Utah Jazz Player of the Week 14

The Utah Jazz played half of their season long six game homestand this past week. It didn't start off strong, with the Jazz dropping the first game at home to the Detroit Pistons 95-92 (Recap). But they put it together to drub the Charlotte Hornets 102-73 (Recap), and handle the pesky Minnesota Timberwolves 103-90 (Recap). There was no secret to how the Jazz seemed to turn it on like this. They just got healthier with the return of Derrick Favors. In fact, this is the first time that the "Big Three" all played in the same week since the first game of Week 6 (Game 16, GSW at UTA). Gordon Hayward had to do less this week with Derrick reclaiming a lot of paint scoring. And he and Rudy Gobert formed a specific and effective challenge for the opponents. But it really wasn't just three guys doing damage all week long. Utah really depended on second year shooting guard Rodney Hood at times, and he really torched the nets. But was he good enough to be the Player of the Week? (Winners receive a few expired coupons to Wendy's and a deep tissue massage from the SLC Dunk staff writer of your pick.)

Okay, this wasn't the best week in the world for a number of our players (Trey Burke, Raul Neto, Trey Lyles, Jeff Withey), and two guys are still out (Dante Exum and Alec Burks), but when your most talented guys are actually on the floor things tend to go right for your club. The Jazz were essentially carried by the four regular starters, with a surprising amount of help off the bench from Trevor Booker.

• Rudy Gobert (3 games, 32.3 mpg, 30.3 PRASB) -- Rudy averaged 12.3 ppg, 13.7 rpg, 2.0 bpg, 1.3 apg, and 1.0 spg. He also shot 65.2 FG% and got to the foul line 4.0 times a game. He's making the defense pay when he's out there on the court, and he's a terror in defense himself. It's very hard not to just elect him as player of the week.
• Rodney Hood (3 games, 34.0 mpg, 30.0 PRASB) -- Rodney, dag yo, Rodney averaged 23.0 ppg this week. And he did it by shooting 50 / 50 / 90. That's not rounding up. He went 24/48 from the field, 12/24 from downtown, and 9/10 from the stripe. I honestly have probably never, ever seen such great shooting in a Jazz uniform in my life. We know he's streaky, but when the good times are good it's hard not to fall for Rodney. (He's that unreliable guy your mother's warned you about, ladies.) Rodney also added 3.3 apg, 2.3 rpg, and 1.3 spg. He also finished with a +/- of +16 for the week, higher than Rudy's +2, if that means anything.
• Gordon Hayward (3 games, 34.7 mpg, 29.3 PRASB) -- In some crazy world averaging 18.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 4.0 apg, 0.7 spg, and making all of your free throws in a whole week puts you in third place on your team. That's just the world Gordon is living in right now when his homies are (almost all) healthy. Life is good for Gordon, in that case.
  
• Derrick Favors (3 games, 25.1 mpg, 23.0 PRASB) -- Derrick didn't play much to start the week, but ended up with his first start in weeks against the T-Wolves. This week in limited minutes he still brought it, finished with 15.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.3 spg, and 0.3 bpg. His inside presence was really missed, and he shot 60.6 FG% this week. He's not at 100% yet, but when he is . . . watch out. In his limited minutes he led the team in +/- this week with an insane +44.
  
• Trevor Booker (3 games, 18.9 mpg, 18.0 PRASB) -- Trevor was exceptionally efficient this week. He averaged 7.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.7 spg, and 1.7 bpg while shooting 64.7 FG%. He wasn't perfect. he turned the ball over a little too much, and still missed a layup here or there, but he had a week that helps take the edge off those other Trevor Booker weeks.
  
• Joe Ingles (3 games, 20.4 mpg, 12.3 PRASB) -- Joe had to play a lot of point guard during that game Raul had to sit out, so he got a little more burn than usual. As any vet will do, he made the most of it. This week he averaged 3.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.7 apg, and 1.0 spb. He also drilled one three a game and shot 37.5% from outside. He was second on the team in +/- this week with +36 . . . it was great to see him out there on the court directing people. He helps the team play steadier when other teams make runs.
  
• Trey Burke (3 games, 20.1 mpg, 11.7 PRASB) -- Trey had one of his worst shooting weeks of the season this past week. He shot 27.6% from the field, but still managed to hit 35.0% from downtown. And he made 2.3 threes a game, second best on the team. He finished the week with 7.7 ppg, 2.7 apg, 0.7 rpg, and 0.7 spg. He wasn't amazing at the thing he's supposed to be best at (scoring), but he did bring an 8:1 assist to turn over ratio for the second straight week. That's really good. He was third best on the team in +/- this week to with +30. So even in his worst week of the season he was still doing positive things out there.
• Chris Johnson (3 games, 16.2 mpg, 9.3 PRASB) -- Christapher was the 8th best player on the team this week. That's how you know it wasn't a great week for many of the rotation players. Chris bounced back from the poor shooting in Week 13 to finish this week with a 50 / 40 / 75. That's excellent, it just looks a lot less than Hood's 50 / 50 / 90. Chris also corralled 2.7 rpg, dished it off 1.3 times a game, and swiped 1.0 spg.
  
• Raul Neto (3 games, 17.3 mpg, 8.3 PRASB) -- Raul also shot poorly. He only shot 23.1 FG% this week, and an even worse 16.7% from deep. He did finish the week with 3.0 ppg, 2.7 apg, and a 2.67 to 1.00 assist to turn over ratio. His stats are worse than Trey Burke's, and yes, he finished -12 in +/- this week (worst on the team), but this is only one week. Wolfie will bounce back.
• Erick Green (1 game, 3.8 mpg, 5.0 PRASB) -- Okay, so the guy on the 10-Day contract who played in one game is the 10th best player on the team this week? He did shoot 100% from the field, score 4 points and dish off an assist. Props man.
• Trey Lyles (3 games, 13.2 mpg, 3.0 PRASB) -- Maybe all of our rookies are hitting the rookie wall? Lyles' minutes went from 16.47 to 18.83 to 4.30. A big part of that is Favors coming back, another big part is Booker playing out of his mind this last week. But another part of that is, well, Trey shot 9.09 FG% this week, went 0% from deep, and didn't even hit the glass. He didn't get a ton of playing time (39.60 total minutes), but he was not killing it when he was out there. He was second worst, ahead of Raul, in +/- this week, clocking in with a -8.
• Jeff Withey (3 games, 5.5 mpg, 3.0 PRASB) -- Jeff, well, yikes. Even fewer playing time than Lyles -- but less production. o his credit, Withey was +8 overall this week, and still managed to shoot 66.7 FG%. He didn't do much else.
• Tibor Pleiss (1 game, 3.2 mpg, 0.0 PRASB) -- Tibor played in one game, did nothing, then got sent to the D League. Ouch.
• J.J. O'Brien (0 games, 0.0 mpg, 0.0 PRASB) -- He was a DNP-CD for one game, then his 10-Day Contract expired, and he was replaced by Green.

You have a few legit options for player of the week. It's really close to call. You have the defensive bigman with the double double and blocks. You have the guy who just couldn't miss and averaged 23 ppg. And you have Mr. Everything, who didn't have to do it all for once.

Who do you have?

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