonte. Just horrible right now

[red4hf]

At half-time, Clarkson leads the Jazz in minutes, and shots taken...... So much for the youth movement.......

[red4hf]

On the plus side, Hendricks looking better and better......

[bkohler]

I know the Jazz want to see Sensi in a non ball dominate role but man I wonder if it wouldn’t be smarter to give all of Clarksons shot to him.

Also, Kesslers running hard there’s got to be someone that will get him the ball.

I really would like to see a Keyonte, Sensi, Markkanen, Hendricks, Kessler line up get some minutes.

[red4hf]

Man, we're so lucky to have Will Hardy, I mean without his coaching we might lose to teams who are without their star players.......

[bkohler]

Man, we're so lucky to have Will Hardy, I mean without his coaching we might lose to teams who are without their star players.......

Pretty sure we would have won if their “star” had been playing. They’ve been better all year without Trae.

This feels like a shot at Hardy just because, I don’t see many bad coaching decisions here but maybe I’m missing something?

[red4hf]

Man, we're so lucky to have Will Hardy, I mean without his coaching we might lose to teams who are without their star players.......

Pretty sure we would have won if their “star” had been playing. They’ve been better all year without Trae.

This feels like a shot at Hardy just because, I don’t see many bad coaching decisions here but maybe I’m missing something?

Jordan Clarkson leading the team in minutes, while playing like crap seems like a pretty bad coaching decision......

PS, I'm not saying Hardy should be fired, or anything like that, I'm just reiterating that he's nothing special, like some folks have been saying.......

[bkohler]

Gotcha! I think he’s a really good coach, with a blind spot for Clarkson.

[AGE1207]

Man, we're so lucky to have Will Hardy, I mean without his coaching we might lose to teams who are without their star players.......

Pretty sure we would have won if their “star” had been playing. They’ve been better all year without Trae.

This feels like a shot at Hardy just because, I don’t see many bad coaching decisions here but maybe I’m missing something?

Jordan Clarkson leading the team in minutes, while playing like crap seems like a pretty bad coaching decision......

PS, I'm not saying Hardy should be fired, or anything like that, I'm just reiterating that he's nothing special, like some folks have been saying.......

Hardy got us 26 wins by the AS game with all the experts predicting we’d need all season for that.

[FJS]

Hendricks it's looking a bit better every game, who is fair.
Keyonte... I want to like him, but man... His stroke is nice, and he can score... but his FG% are abysmal, horrible. He wouldn't playing in any other team.

This team is playing worse and worse. You can understand players are uninterested. FO send the message, we don't care about winning, so players don't care about winning. The problem is I'm not sure they are learning anything those games.
Hawks were fairly bad in this game. We were just worse.

To me is devastating this year. It's not any bright spot. Markkannen it's not better than last year. Rookies don't show a lot of promise. Kessler is not improving either... Clarkson is worse...

Ainge need to shake this roster if we want to compete next year.

[red4hf]

Pretty sure we would have won if their “star” had been playing. They’ve been better all year without Trae.

This feels like a shot at Hardy just because, I don’t see many bad coaching decisions here but maybe I’m missing something?

Jordan Clarkson leading the team in minutes, while playing like crap seems like a pretty bad coaching decision......

PS, I'm not saying Hardy should be fired, or anything like that, I'm just reiterating that he's nothing special, like some folks have been saying.......

Hardy got us 26 wins by the AS game with all the experts predicting we’d need all season for that.

Hardy has a losing record in both his seasons as a a coach....... I didn't know "wins by All Star game" was some kind f a metric......

[Inigo Montoya]

Hardy has a losing record in both his seasons as a a coach....... I didn't know "wins by All Star game" was some kind f a metric......

While it is true that Hardy has a losing record in both his seasons as a a coach, I'd say this statement lacks context. The Jazz were expected to be much worse than they have been and be one of the very worse teams in the league in both seasons. They were projected to win around 25-27 games this season, and as a rebuilding team, no one expected them to be as good as they have been. Exceeding the projected win total for the season less than two thirds into the season is just another way of saying Hardy has the team over-achieving relative to expectations. With all the criticism we have of the Jazz, I'd still say Hardy exceeded all expectations. As a new coach in the first two seasons of a rebuild, having a losing record is par for the course and in a sense, having a few losing seasons is also one of the goals of a rebuild (to get better position in the draft).

