The Downbeat - 2 October 2009 - #70 - The

I went to the game last night thanks to the free tickets given away from the Utah Jazz twitter account. It was good to some action again after a long summer! The general feeling I got from the team was that it was only one game and not to put too much weight on any players performances. With that said, here are a few observations:

Fessenko did not look very good. His hands are terrible still and when he does actually get the ball, his moves aren’t fast enough and he frequently holds the ball too low making him vulnerable to guards stealing the ball from him. There were a few times also where he definately should have gotten a rebound, and would have if he could jump even a foot off the ground, but the Nuggets ended up with it. I was dissapointed, but it is only the first preseason game, right?

Koufos was also not impressive. He was out there trying hard and being active, which was good, but he seemed really lost. There was one or two plays where he was hovering around DWill at the top of the key trying to set a pick and it just wasn’t working. He’d set a weak pick, Williams’s defender would easily get around it, and Koof would go right back to set a weak pick. I think he’ll be okay, but he just needs to adjust to the NBA and get used to his team again.

Price looked really good. I think he’ll be our primary backup point guard. Maynor was kind of interesting. He didn’t play particularly well or really make any plays that made me think he could be a good NBA guard. But there was something about him that made he think he’s going to be a good NBA guard. He was very quick, he had a great ball handling skills, and he didn’t get rattled when the defense was in his face. He also always had his head up looking for guys to pass to. I think he’ll be a good distributor once he gets more used to his teammates and the tempo of the game.

Those were the main players that stood out to me, for better or worse. The starters and regulars were as good as you’d expect from a preseason game. Overall I left with a good feeling about the team though.

8. The player I think they’d keep is Dupree. He was the only potential guy that really got any quality minutes with the regulars. For awhile in the 3rd quarter the lineup was DWill, AK, Millsap, Boozer and Dupree.

4. I think the place was about half full, if not a little more. The cheering and booing was subdued compared to the regular season, but at times it would get loud in there.

So anyway, those are my observations about the Jazz’s first preseason game. Take it for what it’s worth.