Utah Jazz Player of the Week March 22-28

The Utah Jazz went 1-3 last week, dropping games at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, and the Denver Nuggets on the road -- and then came back and beat the Oklahoma City Thunder. It wasn't the perfect week, no week can claim as much when you drop a game to the worst team in your division, and conference. At home. In overtime. Yikes. Anyway, the team didn't have the best week. Part of that can be chalked up to injuries. Not everyone played played in every game . . . but of the guys who played, well . . .

Yeah. If there's something, overall, to be upset about I think it would be the shooting this last week. The team went 137-332 (41.27 FG%), 24/100 (24.00 3PT%), and 80/120 (66.67 FT%) in the last four games. Games are a little easier to win when you are making your shots.

As for the individuals, well, the main three guys of Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, and Rudy Gobert are doing their thing.

• Gordon averaged 20.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 4.0apg, 1.5 spg, and 1.5 bpg in the two games. But it was only in two games.
  
• Derrick had a very robust 17.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.7 bpg week.
  
• Rudy also did his thing, scoring a whopping 14.3 ppg, 14.0 rpg, 2.8 bpg, 1.3 apg, and 1.0 spg.

After that it is slim pickings. I wonder how this team would look if Dante Exum or Trey Burke were shooting better than they are this year. As it stands Dante's 3.3 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.3 apg, and 0.5 spg looks a lot worse than Trey's 16.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 4.3 apg, and 2.8 spg. But one guy is playing only 21.5 mpg, and the other 34.7 mpg. The other point guard, Bryce Cotton, was really good at not fouling.

The irregulars Rodney Hood, Elijah Millsap, Joe Ingles, Ian Clark, and Chris Johnson were all, for the most part, under-remarkable. Hood played in two games and was one of the few offensive bright spots. Eli plays a lot of defense, and his shot kinda returned from deep this week. Joe had to take more overt control and he's adept at having greater on-court responsibilities. Ian got into one last Jazz game before he was waived, and he made a three. Chris played some nice defense and had a really awesome stint in the OKC game. But they all aren't exactly player of the week candidates.

Trevor Booker continues to show up when we need him on offense, hustling, on defense, and in the locker room. But anyone on a team with Rudy and Derrick is playing for table scraps inside. That's the case with Trevor, and the rest of team "Too big to fail": Jack Cooley, Jeremy Evans, and Grant Jerrett. Grant is in and out of the Idaho. Jeremy is too good to actually play regularly. And Jack is big inside, but hasn't shown any of the stretch ability he was sent to Idaho to work on. The back up center spot appears to be the most replaceable piece on this team.

But looking towards the draft you really do have to go "best player available", even if it's another lotto point guard. Which is not the news any of us expected after going lotto PG two years in a row. But that's a discussion for another day.

Who was the player of the week?