Unsung Player Day: Sundiata Gaines

by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 14, 2010 12:29 PM MDT

Don from With-Malice.com has been doing this every April 14th for a while now. This is the day that we embrace players of the unsung variety. This is an end of the bench guy who gives it his all whenever he gets the call. He's not a major cog in the rotation who comes off the bench (so no Paul Millsap), or a role player who does something well (Kyle Korver and outside shooting). To be truly unsung you have to be limited in both appreciation and sheer playing time (10 mpg or less). Please visit Don's site if you get time (beware, he's a LA Lakers fan) for more info on this joyous day.

This season there are a few candidates for this on our Jazz' roster. Kyrylo Fesenko (8.4 mpg); Sundiata Gaines (6.9 mpg); Othyus Jeffers (4.9 mpg) and Kosta Koufos (4.4 mpg) all fit the bill, when it comes down to playing time. A case could be made for all of them (Fes shoots 54 fg% and grabs nearly as many boards as points he scores; Jeffers always attacks the defense while not getting beat on the other end; The Koof is simply put, The Koof) -- but in the end the most unsung player for the Jazz this season has been Sundiata Gaines.

How many other undrafted rookies have game winners this season, on national TV, vs. the Best regular season team in the league? (While on a 10 day contract) That alone makes him deserve this. But lets not forget that in the wake of the Kevin O'Connor firesale (where the Jazz got rid of a starter in Ronnie Brewer; a key bench guy / safety blanket for Jerry Sloan in Matt Harpring; *and* our 1st round draft pick, and back-up point guard Eric Maynor) our guy Sundiata has really stepped up and been the 'true point' yin we need off the bench to the 'wild, uncontrolled' yang of Ronnie Price.

I could go on, but where's the fun in that. Comment below and add your favorite moments this season of all four of these players -- and celebrate with us, accross the internet, the unsung players of the NBA.

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Comments

it hurt a little bit to see ronnie brewer come running out of the huddle with a big grin on his face. solid guy.

by bigdog'sshades on Apr 14, 2010 3:36 PM MDT reply actions

I totally subscribe to the Yatta = Jughead theory (LOST reference warning!!!)

That shot sent the team into an alternate existence in which they win games, play hard, and cheer for each other. Watching this team hasn’t been the same since.

Greatest Fess memory (besides the the timeouts), is seeing him start when I went to the New Orleans game a month ago and pull off an Hakeem shake-n-shimmy move that ended up with a hook shot missing the basket by two feet. It was awesome.

I got the crap beat out of me in Provo one time

by Yucca Man on Apr 14, 2010 3:49 PM MDT reply actions

tell me more . . .

I don’t watch Lost — what/who/when/where is Jughead?

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by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 14, 2010 4:39 PM MDT up reply actions

At the end of LOST last season, a character set off a nuclear bomb

The bomb had the military nickname of “Jughead.”

Well, in the weeks before this season of LOST started (the last season), there was a lot of speculation about what the effects of that bomb would be. Yatta hit his shot during the height of this speculation.

Then a couple of weeks later, after watching the Jazz stunningly turn into a fun team to watch and cheer for, season 6 of LOST premiered, and it included an alternate reality in which dead characters were alive, miserable characters were happy, etc. The show hinted that the bomb’s explosion caused this alternate reality to exist (though there are still lots of hints that it was something else—I happen to think that understanding the relationship between the alt. timeline and the regular timeline will be the final reveal to end all the questions for LOST).

Anyway, right after LOST premiered someone (I think it was Shums) wrote in a game thread that Yatta’s shot was like the nuclear bomb. When it went in everything about the team changed instantly— just like everything in LOST seemed to have changed when the bomb went off.

I liked the analogy a lot, and though it never caught on as Jazz-fan koine, as far as I’m concerned Yatta’s secret nickname, known only by the special few, will always be Jughead.

I got the crap beat out of me in Provo one time

by Yucca Man on Apr 14, 2010 5:50 PM MDT up reply actions

this is awesome. it's better than regicide

(as his shot killed the King . . . LeBron)

Follow me on Twitter: AllThatAmar
Visit my blog: http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/
E-Mail me at: allthatjazzbasketball@hotmail.com
Really, I'm totally not lonely or anything . . .

by AllThatJazzBasketball on Apr 14, 2010 6:13 PM MDT up reply actions

This is a great post.

I love the description of Harpring as a security blanket for Sloan.

I suppose “unsung” means uncelebrated, and I think Gaines HAS been celebrated for his game winner, season turning point, etc. I’d say the UNSUNG bench guy is Jeffers, if we’re being literal. But if you’re looking at those four guys and wondering which one deserves to be celebrated, it’s Gaines.

Fes has been a disappointment this year, but I think Sloan is partially to blame for that. The dude needs to play, and so he needs to figure Sloan out to convince him to get some PT. But all we do is whine about how we have no inside presence on D, nobody do play the long bigs…but he’s RIGHT THERE ON THE BENCH!!! I’m tired of it.

I like the yin/yang comparison too. But this brings me to another point about the point: As much as I loved Ronnie Brewer, OMSW makes him an afterthought. But that’s true with Maynor. Maynor was a solid, dependable, talented pg who could have protected leads, built leads or started comebacks during the minutes that DW is out….in other words, he’s the anti-brev we needed so badly last year. I do not think the Maynor trade was wise. I would like to be celebrating Fes or Maynor right now, but Gaines will have to suffice.

Great post.

I'll make it coach.

by MTN on Apr 14, 2010 5:11 PM MDT reply actions