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The starting point guard for the Utah Jazz this year is Raul Neto. That's because the normative starter Dante Exum is injured for the 2015-2016 season, and the brain-trust wants to keep Trey Burke was a bench scoring weapon. Neto is the third starting point guard rookie in three years for the Jazz as Exum started in '14-15 and Burke started in '13-14. Both of those other guards were much greener and both got hurt by the rookie wall. Neto, who has been playing professional ball in South America and Europe for years before entering the NBA, seems to be getting stronger and stronger as the season goes on.
In fact, if you look at his month-by-month spits he's playing more, and playing better. Over the last few months we've seen him push his career high scoring every few weeks. And for the season he's now shooting over 40% from deep. In a season with so many key injuries (especially to guards) it's nice to see Neto come in ready to contribute. He wowed us all on defense, especially in preseason when he predated on the Lakers for four strips in a half. But his control, confidence, and pure point guard skills make him a sight for sore eyes.
Behold:
| Month | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PRASB | /min | ORTG | DRTG | NET | +/- | |||||
| 1 | OCT | 22.33 | 5.00 | 1.00 | 2.67 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 9.67 | 0.43 | 91 | 94 | -3 | 32.6 | ||||
| 2 | NOV | 16.77 | 4.08 | 1.31 | 2.46 | 1.15 | 0.08 | 9.08 | 0.54 | 88 | 106 | -18 | -3.5 | ||||
| 3 | DEC | 17.14 | 6.50 | 1.86 | 1.64 | 0.79 | 0.07 | 10.86 | 0.63 | 100 | 110 | -10 | -0.4 | ||||
| 4 | JAN | 22.53 | 6.33 | 1.20 | 2.93 | 0.60 | 0.00 | 11.07 | 0.49 | 98 | 110 | -12 | -1.2 | ||||
| 5 | FEB | 28.88 | 9.88 | 2.13 | 3.38 | 1.00 | 0.00 | 16.38 | 0.57 | 107 | 104 | 3 | 12.6 |
I don't know what the future holds, but right now Neto is really hot right now. Neto. (Yes, Zoolander reference.)
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