Utah Jazz Player of the Week March 29 - April 5

Over the last seven day (or as some call it, a 'week') the Utah Jazz went 3-1, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, and Sacramento Kings; while dropping a game to the Phoenix Suns. It was four straight games where the Jazz played non-playoff teams and as far as measuring sticks go I think our squad shows up as one of the better non-playoff teams, but not the cream of the crop. (The Refs saw to that) Overall I think the team started to turn the ball over more and more frequently, and everyone looks just a tad bit tired. The end of the season is only five games away. But before we get there we have to crown another player to win player of the week!

Essentially we know who are the best players on this team. Since the Enes Kanter / Steve Novak trade they've been the same dudes day in and day out (except for days they miss due to injury).

• Gordon Hayward (4 games): 15.3 ppg is down from his usual 20, and blame FG% on that, but he did go 16/17 from the FT line, which is amazing. Gordo also added 5 rpg, 3.5 apg, and 2.0 spg (thereabouts), which is the Gordon from last season. He's playing through a few bumps and bruises right now, but still is our most dangerous player -- even if Quin Snyder had to sit him out for a lot of the second half against the Kings.
• Derrick Favors (3 games): 14.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.7 bpg, while going 8/9 from the FT line is huge. Sure, the rebounding numbers are down (there's an obvious reason why), but his offense and defense is really coming together.
• Rudy Gobert (4 games): 13.3 ppg, 12.0 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.0 spg, 2.0 bpg, while shooting 69 FG%. He's dominating, staying out of foul trouble, and while his blocks are down they were still 2.0 a game last week.
• Trey Burke (2 games): The two games *only* is something that hurts him, but like the month to month deviations we used to get from Gordon in his first two years, Trey is also turning it up as the season goes on -- though many people fail to notice it. First of all last week he shot 45% / 40% / 100%, sample size was two games, but he averaged 15.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.5 apg (7:1 assist to turn over ratio), and 0.5 spg. These are the confident numbers we saw at the end of last season that made us believe in Trey. Hope he finishes the season strong.

Beyond these four guys we have a lot to like:

• Trevor Booker (4 games) finished the last week with 8.8 ppg, and 8.0 rpg, while adding 1.5 apg, 0.8 spg, and 1.3 bpg. Dude was all over the court last week.
• Rodney Hood (3 games) was the man in Sacramento getting the win a night after being robbed from winning in Phoenix. Last week he shot 56 FG%, which is pretty hard to do as a guard. He averaged 16.3 ppg, and not much else beyond 2.7 rpg, 1.3 apg, and 1.7 spg. Not bad for a rookie.
• Dante Exum continues to do Dante things, and he led the team this week with 5.3 apg (1.8 to 1.0 AST:TO ratio), his shooting is regressing to what we thought it would be like (sub .300 from deep), but he did get to the FT line ones this week! I expect more aggression from him next season.
• Joe Ingles (4 games) shot 10/15 from downtown, that's a tidy 67 3PT%, he didn't have much luck elsewhere on the court, but was deadly from outside.
• Elijah Millsap (4 games) is rebounding the ball 4.0 times a game off the bench, which equals what starting rookies Dante Exum (1.3) and Rodney Hood (2.7) total. That Millsap Gene is something else, all right.
• Jack Cooley (3 games) didn't have his best week, but is turning into an impact player because of physics, mainly F= MA. Dude is a force inside and gets offensive rebounds and to the line with ease.
• Bryce Cotton (4 games) is really fast, and shot pretty well for a guy who doesn't get to shoot much, 43 FG% / 67 3PT% / 75 FT%.
  
• Chris Johnson (4 games) has the tools to play defense, but sadly only shot 9 3PT% this week.
• Jeremy Evans (3 games) continues to confound. He's the best player we're not playing.
• Grant Jerrett was in the NBADL, and Alec Burks is still out for the rest of the season -- both did not play.

There's lot to choose from, but instead of giving it to our steady guys G-Time and Favs I think we have to award someone else this week.