The Utah Jazz took on the Cleveland Cavaliers and had a chance to take on Donovan Mitchell once again post-trade. It’s now been long enough since the trade that this is probably not a story anymore. The major reason this isn’t a story anymore is that the Jazz have finally moved on by focusing on the best route for the team, getting a star in the draft.
Yes, the Jazz got beat badly in this one but they’re on the route that leads to a superstar in the draft. The Cavaliers are on a different end of the NBA spectrum. They have two top-5 picks in Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. With those two picks, they then made the big trade for Donovan Mitchell. Utah is at the beginning stages of a similar rebuild, they just don’t have the elite talent yet.
In this one, you could see the difference between the two teams. Utah has some nice young prospects who could be a good fit next to a superstar, but they’re not likely the stars leading the Jazz to a championship. Kyle Filipowski was probably the most impressive player for the Jazz. In this one, he was 7/13 from the field and 4/8 from three. He scored 18 points with 13 rebounds. What’s interesting about Filipowski is how well he is playing at the 4-spot at times next to Walker Kessler. Yes, Utah struggled in the second half in this one but showed some impressive defense in the first half. Yeah, it’s just a half, but considering how terrible Utah’s defense has been this year, it’s great to see. If Filipowski can play good defense at the 4-spot and then also play at this level on offense, they have themselves a real piece for the future.
Walker Kessler continues to take threes to develop that aspect of his game. In the games the Jazz have done this, it hasn’t really worked. Tonight, Kessler was 1/8 from three. In his last five games, Kessler has shot 3/26, which is not super encouraging. It doesn’t mean he can’t. There are some players who have become a stretch center after being mostly inside players, but it might not be a part of Kessler’s future. Time will tell. If he can become a good stretch-5, it can turn Kessler into a very dynamic player. The other reason it’s not something to bet much on is that Kessler shoots just 54% from the free-throw line.
There wasn’t much else from this to take, other than that Brice Sensabaugh continues to have some really nice shooting nights. Sensabaugh shot 4/7 from the field and 2⁄3 from three. For the season, Sensabaugh is shooting 40% from three. His shooting is really impactful at times but if he can contribute in other areas of the floor, such as defense, he can become a real rotation player.
