Tyrone Corbin Surprised At The Minutes Of Enes Kanter And Alec Burks

Ty Corbin has been in a tough spot ever since the Jazz acquired Derrick Favors and drafted Enes Kanter. He gets a lot of flak from the fans - and others - for not playing the youngsters more. Certainly he has a large say in who gets those minutes though. For myself, I place most of the blame on the front office for making moves that really tie Corbin's hands. What's he supposed to do, not play Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap?

When the team goes out and signs or trades for veteran wings, he's going to play them as well. Only injuries last season and this season have allowed for better lineups. The Jazz currently have four of the ten worst four-main lineups in the league. This has been the case the past three seasons (this one inclusive). Look at these units from last season. Atrocious.

Still, I try to lay off the blame for Ty. There should have been a move made to free up minutes in the front court which he has little control over. However, I have no problem blaming him for the following comments that he made to Bill Oram of the Salt Lake Tribune:

Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin expressed surprise before the Jazz defeated Oklahoma City on Tuesday that neither second-year players Enes Kanter or Alec Burks were selected for the Rising Stars game Friday night.

"I thought they played enough minutes and well enough," Corbin said, "to be considered. I don't know if they were considered high or low or where those things fell, but I thought they should have been considered for it."

What?

Well, he's half right. The have certainly played well enough to be considered and selected for the Rising Stars game. However, he can't really think that they've played enough minutes to get noticed or considered. Here's roster of the players in the Rising Star game and the number of minutes per game they're averaging this season:

Harrison Barnes - 25.8
Bradley Beal - 31.0
Anthony Davis - 27.8
Andre Drummond - 19.7
Kenneth Faried - 29.4
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist - 25.9
Kyrie Irving - 35.3
Brandon Knight - 31.5
Kawhi Leonard - 29.3
Damian Lillard - 38.4
Chandler Parsons - 36.0
Alexy Shved - 27.8
Klay Thompson - 35.1
Tristan Thompson - 31.5
Nikola Vucevic - 32.5
Dion Waiters - 29.5
Kemba Walker - 34.5
Tyler Zeller - 27.6

The lowest is rookie Andre Drummond. with almost 20 minutes a game. Most of the players in this game are on teams that are in a different situation than the Jazz in that they're what you would consider a rebuilding team. However, you have guys like Barnes, Faried, Leonard, Parsons, and Klay Thompson that are making significant contributions and minutes to playoff team with veterans. Golden State even got rid of Monta Ellis to make room for Thompson.

The selections for the game were made on January 30. Here's what the two Jazz sophomores were averaging in minutes per game up until that point:

Enes Kanter - 14.3

Alec Burks - 13.1 (Though it is up to 16.1 now with his February playing time).

I don't what question preceded his response, or if he felt backed into a corner a little bit, but he has to know that they're getting nowhere near the number of minutes that are normally required to be recognized and selected for the game. That's especially true when he's told both of them multiple times to hang in there and keep working hard in reference to their sparse minutes.