Utah Jazz look much improved in summer league win over Atlanta Hawks

In their first Las Vegas Summer League game, the Utah Jazz looked like a much-improved team from their 0-3 games on Salt Lake City and beat the Atlanta Hawks, 72-66

It’s been fun to watch Jared Butler’s improvement this offseason with his playmaking. Butler’s first game in SLC was a little underwhelming in terms of shooting, but his playmaking this summer has been solid. Tonight, Butler was poised and confident setting up his teammates in transition or in the half court and ended the night with 15 points and 7 assists. If he can continue his growth, it’s a great sign for his future with the team.

The Jazz started Leandro Bolmaro next to Butler and he showed a nice skillset, along with providing length and athleticism. Bolmaro, who came to the Jazz in the Minnesota trade, showed why he’s an intriguing prospect. He’s 6’6” and plays an unselfish brand of basketball. Tonight he had 5 assists as he set his teammates up. The issue for Bolmaro will be if he can become an efficient scorer/shooter. For the game, he was 2/13 from the field and will need need to improve offensively if he wants to earn more minutes. Watching Bolmaro, you can see a tiny flash of what the Jazz are looking for in the future. Utah needs length, size, and athleticism on the perimeter and Bolmaro provides all of that.

Should we talk about Bruno? Yes, let’s talk about Bruno. Caboclo had 11 points, 8 assists, and was a perfect 5/5 from the field. Caboclo has looked like an NBA rotation big in every game with the Jazz. With the upcoming season not far away, and the Jazz still reshaping their roster, they’d be smart to hold onto Caboclo. He should, at the very least be invited to training camp. With Rudy Gobert gone, the Jazz have a major hole at the center spot and Caboclo looks like a perfect, mobile, switchable big that could be a nice backup center option. And if the Jazz go into a full rebuild, it’s not a bad idea to take a chance on guys like this that could be options for the team years into the future. Whatever happens with Caboclo, it’s been one of the fun stories of this summer league.