A five version “Tall Ball” for Jazz in Orlando. Will Hardy logically decided to include his new recruit among his starters, Jaren Jackson Jr.while leaving its usual pair of interiors, Jusuf Nurkic et Lauri Markkanen. The latter was therefore aligned at position 3.
A winning formula, at least for the start of the meeting. For example, we saw Jusuf Nurkic pass the leather to the former Grizzlies, who took advantage of a “mismatch” against his former teammate, Desmond Bane, in the paint. The same Jackson Jr. then transmitted the leather on a “hand-to-hand” towards the Finn at 3-points.
« There is reason to be excited. I thought Jaren, John (Konchar) and Vince (Williams Jr.) were great for their first night with us. The front five, with Jaren, Lauri, Nurk, Ace (Bailey) and Keyonte (George), had some moments of wavering on offense, which is expected. But I think there are a lot of things we can build on », analyse Will Hardy.
According to the coach, whose team was up to 17 points ahead, the match escaped the Jazz because of the 39 points scored by the Magic after the 24 balls lost by Utah. Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. lost 3 each. But the new arrival still managed his first with his new team, compiling 22 points (9/17 on shots) in 25 minutes, with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 interceptions.
Both capable of punishing from afar
« He’s been a very good player for a while, he’s shown a wide variety of ways to attack. Obviously, we tried to make him move a little tonight, and we’re still trying to get our bearings on the different things we can do with him. He has excellent touch. This little ‘push shot’, halfway between the ‘floater’ and the arm roll, which he is able to shoot with both hands, is a real weapon », Enthuses the coach.
A weapon which the inside used extensively in this match, notably punishing several times with his left hand. “ Having two guys of this size, both capable of shooting from the outside and putting pressure on the rim, even if they do it in slightly different ways, is going to force opposing teams to make difficult choices in terms of scoring. », underlines the technician.
This night, his Finnish star penalized three times behind the arc, to finish with 27 points (12/21 in total). This season, he is averaging 36% success behind the arc – the same percentage as his new racquet partner – which is a little worse than his career average (37%).
Also in defense, Will Hardy believes that the cumulative size of the three interiors aligned together made the task difficult for the Magic, who was also content with 40 points scored in the opposing racket (compared to 58 for the Jazz).
« That’s why I expect that in the future, there will be nights where Jaren will be the beneficiary of all this, and other nights where it will be Lauri. But I thought they worked well together on the pitch and Keyonte did a good job trying to get them both involved. Nurk continues to be a good creator for us. So, yes, these two actually make a great duo on both ends of the court », termine Will Hardy.
