Utah Jazz fall to the Los Angeles Clippers in Las Vegas Summer League

The Utah Jazz Las Vegas Summer League win streak came to an end today against the Los Angeles Clippers, 94-90.

For the Jazz it has been a successful summer league where they’ve seen some standouts among their young players. We’ve talked about it multiple times but Trent Forrest has been fantastic for the Jazz. When he’s been on the floor, good things have happened. Whether it’s gliding to the rim with a smooth floater or finding open teammates, Forrest has been very, very good. His averages in Las Vegas are 15.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists in 28 minutes per game. He has been as good a performer as the Jazz could hope for and they’ve got him on a two-way contract. The future looks very good for Trent Forrest and the Jazz likely want to keep him on the team as long as possible.

Oh, he also threw down this ferocious dunk tonight.

Udoka Azubuike looked solid again tonight. His combination of size and athleticism is apparent every time he steps on the floor. His biggest criticism? What he does at the free throw line. Tonight he went 6/11. He looks to have created somewhat of a stroke and it looks better than what he’s done in the past. If he can continue to work on it, Dok has the talent to be a rotation big in the NBA for a long time. It looks like he may already have done that. Dok has had an impressive summer league and should pressure Whiteside for minutes this upcoming season. He finishes everything around the rim and shows the innate ability to protect the rim to help on both ends. For 10-15 minutes a night he could be a real help for the Jazz come the regular season.

We’ve now had two really good games in a row for Elijah Hughes. At the end of this game when things looked out of hand, Hughes was hitting shots to keep the Jazz in it. Hughes’ jumpshot looks great and he is making it at a nice level. At Las Vegas Summer League he’s now shooting 46% from three. He’s also showing the signs of defense that he was asked to do. Hughes is probably not ever going to be a lock down defender but you can see the signs of improvement with him taking charges and getting deflections and steals. Hughes absolutely should have gotten minutes last year instead of Matt Thomas who isn’t on the team any more. At worst Hughes is a player that can come in and shoot the ball with size.

The last player that deserves mention is Jarrell Brantley. Brantley had a very Brantley game. He showed some flashes with his length blocking a shot and bothering shooters. He handled the ball and hit some threes. He also had 4 turnovers and missed some easy ones at the rim. For the game he shot 4/14. Brantley is a player I really root for. The physical profile is there, along with an interesting skill set. But I don’t know how long it will take for those things to come together and what that will even look like if it does come together. Brantly plays so wild at times and you just hope he can put it all together at some point. Sometimes I wonder if I love the idea of Jarrell Brantley more than what I’m actually seeing.