By Matt Payne, utahjazz.com
A fun week full of actual basketball games has come and gone, and it couldn’t have turned out much better for the Jazz. Here are five things we learned from the Utah Jazz Summer League.
1. Danté Exum and Rodney Hood are really good.
They only played in one and two games, respectively, but Exum and Hood were Utah’s two main standouts of the week.
In Monday’s blowout win over the Boston Celtics, Exum won the head-to-head battle with his draft nemesis Marcus Smart (Exum was taken at No. 5, while Smart went at No. 6 in the 2014 NBA Draft). Smart scored more points (26), but Exum finished with 20 points, five rebounds, five assists and, most importantly, a +31 rating in 29 minutes. He was aggressive, and he made the whole team better. His late-game ankle injury was perhaps the only negative thing to happen this week—if only because it robbed fans of a chance to see him play.
Hood came alive late in both Monday and Tuesday’s games, scoring 23 and 18 points as the team’s go-to scorer. He sat out Thursday’s game. After being named the Western Conference Rookie of the Month for April, Hood is, by all accounts, one of the team’s hardest workers as he continues to refine his already-skilled offensive game.
2. Utah’s point guard competition is a huge storyline to keep an eye on.
Exum, Trey Burke, Raul Neto and Bryce Cotton all have a legitimate claim to a roster spot, but it’s unlikely the Jazz will carry that many point guards.
Exum looks like a whole new player, while Cotton is a fan favorite who hit two clutch jumpers in overtime and finished with 20 points as he led the team to a win on Thursday. Burke was the 2012-13 NCAA Player of the Year, and the Jazz traded two draft picks to move up and select him. Neto signed a new contract on Thursday that all but assures him a roster spot.
Something has to give.
3. Trey Lyles looked really good (all things considered).
After being with the team for only two days, Trey Lyles made his Jazz debut with 5:57 left in the first quarter Thursday night.
Though things were far from perfect (as should be expected under the circumstances), Lyles—the No. 12 overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft—more than passed the eye test. He moves well. He handles the ball well. He has a nice-looking jumper. He drew two fouls on pump fakes. He drove past his defender to the hoop for two buckets (though one was taken away by a phantom traveling call). He got the Jazz rolling in overtime with a nice bounce pass to Jack Cooley for an uncontested dunk.
Overall, Lyles went 3-for-9 from the field and 4-for-6 from the line for 10 points. He added one rebound, one assist and one steal in 21 minutes.
“The first little bit I was out there I was nervous. I had the first-game nerves,” Lyles said. “After I got settled in I was fine. I felt very comfortable and felt like I had some freedom, so it was good.”
It’ll be fun to see him develop throughout the Las Vegas Summer League, training camp and eventually his rookie season.
4. Jack Cooley is making his presence felt as he competes for a roster spot.
The legend of Jack Cooley continues to grow. The 6-foot-9, 246-pound bruiser adds a menacing physical presence to the lineup, and he also had a great week of basketball. Cooley posted a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds) on Monday, and then he helped seal Thursday’s victory by hitting two clutch free throws to tie the game late in regulation, forcing turnovers by No. 3 overall pick Jahlil Okafor on two consecutive possessions, and grabbing three straight rebounds in overtime to maintain Utah’s momentum.
(He also committed 13 fouls in 57 total minutes over three games.)
5. The Jazz really are a team.
They didn’t have to be there, but Rudy Gobert, Alec Burks, Trevor Booker, Elijah Millsap, Joe Ingles and Raul Neto all came out to support the summer league team. They sat behind the bench and were a very visible part of the Utah Jazz Summer League experience.
“It was fun. I was joking with the guys—Book, Alec and Rudy—at halftime,” Hood said after Monday’s game. “We’ve got a close-knit group. It’s going to be fun this year. We’ve got a year under our belt, and we’re going to continue to improve on what we did after the All-Star break.”
Utah’s core isn’t just young, talented and rapidly improving—the players genuinely like each other. And that sense of support and brotherhood is a big deal.
The Jazz try to continue their solid play as they move to the Las Vegas Summer League. Their first game is Saturday against the Miami Heat at 8:30 p.m. MT.