Odin

I like how much more involved Mario has been so far. Last year, he seemed to become disengaged when things weren't going his way. This year, he continues to move and play hard on D, even if he is missing shots. Of course, I would really like it if those shots went in, but he often looks like one of our more engaged players on the court. (I think that says as much about him as it does about the rest of our team though *cough*Ibaka*cough*) Also, while handling the ball more, his turnover percentage is actually down by 4% from last year. While he still makes some iffy decisions, they are less common, and some of them have to do with still building up chemistry with his teammates, especially since he mostly plays with newer guys to the team.

We aren't playing tonight...

Bad last 4 minutes of the first quarter, good second quarter. Mario is doing exactly what I think we want him to. Playing within the offense, making the right moves, being active on both ends, and, most importantly, not hesitating. Not a world beater, but much better than the first couple of games.

Wow, looking good.

I think we need more time for the numbers to shake out. There is just a lot of noise in the numbers right now since one good or bad performance can have an undue amount of weight. On an interesting side note, Hezonja is currently having the biggest impact on opposing players shooting percentages, holding them to almost 15% below their average. Using these tracking #, it looks like the 3 pointer is what Gordon is struggling to defend the most, with players shooting about 8% above their averages. Pretty interesting, though possibly meaningless.

Why? Nothing against Gordon Hayward, but I think Gordon is on track to be at least as good as him. Also, don't the Jazz already have a glut of PF/C's? How does adding two more help them any, while taking their SF?

That is very true, but most of them are performing worse than they were last year. To me, that means there is a good chance this is a statistical anomaly and most will bounce back. The end result could be that "most players from the 2015 draft suck" or it could be a "these are all sophomores, who tend to struggle". Small sample size and all of that. Hopefully they improve and Mario improves, but right now, he is not an exception to his draft in performance.

I have seen a lot about how Mario sucks and how so many other sophomores have figured it all out. Looking into it, there are a bunch of other sophomores that are currently struggling. Other Sophomores that are currently struggling drafted in the first round Jahil Okafor PER 13.5 TS% 48.3% WS/48 .025 Box +/- -5.1 Willie Cauley-Stein PER 2.9 TS% 42.8% WS/48 -.054 Box +/- -5.8 Emmanuel Mudiay PER 7.2 TS% 41.3% WS/48 -.07 Box +/- -4.7 Stanley Johnson PER 1 TS% 17.8% WS/48 -.055 Box +/- -3.1 Justise Winslow PER 8.9 TS% 41% WS/48 -.002 Box +/- -.9 Trey Lyles PER 5.9 TS% 40.4% WS/48 -.049 Box +/- -5.4 Devin Booker PER 7 TS% 53.5% WS/48 -.068 Box +/- -6.8 Kelly Oubre PER 3.6 TS% 41% WS/48 -.108 Box +/- -5.7 Sam Dekker PER 10.3 TS% 52.3% WS/48 .031 Box +/- -5.9 Rondae Hollis-J PER .9 TS% 22.2% WS/48 -.106 Box +/- -4.6 Tyrus Hones PER 7.2 TS% 25% ws/48 .041 Box +/- -3.3 Jarell Martin PER 9.7 TS% 50.1 WS/48 .026 Box +/- -6.1 Jahil is in here because his advanced metrics are all a good deal below last year. So, of the 30 first round picks, 12 are playing poorly, 7 or so are playing well, and the rest either have barely played, are doing mediocre to below par (but better than the ones listed above), or haven't played at all.

I get what you are saying, but hopefully Hennigan is not making decisions as a fan. Also, being patient can have its benefits: See JJ Reddick, and there are plenty of other high picks that are struggling. Honestly, it doesn't hurt us much to wait. While he has been pretty bad these 5 games, he has not been a major reason for any of the losses. All that said, I will not be surprised if we look at moving on from Hezonja sooner rather than later if something doesn't change within the next few months. But I don't think he has a heck of a lot of trade value at the moment either.

Hezonja currently has a PER of 1.1. I know, small sample size, but even so, that is pretty sad.

We actually looked like a legit NBA team tonight.

Not looking too bad right now... hope it keeps up.

I don't think you can let Payton be the focal point of the team. I am not quite understanding your phrasing here though, because based purely on the first 4 games, he has been the most consistent/ best player in almost all of them, which usually isn't a sign that you need to move away from a guy. Really, it is too soon to say anything really about the place of any of our players. The team on a whole has been pretty bad, which seems to suggest that we should not be tied down to any of them, but making decisions either way about any players right now would be short-sighted, in my opinion. Some of the players that look really good so far are going to start coming down, other players who have been struggling will start to play better.

I think his current play is unsustainable, but I will not be surprised if this is his best year so far. (Small Sample Size warning) His PER is currently 7 higher than it was last year (16.2-23.1) (His PER while at Detroit was 18.3) His TS% is a ridiculous 68.6%, over 10% higher than any previous year, in fact he currently has the 6th best TS%. Don't be surprised if his production crashes back down closer to last years performance. I would not be surprised if he ends the year at slightly better than he played last year for Detroit.

My eyes......

Yeah, he really isn't proving the doubters wrong right now.

Payton has been our best player through 4 games. Didn't think I'd ever be saying that.

A flagrant is a flagrant. You don't call it differently just because of the size difference.

Worst win ever. But a bad win is better than a good loss.

Only good thing about this game: Elfrid Payton.

Teams only have so much patience.

Our bench is awful.

Wow, an almost 40 point quarter.

Yep. Not sure Biyombo should be in there with vuc or Ibaka honestly.

We were at least improving and adding talent for the future, not trading it away and bringing in sub-par players only to not win.