Free Mo Almond

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 4, 2009 5:26 PM MDT

Morris Almond was picked in the 20ies by the Utah Jazz two drafts ago with the hopes of being a sweet shooting guard of the prototypical size (6'6) and the actual ability to make his own shot, get to the line, or rain jumpers. A four year player at Rice, Almond had the pedigree of a mature player who could make plays on offense. At the time of his drafting Utah was going to war at shooting guard with a) elderly point guard Derek Fisher, b) European enigma Gordan Giricek, c) long term project C.J. Miles and d) an unused rookie with a broken shooting arm, Ronnie Brewer.

Since that time and now the writing is on the wall for Almond: he's gone by his choice. And I don't blame him.

Fisher was let out of his contract with the Jazz, so that left the starters spot up for grabs. C.J. Miles (bereft of a contract) decided to skip his 2nd Summer League in a row and actually accepted an offer from Oklahoma City. Ronnie Brewer displayed a much more consistent jumper (something he worked on all summer long) and got the starting job. Giricek was traded midseason for Kyle Korver -- whatever strong shooting niche Almond had over the other guys (Brewer has athleticism and defense, Miles has athleticism and ball handling) became an after thought as a guy who shared the same strengths (and was better at them) came to the team.

This past season Almond was not even sent down to the NBA-DL long enough to become a fixture on offense there -- which is shady in its' own devious little way. In effect, this season was a complete waste for Almond -- who didn't get a lot of time in the NBA, nor did he get a chance to audition for other teams that much in the DL. A look at his NBA career validates the opinions of haters everywhere. People just don't think that he's an NBA player. I am clearly in the minority.

In his Rookie campaign Morris was only playing in garbage time, and no one was running anything. This season there were enough injuries where ~~Old Mr. Scrooge~~ Jerry Sloan allowed him to actually play on the floor with guys who were better than he was. Getting set up by guys like Deron and AK while the defense let him get open must have been an amazing change of pace for him since the double and triple teams he routinely faced at Rice and down with the Utah Flash. Over the last two seasons in the NBA his FG% increased by 13.7%. In fact, not being a rookie helped a lot as all of his percentages increased.

Long held opinions believe that Almond is only a scorer. He was more than just a scorer in the NBA this season though. There is no way to accurately measure how much better he got on the per game basis in terms of blocks and steals (because as a rookie he didn't play enough to really register any significant defensive stats in garbage time), but as far as rebounding went, he increased his RPG by +1.2. His APG did not increase (even though his MPG did), but this is easily explained with his role. Last season in the NBA he was the only guy in XTREME garbage time who could do something with the ball -- this season he was actully only touching the ball in situations where he was supposed to shoot it. (e.g. being set up by Deron Williams)

While his averages and improvement in the NBA may not mean much -- the larger sample size of the NBA-DL shows that he was able to improve there by leaps and bounds. He actually played close to 7 minutes less per game in the NBA-DL this last season, yet he still scored 24 ppg (25.6 last season), and his rebounding went up. His shooting went from 44.6 fg% and 35.4 3pt% up to 52.1 fg% and 40.7 3pt% in the DL this last year. [His FT% went down from 83% to 82%]

He became a more efficient scorer who hit the glass and did more with less time. Isn't this what people wanted from him? Well, the other big thing was turn overs and he managed to knock down his turn overs per game from 3.1 to 2.2 -- which is pretty significant. Over all Almond did improve (who would have thunk that a soph would be better than he was as a rookie)! He was able to crack a spot with the Jazz early in the season and get some playing time. Even I didn't know that Almond played more than 12 mpg 12 times this last season. In those games he averaged 6.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 0.5 apg and a combined 0.55 blocks and steals per game.

Just as a point of reference in CJ's 3rd season (the one where he averaged 12 mpg) he was able to get 5.0 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.9 apg, and 0.6 combined blocks and steals per game. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page here, those are the stats that were used in part to justify the multi-year restricted free agent contract that the Jazz matched in the last off-season.

If you think it's unfair to judge CJ's 3rd season in the NBA with a selection of games Morris played 12+ mpg in, during his 2nd season . . . well . . . just look at how their two sophmore seasons look stacked against each other (both players played 10 mpg in their soph seasons). Morris is clearly the better scorer, rebounder and shot blocker -- while CJ a better distributor and steals guy.

