It's only halfway past July, and some of our players are in full-on vacation mode, either flying back to France -- or being silly on twitter trying to organize play dates. Some of our coaches are spending time working on their legal defense. And even the Jazz blogs are slowing down right now. Hopefully the busiest people in the rooms are still the Utah Jazz front office.
Why do I say this? Well, there's a gaping hole at point guard still -- and overall, looking at the roster we have set up for 2013-2014 (an early look, mind you) we are pretty inexperienced.
Take a look for yourself:
(Data: All regular season and playoff games and minutes combined)
Utah Jazz 2013-2014 Point Guards | |||||||||
Player | Age | Exp | NBA Games | NBA Mins | Min / Game | Min / Seas | |||
1 | John Lucas III | 30.6 | 5 | 181 | 2,155 | 11.9 | 431.0 | ||
2 | Trey Bukre | 20.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||
Class Totals | 5 | 181 | 2,155 | 11.9 | 431.0 | ||||
Utah Jazz 2013-2014 Shooting Guards and Small Forwards | |||||||||
Player | Age | Exp | NBA Games | NBA Mins | Min / Game | Min / Seas | |||
3 | Richard Jefferson | 33.1 | 12 | 953 | 30,960 | 32.5 | 2,580.0 | ||
4 | Marvin Williams | 27.0 | 8 | 602 | 17,551 | 29.2 | 2,193.9 | ||
5 | Brandon Rush | 28.0 | 5 | 296 | 7,845 | 26.5 | 1,569.0 | ||
6 | Gordon Hayward | 23.3 | 3 | 214 | 5,460 | 25.5 | 1,820.0 | ||
7 | Alec Burks | 22.0 | 2 | 127 | 2,139 | 16.8 | 1,069.5 | ||
Class Totals | 30 | 2,192 | 63,955 | 29.2 | 2,131.8 | ||||
Utah Jazz 2013-2014 Power Forwards and Centers | |||||||||
Player | Age | Exp | NBA Games | NBA Mins | Min / Game | Min / Seas | |||
8 | Andris Biedrins | 27.3 | 9 | 524 | 11,385 | 21.7 | 1,265.0 | ||
9 | Derrick Favors | 22.0 | 3 | 224 | 4,814 | 21.5 | 1,604.7 | ||
10 | Enes Kanter | 21.1 | 2 | 140 | 1,995 | 14.3 | 997.5 | ||
11 | Jeremy Evans | 25.7 | 3 | 117 | 902 | 7.7 | 300.7 | ||
12 | Rudy Gobert | 21.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||
Class Totals | 17 | 1,005 | 19,096 | 19.0 | 1,123.3 |
The point guard situation does not give me confidence at all so far, I'm glad to announce that we're probably not done with our roster just yet because back in the 12 man roster days our doctrine (even when we had John Stockton and Rickey Green -- two great points) was to carry 3 point guards. We have two right now, even if you consider Burks to play back up PG a lot this year, we still need a legit, full-time back up point guard. Hopefully one who plays more than 11 minutes a game.
On the wing we have the majority of our experience, and it's tied between two guys who look to start the season on the bench this year. Only God knows what roles they will have on the team this season, but as a class, the wins average at least 2k minutes a season -- though it is really bumped up a lot by Richard (Dick?) and Marvin (Marv).
We feel like the most talent we have is inside, which may be true. What we do not have is much experience here either. At least this group if 5 people strong (stronger still if you move Marvin to back up PF), which is a lot stronger than two guys (like we have at PG). That said, 11.4 / 19.1 (or 59.6%) of our bigman minutes rest in the insecure mind and body of Biedrins. Yikes!
I find it fitting that the first season preview starts with just how small the sample sizes are for some of these guys. Keep that in mind when the season goes on and you see players making mistakes. It's bound to happen. Especially when only two guys on the entire team ever got up to averaging 2k mins a season -- one of them a former All-Star and NBA Finalist, the other was a long-time starter on a playoff team.
Oh well. I hope we still sign Jamaal Tinsley *and* Jerel McNeal. We're going to need all the help we can get. (Psst, Raul Neto? You should start a kickstarter. We'll all pitch in!)