The Downbeat #981 - Hindsight and Enes Kanter Are 20/20 Edition

It would be silly and irresponsible to not start this downbeat off by mentioning the dominating performance Enes Kanter put on my Hometown Charlotte Bobcats. You have certainly heard that he put up 23 points and 22 rebounds while shooting 10-12 from the field. For you non math majors that is 83% shooting. In the post game video, Yuccaman mentioned that this was a historical performance in Jazz history and it certainly was. I am going to try to put Enes' performance in some historical perspective.

Karl Malone had 12 games where he went for 20 or more points and rebounds, Donyell Marshall did it twice in a Jazz uniform, Carlos Boozer did it 4 times and Al Jefferson once. But none of those guys shot above 80% while doing it. Boozer shot 7 of 10 from the field while going for 21 and 20 against the Suns. In the last 27 years, 18 different players have grabbed more than 20 rebounds, scored 20 or more points and shot 80% or better from the field 23 total times. In 1988 Charles Barkley scored 41 points, grabbed 22 rebounds and went 13-16 from the floor. In 1999, Dikembe Mutombo went for 27 and 29 on 11-11 shooting, the only guy in the last 27 years to go for 20 and 20 while shooting perfectly from the floor. Two incredible performances right there.

Of those now 24 performances, 6 players, besides Kanter, are currently playing in the NBA. Can you guess who they are? Hint: two of them are teammates currently.

It was also a record night for Randy Foye as he set the all time Jazzman 3 point makes in a season at 130 and counting. If he keeps up this current pace, Foye will finish the season with about 184 makes which would obviously be far and away the best 3 point shooting performance by a Jazzman. He's also shooting a blistering 40% from 3 point land this season. Volume and accuracy. Yes, please.

Via Basketball-Reference.com

Just for more useless bar trivia stuff, an NBA player has made over 200 3 pointers in a season 31 times since 1994. Ray Allen has the most makes in a season with 269 (3.44 makes a game!) and Glen Rice was the most accurate going 207-440 (47%!) in 1996-97.

So what Jazz record is the next to be broken? Here are my top 6 candidates:

A) Most rebounds in a single game: Truck Robinson holds the single Jazz record with 27. Enes Kanter will break that in the next 18 months.

B) Most rebounds in a season: Now if it's a all-time Jazz record, it probably won't be broken ever. Truck Robinson grabbed 1288 boards in a season (15.7 rpg!) for the New Orleans Jazz. But the Utah Jazz record of 986 (12.0 rpg) held by Karl Malone will be in serious jeopardy one day soon from Enes Kanter.

C) Most Blocks in a single game: Currently held by Mark Eaton with 14 blocks in one game. Derrick Favors will break this record sometime in the next few seasons. It will also be against the Bobcats.

D) Gordon Hayward will break the all time Utah Jazz record by recording two triple doubles in one season. No Utah Jazzman has ever done it more than once in a season.

E) Most points scored in a single game: Karl Malone holds the single record Utah Jazz record with 61 points in a game. You know the game very well, against the Bucks. Alec Burks will threaten to break this record in the upcoming seasons by going off one night...against the Bobcats.

F) Most assists in a single game: currently held by John Stockton at 28, this record will likely be broken in the next few seasons by Myck Kabongo.

Speaking of Kabongo...

I've started watching some game film of the top point guard prospects and this month I should be able to share some amateur scouting reports with you. I live in the heart of college basketball and Coach K and I like to study game film together. Coach K, is of course the legendary icon, Coach Keller at the local Durham high school. I am fairly certain that the Jazz will draft a point guard this upcoming June. I'm also fairly certain that the point guard will be one of these guys:

Marcus Smart

Michael Carter-Williams

CJ McCollum

Trey Burke

Archie Goodwin

Myck Kabongo

Isaiah Canaan

You are going to get tons of coverage on these point guards the next couple months, but from what I have seen of these guys, Myck Kabongo and Trey Burke are by far my favorites for the Jazz right now, but that could change. I'm also the same guy who wanted the Jazz to draft Bismack Biyombo with the 3rd pick two years ago and I couldn't have been much further off. Luckily, for me, that is the only time I have ever been wrong about the Jazz.

For the rest of the season, I'll be able to say, "big stretch of games coming up for the Jazz" and it'll be true. We have the Bucks tonight, who are 3-1 since making the biggest trade deadline deal. The Jazz are obviously 1-3 since the trade deadline. But the Jazz need to avoid long stretches of poor performances or losses in order to fend off the nasty Lakers. I'm not going to put a number of "must wins" on this upcoming trip, but 2-2 would be nice. Also, I'm predicting that the Jazz will get one of Paul Millsap or Al Jefferson back tonight.