And as for the game itself, it ended with Kessler (30 minutes), George (34 minutes) and Hendricks (29 minutes) playing more than Clarkson (27 minutes). Even Sensei is starting to get some playing time with 17 minutes. In fact, the three players who played the most minutes for the Jazz in this game were two rookies and a second year player.

[red4hf]

Hardy has a losing record in both his seasons as a a coach....... I didn't know "wins by All Star game" was some kind f a metric......

While it is true that Hardy has a losing record in both his seasons as a a coach, I'd say this statement lacks context. The Jazz were expected to be much worse than they have been and be one of the very worse teams in the league in both seasons. They were projected to win around 25-27 games this season, and as a rebuilding team, no one expected them to be as good as they have been. Exceeding the projected win total for the season less than two thirds into the season is just another way of saying Hardy has the team over-achieving relative to expectations. With all the criticism we have of the Jazz, I'd still say Hardy exceeded all expectations. As a new coach in the first two seasons of a rebuild, having a losing record is par for the course and in a sense, having a few losing seasons is also one of the goals of a rebuild (to get better position in the draft).

And as for the game itself, it ended with Kessler (30 minutes), George (34 minutes) and Hendricks (29 minutes) playing more than Clarkson (27 minutes). Even Sensei is starting to get some playing time with 17 minutes. In fact, the three players who played the most minutes for the Jazz in this game were two rookies and a second year player.

Talk about "lack of context" though....... The only reason they got that many minutes was because we got blown out.......

[Inigo Montoya]

Talk about "lack of context" though....... The only reason they got that many minutes was because we got blown out.......

Not so sure about that. George and Hendricks were starters. Since he became a starter (in the previous two games) Hendricks played 26 minutes each so 29 is about in line in what he's got recently and probably what he'll get for the remainder of the season. George's minutes are in line with what he's gotten in his second stint as a starter (last 5 games: 33, 41, 31, 30 and now 34 minutes per game) and will probably get for the remainder of the season. Since Sensei started getting minutes two games ago, he's played 13 and 16 minutes and now 17, which is also probably what he'll get for the rest of the season. Kessler's last 5: 28, 25, 17, 19 and now 30, and he earned his minutes as Collins was bad.

[red4hf]

Talk about "lack of context" though....... The only reason they got that many minutes was because we got blown out.......

Not so sure about that. George and Hendricks were starters. Since he became a starter (in the previous two games) Hendricks played 26 minutes each so 29 is about in line in what he's got recently and probably what he'll get for the remainder of the season. George's minutes are in line with what he's gotten in his second stint as a starter (last 5 games: 33, 41, 31, 30 and now 34 minutes per game) and will probably get for the remainder of the season. Since Sensei started getting minutes two games ago, he's played 13 and 16 minutes and now 17, which is also probably what he'll get for the rest of the season. Kessler's last 5: 28, 25, 17, 19 and now 30, and he earned his minutes as Collins was bad.

And Clarkson?

[Inigo Montoya]

And Clarkson?

On the whole he played a bit over his season average for minutes per game in the last 5 games, but what of it? If the young guys are getting significant playing time, what's the issue?

[red4hf]

And Clarkson?

On the whole he played a bit over his season average for minutes per game in the last 5 games, but what of it? If the young guys are getting significant playing time, what's the issue?

That he hasn't earned his minutes, that in many instances he makes the team worse...... And that's coming from one is true fans.......

If we're trying to win, Clarkson should be playing less....... If we're tryin g to develop young players, Clarkson should be playing less.....

[Inigo Montoya]

And Clarkson?

On the whole he played a bit over his season average for minutes per game in the last 5 games, but what of it? If the young guys are getting significant playing time, what's the issue?

That he hasn't earned his minutes, that in many instances he makes the team worse...... And that's coming from one is true fans.......

If we're trying to win, Clarkson should be playing less....... If we're tryin g to develop young players, Clarkson should be playing less.....

Well, we can see that Hardy is able to develop young players while playing Clarkson, as evident by the minutes they're getting since the trade deadline (and in the cases of George and Kessler even before).

I do think Hardy is still trying to win and while I don't have an issue with the stance that Clarkson should play less, Hardy obviously thinks he shouldn't whether we like it or not and that his minutes are earned. I suppose it's one of those things that we can't see from the outside, like how he does in practice, leadership, setting example for other players, etc. Sure, he can shoot the team out of a game but that's how he's always been. I think losing Olynyk's passing just makes things more difficult for him and for Markkanen as they're getting less open looks and easy baskets.

If it's any consolation, my bet is that he'll be traded in the offseason.