Basing a comparison of the two purely on stats is silly though -- Almond isn't nearly as athletic and surely can't dunk as well as CJ can. Similarly, CJ looks more and more comfortable as a slasher -- while Morris is a traditional shooting guard who can take and make the type of shots guys like Reggie Miller and Richard Hamilton shoot. Obviously age and potential are on CJ's side -- but how long can you wait for young players to 'become' who we hope them to be? I feel that CJ has the potential to be a solid 3rd option on offense, but right now -- just looking at offense -- Morris is probably a much more reliable 4th option. Potential vs. Production comes into play here . . . and all I can remember is CJ bricking open jumper after open jumper after the All-Star break while Almond was draining jumpers all the way into the finals of the NBA D League season.

Apples to oranges of course . . . but the Jazz made up their mind on Morris early in October when they decided against the team option to pick up his 3rd year of his Rookie contract. There's no place for Morris Almond on the Jazz right now.

Funny how the team that's been struggling to get a pure shooting guard through the draft all these years (Lewis -- no confidence, Stevenson -- no conscience; Pavlovic -- slasher; Snyder -- home invasion; Miles -- too young; Brewer -- no jumpshot) decided to chase off a guy who'll make it in the NBA on some team that wants a guy who can make open shots.

When you are drafting a guy in the 20ies in the draft you're not drafting an impact player -- or even a guy you can figure out in 34 NBA games in two seasons. You're drafting a guy who has some limitations to his game -- but still has a specialty or two that can help a team. Almond makes shots -- and something that's really under the radar is the fact that dude really gets to the line. Our offense seems to rely on getting to the line 35+ times a game, and Almond has done just that in his professional career. This season along Almond was able to get to the line at LEAST 4 times in each of his 12+ mpg games against the Cavs and the Heat. Almond went through a few stretches early this last season where he went to the line over 10 times in over 3 games.

Yeah, our 4th string SG is a guy who gets respect from the refs, even though fans of his own team (or even his coaches) don't give him respect. Which is a big part of why I say Free Mo Almond. Utah liked him enough to draft him -- too bad they didn't find time to play him. He's not the perfect player, but he's still a guy I'll root for in the NBA. Sadly, it's just going to have to be watching him play in something other than a Jazz jersey.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.

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Blah . . .

This is up. Shorter than it needs to be — yet — still to many more words than a guy who’ll end up playing only 34 games for our beloved Jazz franchise probably deserves. Sorry for the lack of links, or too many links, or excessive use of BOLD — that’s how I do it on my blog.

This took too much time, will put up the Fes on tomorrow.

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 4, 2009 5:28 PM MDT reply actions

I dunno, man

I really want to be on Mo Nuts’ side, I do. But he’s NEVER shown me he can hit the open 3-pointer or Harpring-style free-throw line curl jumper. Maybe I haven’t watched enough D-League, and maybe the Jazz haven’t given him his fair shake in playing time. But still… if you’re a shooter, you need to make it when you shoot an open shot. And to my knowledge, in his limited time, Mo Nuts hasn’t done that.

Uh, do you think you could draw me like a ninja?

by Shums on May 4, 2009 10:03 PM MDT reply actions

One thing that I've noticed . . .

is that he’s not completely proficient in just running off a screen and shooting in one motion. Probably because he never had to ‘learn’ this shot in college when he had the ball in his hands all the time. It’s something he can work on with Horny (if he was coming back), because right now the timing is a bit off, he needs a little longer to gather the ball. (maybe his hands aren’t as big as reggie miller?)

So right now the catch and shoot for him seems to be the catch-gather-and-shoot — which he can hit. But he has to be able to make the catch and shoot at this level. The catch-gather-and-shoot allows the defender to catch up / disrupt the shot. This probably helps to explain his off the ball success in the NBA-DL (52% fg) and his poorer shooting in the NBA (40+%).

I don’t think that he can be a well-rounded starter. But I do think that he’s a guy who can score, get to the line, stretch the defense and be asked to help out on the boards. He also has good shot blocking instincts for a guard (if not the athleticism to always get them). I feel like he could be a Korver type of player in a few seasons, but a guy who has a less pure stroke, but instead can drive a bit more. Most likely for another team.

