Eight games in and 1-7, Ryan Smith isn't firing anybody. "Will's our guy. Austin's our guy. Like, we're not changing anything," the Jazz owner said on KSL Sports Zone 97.5, in an interview KSL Sports posted Friday. He's right to keep Will Hardy and Austin Ainge, and he's right that consistency is what we're missing. Where he loses us is the why. Our shooting will come around, and it still won't fix what's losing games. The two bigs Smith is counting on are on the injury list. Nurkić could be back next week, but Jackson's date is five weeks out, and until then the question is Hardy's: who closes games, and who protects the rim at the end of them.
He owned it
Asked about the criticism, Smith didn't duck it. "Yeah, I mean it's real," he said, and "I'm a fan first." Later: "I signed up for the smoke." On the frustration: "It's all warranted." He also said that "after the New Orleans game, I definitely needed to go on a long walk by myself." So did we.
Backing Hardy is right for a simple reason: eight games, four of them without Jackson and all eight without Nurkić, is no sample to judge a coach on.
The shots, and the rim
Smith's case runs through the shooting. He brought up the Lakers game, when "we came out with 47 points in the first quarter against the Lakers when shots were falling." On New Orleans, after blaming a pile of open threes that didn't drop: "Yeah, those shots are going to eventually fall and then we missed 10 free throws."
He's half right about New Orleans. We went 11-of-47 from three that night. Over eight games we're 93-of-295, 31.5 percent, and at that rate 47 threes is about 15 makes. Four more threes is a lot to leave behind in a game that went to overtime, and the 10 missed free throws are real too (20-of-30).
But our Pelicans recap found the game somewhere else. By its count of the play-by-play, Jaxson Hayes fouled out with 3:04 left in regulation, and in the 8:04 after that New Orleans scored 23 points without making a three. Mo Bamba didn't play in overtime. Tony Bradley and Kyle Filipowski didn't play at all, coach's decision both. The Pelicans went 39-of-43 at the line.
The Lakers game cuts the same way. Yes, 47 in the first. Then 76 in the next three quarters, and the Lakers won the second 45-24. They made 20 threes to our 10, so the shots did fall that day. Most of them were theirs.
The consistency is on the injury list
Smith said it'll look very different once a couple of guys are back, and he named Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkić as the consistency we're lacking. He's right. Jackson played our first four games and averaged 16.3 points. ESPN's injury list (entry dated Oct. 27) has him out with a right knee injury, expected back Dec. 14. Nurkić hasn't played a regular-season game, and the same list (entry dated Nov. 3) expects him back from a right foot injury around Nov. 13.
So center is this week's question. Until Nurkić is back, Hayes, Bamba, Bradley and Filipowski are the centers Hardy has, and New Orleans showed what happens when none of them is on the floor at the end. Our preview of tonight's game says Bamba should close on the glass in Dallas. Even when Nurkić returns, he hasn't played a game this season, so he's an unknown too.
The longer question is the one without Jackson. The schedule has 16 games before Dec. 14, counting tonight and the NBA Cup games, and waiting can't be the plan for them. Somebody has to close and protect the rim late, and nobody has yet: the Lakers outscored us 16-7 after we were tied at 116 with 4:06 left, and the Pelicans ran off 14 straight in overtime, both by our recaps' count. "Those shots are going to eventually fall" doesn't tell us who that is.
Peterson, fairly
Smith on Darryn Peterson: "he's not a chucker he's not throwing the ball up 30 times a game. He's a pretty efficient guy."
The first part holds up. Peterson has taken 99 shots in eight games, 12.4 a game, and his most is 18, against Memphis on Oct. 26. The second part doesn't, yet. He's 35-of-99 from the field (35.4 percent) and 12-of-37 from three. The free throws are there (19-of-22), and so is the care with the ball: 30 assists, 10 turnovers. He's 19. Let him keep shooting. Just don't call it efficient until the percentages say so.
Not panicking
Smith said "we're not panicking," and he pointed at who wants to be here: "Keyonte George just signed a five year deal and wants to be in Utah." (Keyonte George's five-year extension was first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania on Sept. 18.) He talked about this as a multi-year build with a championship as the goal.
We're with him on the patience, and on Hardy. We sat through 22-60 to get this group. But ESPN's date for Jackson is five weeks out, and until then the coach Smith just backed has to find out who closes and who guards our rim at the end. If he does, the shots falling will be a bonus.
Sources: Ryan Smith on KSL Sports Zone 97.5 ("Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth owner Ryan Smith", KSL Sports, Nov. 6) for every Smith quote; NBA.com box scores for all eight Jazz games (team three-point shooting, Jackson's points, Peterson's shots, threes, free throws, assists and turnovers, all totaled by us), including the Lakers game (quarters, threes) and the Pelicans game (threes, free throws, Hayes's fouls, the DNPs); our Pelicans recap and Lakers recap for the late-game scoring, counted from NBA.com's play-by-play; ESPN's injury list (read Nov. 6) for Jackson's and Nurkić's status and expected returns; NBA.com for the schedule, the record and Peterson's age; ESPN's Shams Charania for George's extension.