Jazz Loss Ends Championship Hopes At Summer League

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Utah Jazz suffered their first loss in summer league, falling to the Los Angeles Clippers 94-90 and dropping to 3-1 in Las Vegas.

Trent Forrest and Udoka Azubuike continued to be the team’s most productive players scoring 18 points apiece as their winning streak between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas was snapped at six games.

Elijah Hughes added 17 points for the Jazz on an efficient 6-12 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds in the loss.

Trent Forrest’s Floater

One of the misconceptions about Forrest is that he needs to develop a three-point shot if he wants to become an NBA player.

While it’s true that Forrest has been a poor three-point shooter throughout his career leading up to summer league, one of the reasons his shooting was such a drawback was because he didn’t show off his excellent floater often enough as a rookie.

It’s become the go-to weapon for the second-year guard at summer league and he’s used it to dominate the opposition.

we enjoy watching @TForrest_11 play basketball pic.twitter.com/i1n66Gpjii

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) August 15, 2021

Forrest’s offensive game is pretty straightforward, but if he can consistently hit the floater, there’s no reason it can’t be very effective. The guard operates almost solely off Azubuike screens, gets to the middle of the floor, and picks opposing defenses apart.

If they give Azubuike enough room to get to the paint, Forrest delivers him the ball where he scores almost 90 percent of the time. If the defense sags too far off Forrest, he gets to a comfortable spot near the rim and throws up his floater which he’s hit routinely in Las Vegas.

That development as a scoring threat has forced the defense to bring extra defenders in to slow the initial action, which opens up Forrest’s shooters on the perimeter.

“Once he gets in the lane he’s big enough to make passes out to the perimeter, and obviously when we have a lob threat like Dok rolling to the rim he can throw that pass,” Jazz coach Bryan Bailey said. “It’s almost like his floater and his pass is in between, you don’t know which one’s coming. So it’s definitely a great weapon.”

It’s meat and potatoes pick and roll basketball, there’s nothing that Forrest is doing that is particularly fancy, but it’s incredibly effective, and a big part of that is his improved floater game.

This type of pick and roll play has been the key to the Jazz offensive attack with Rudy Gobert over the last several seasons and is a real reason why Forrest could excel in bigger minutes in the Jazz rotation if needed.

Now, the difference between doing this in the summer league and the NBA is enormous as players at the next level are bigger, faster, and smarter. Additionally, as the Clippers showed late in the first half and early in the second, Forrest will have to learn how to counter different defensive looks to take advantage of overly aggressive schemes.

🌲 forrest through the trees 🌲#TakeNote https://t.co/QrNiYC90Pc pic.twitter.com/p2hBSgGOI4

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) August 15, 2021

Furthermore, while adding a three-point shot isn’t crucial, it would make him even more dangerous offensively as teams won’t be able to go under the screen on him. The Jazz offense took off when they moved on from Ricky Rubio, a non-shooter, to Mike Conley who shoots better than 40 percent from deep.

Forrest may never become a true knockdown shooter, but with the way he’s converted his floater at summer league, it may be enough of an offensive weapon to keep him in the NBA for years to come.

Azubuike Seems To Like Basketball

Azubuike has had a nice summer league where he’s shown that the things he did at Kansas (set screens, dunked everything near the rim, blocked shots) can translate at least to this level. Whether it will work against bigger players in real NBA rotations remains to be seen.

One thing that will translate, however, is the way he seems to like the game. Azubuike doesn’t always make the right play, but he seems to want to play well. And when he does, he’ll let the opposition know.

In the second quarter, Azubuike showed off that passion after dunking on a smaller Clippers defender.

𝐢𝐧·𝐞𝐯·𝐢·𝐭𝐚·𝐛𝐥𝐞 /inˈevidəb(ə)l/
𝘢𝘥𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦
certain to happen; unavoidable.#TakeNote | @TimUdoka pic.twitter.com/C3ZIhgnFu9

— utahjazz (@utahjazz) August 15, 2021

The truth is there just aren’t many 6’11, 260-pound humans, and far fewer who can also jump 41 inches off the floor. Because they are so rare, the limited few that have that combination of physical tools can make millions of dollars playing basketball, whether they like the game or not.

Former Jazzman John Amaechi is one of those players who admitted he played basketball because of his incredible size and soft touch, and not because he had a real desire for the game.

That’s not a knock on Amaechi who because of his terrific size was a better than average backup center in his career. But, if those players who won the genetic lottery can impact the game simply because of their measurements, a player with that size, and a love for the game can be even better.

“When he gets the ball, he’s going to try to prove a point every time,” Forrest said of his pick and roll teammate. “So it gives everybody on our team confidence.”

Azubuike will start the season as the Jazz third-string center behind Hassan Whiteside and Rudy Gobert, but with his size and desire to improve, he might be able to work his way up the depth chart.

Jazz Won’t Compete For Vegas Championship

The Jazz were one of just five undefeated teams entering Sunday along with the Boston Celtics, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the New Orleans Pelicans.

However, after falling to the Clippers, the Jazz are out of the running for the championship game as both the Celtics and Kings moved to 4-0 in Vegas earlier Sunday.

Rather than head into a full playoff bracket as the Vegas Summer League had done previously, the top two teams will compete for the championship crown, while the remaining 28 teams will play one additional game, matched up against an opponent of the NBA’s choosing.

Outside of the Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers having a game canceled during the opening weekend of summer league, it’s a promising sign that there weren’t more COVID-19 related hiccups despite the rise in cases across the country.

Hopefully, that’s a positive omen for the NBA as training camps open late next month.