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 5, 2009 6:54 AM MDT up reply actions

well said

unfortunately, what the Jazz need in their offense is precisely that, a catch-and-shooter who pops right off a screen and fires it. If Mo Nuts can’t do that, he isn’t going to fit here, which is too bad, but it could be best for all concerned if he tries to make it work elsewhere.

Uh, do you think you could draw me like a ninja?

by Shums on May 5, 2009 4:43 PM MDT up reply actions

exactly

MO’s skill set is more apropriate for a 2nd/3rd option, but his ability on this level is that of a 4th/5th option. he’ll get better as he learns more, but it’s probably not going to be in utah.

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 6, 2009 11:18 AM MDT up reply actions

spot on

guys like Reggie Miller and Richard Hamilton shoot.

He’s Hamilton’s doppleganger. I wonder if he had more range if he’d be a hotter commodity. He thrives on the 17-footers. And he does get to the line pretty well. But he really is a ball vacuum. Until Sloan retires, you won’t see Almond getting a lot of PT.

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on May 4, 2009 10:45 PM MDT reply actions

I'm not a huge fan of how much of a ball hog he plays like (is this the real morris though?)

He worked on that in the NBA-DL which was nice to see — he was passing more, but he’d pass to an open guy who would then miss a shot. Psychologically this may influence him to ‘do it all himself’ as he has confidence in only himself. in the NBA it was much different, he would only get the ball in scoring position. For example the ball would be kicked out to him all alone for a three on the weakside after a PnR between Deron and a PF/C on the strong side caused the defense to collaspe in. Passing in that situation would be the wrong thing to do.

He had one really complete game this past season (against Kevin Martin when Brewer and CJ couldn’t guard him) that leads me to believe that he can still improve. Just because he’s a 4 year college grad doesn’t make him a finished product. He has a lot to learn still.

I think that he could actually get some burn on a team like Detroit that’s not ashamed to admit that they are transitioning from a playoff team into a developing young talent type of team. He’s surely not going to get any playing time here.

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 5, 2009 6:49 AM MDT up reply actions

His problem is his defense.

I think Morris is a great kid, but he doesn’t have the intensity the league requires. When you watch him defend he was consistently late getting to his man and seemed a step slower than everyone. He hasn’t had a lot of minutes, but look at a guy like Ronnie Price. He doesn’t get many minutes and he comes in and plays his ass off, making hustle plays. Morris often just kind stands around waiting for something to happen.

by colyou on May 5, 2009 10:31 AM MDT reply actions

I agree.

He seems to be aware of his problems on defense and gives his man a little extra space to make a pronounced move, which allows Mo to commit to a direction and ‘catch up’. He def. seems to be reactionary, and not the guy forcing the action. Making things worse is that he doesn’t have the natural quickness of CJ, or the speed and wingspan (and jumping) of Ronnie Brewer. He’s harder to recover if you don’t have these physical gifts.

I wonder how is it that Sasha V can get playing time, because he does not appear to be fast, quick, have long arms or jumps high. I guess there’s a learned aspect towards playing defense that some guys can develop if they practice it. No one is going to suggest that Almond is going to be lockdown in his career . . . especially not I. If there is one huge flaw in his game it’s Morris’ ability to defend more athletically talented guys. (Of which there appear to be a lot) This is something for him to work on if he wishes to be anything more than a bench player in the NBA.

by AllThatJazzBasketball on May 5, 2009 12:14 PM MDT up reply actions

Finally

Someone has spoken out for Morris Almond. I was so excited for this guy when we drafted him. He was unlike most guys that the Jazz had…a potential big time scoring threat. I dont agree with any negative judgment against him….he has not had any time to prove himself. I wish so bad that he could have had CJ’s minutes and games this season. I would have loved for him to become a fixture in the Jazz lineup. With Boozer probably leaving we will need some of the scoring punch to come from somewhere.

Also….what about the guys we drafted…Tomic and the other guy? Are they going to play for the Jazz next season….what is the deal with them?

Pain is Temporary ~ Pride is Forever!!

by Matt_Grbac on May 5, 2009 1:21 PM MDT reply actions