Three thoughts on the Jazz’s 81-80 summer league win against the Dallas Mavericks from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. A truly authentic summer league experience
There’s nothing quite like summer league.
As noted in our last Triple Team, sometimes, the basketball is just not of a very good quality. And that certainly was the case tonight, albeit to a lesser degree. Missed free-throws, missed box outs, goofy turnovers, and poor fouls ended up being the cause of much of what happened tonight.
But this time, at least the mistakes served to make this an entertaining game. In particular, a lot happened at the end of this one:
• The Jazz had a seven point lead with 2:20 left, which they promptly blew by giving up a 10-0 run.
• Elijah Hughes made a tough three moving forward to tie the game with under five seconds left.
• In overtime, the Mavs raced out to a four-point lead, but then they got a shot block on the Hughes 3-point attempt that was called a foul. In an interminable stoppage, they eventually decided to reject the coach’s challenge, but I don’t know... to me, it looked like a clean block.
• Hughes made the first two free throws, missed the third, Azubuike got the rebound and a putback dunk with a chance to take the lead with a free throw, which he missed. The Mavs did get this free throw miss... and then promptly coughed it up with a turnover 1.1 seconds later.
• The Jazz had a chance to win the game there, but Forrest missed (and maybe was fouled on) a game-winning opportunity. Azubuike got the rebound with 1 second left and maybe the chance to put up a prayer, but passed it instead.
• But ‘Dok’s biggest play of the game was winning a jump ball, thus giving the Jazz a chance to get the game-winner. They did, when Forrest drove and got fouled.
• Forrest missed the first free-throw, thus putting pressure on the second one, which he easily swished. A Damian Lillard-esque wave to the Dallas bench ensued. Terrific.
Summer league isn’t always pretty. It is always zany.
2. Trent Forrest contract
Speaking of Forrest, he was once again undoubtedly the Jazz’s best player in the game, with 16 points and nine assists that kept the Jazz afloat. In fact, so important to the Jazz’s offense was Forrest that the Mavs started to trap him coming off of screens, rather than play him deep and dare him to shoot, as most teams do.
Earlier in the day, Forrest signed a two-way contract with the team that will keep him in Utah for a second season.
That wasn’t a sure thing — I thought Forrest had played well enough that an NBA team might consider using a 15th roster spot on him. But it appears that his agency looked around the league and didn’t find that offer, and decided that his best outcome was staying on the Jazz on a two-way contract.
That makes sense. Forrest has clearly taken strides in a Jazz uniform so far, and he has one of the most valuable things in the NBA going for him here: a star player who believes in him. Donovan Mitchell has clearly taken a liking to Forrest and his work ethic, and having that from a developmental point of view can be invaluable. It also doesn’t hurt from a job-security point of view.
For the Jazz, signing Forrest to a two-way deal means that they have control of him all of next year. Even if another team changed their mind and decided to give him a full contract, they couldn’t. And he’ll still be eligible for restricted free agency next summer, should he continue to improve.
Good stuff all around.
3. Quin Snyder’s thoughts on his team
On NBATV’s broadcast, we got the first chance to hear from Jazz head coach Quin Snyder about what he thinks of his team’s moves this offseason. I’ll go ahead and post the whole interview with Turner’s Rebecca Haarlow.
Haarlow: Coach, Mike Conley resigns, a three year deal with you guys and he came out and said, there’s unfinished business: I want to win at a championship with Utah. Coming off of the playoffs, obviously disappointing that you had injuries that you were dealing with there. Did that help the organization turn the page, kind reset things moving forward?
Snyder: To a degree. I think it’s always hard when when you lose in the playoffs. And obviously, we understand someone’s got to; you know, only one team this year in Milwaukee doesn’t end on a loss. But I think for our guys — yes. And I think, you know, that’s evidenced by what Mike said. He’s such an important part of what we do. And I’m lucky, we’ve got some guys that are really fun to coach.
Haarlow: You’re coming off a season where you have the best record in the NBA. You got to build on that next year. Did it make you stronger, though, going through what you did, with Donovan Mitchell not being healthy, not having Mike Conley?
Snyder: Yeah, I think, you know, you learn how to win different ways. Obviously, in the end, it’s so important to be healthy in the playoffs. But we have a real cohesive group. And during the course of the year, guys, they get used to stepping up, and those things are important. So fortunately, we feel like we’ve got a deep team to be able to do that.
Haarlow: The team has got a little bit deeper with some of the free agency moves that you guys made. What excites you about the pieces that you bring in? Obviously, Rudy Gay brings a tremendous amount of experience and then you’ve got Hassan Whiteside in there, too.
Snyder: Yeah, well, I think with Rudy, his ability to defend on the perimeter, he can isolate on the post, which gives us another option offensively, particularly when the game does slow down. And, you know, he’s taken more threes the last few years. So that’s something that we really want to see him do. And, you know, Hassan, the way that we defend with Rudy being kind of the focal point of our defense, he’s someone that, you know, that gives us another rim protector. And you talked to Jared already, we’re excited about him.
Haarlow: As if the rim isn’t difficult enough against your team. Before I let you go, Jared Butler, your new draft pick, is obviously not playing out here tonight. But what excites you about him? What is he going to add to this organization?
Snyder: For a 20 year old, he’s really mature. I think when I say that, he’s been in a winning program, you know, a first team All-American, there’s a lot of things that he’s done consistently. And you feel like he really knows how to play. It’s always nice to have somebody that can knock down shots.
To me, the thing that stuck out most was Snyder leading off with Gay’s ability to make an impact on the defensive end. That’s something I wrote about last week, and it’s interesting to hear that aspect of Gay’s game as the first thing that comes to mind for Snyder.
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