Six months ago watching Trey Burke shred Kansas in the NCAA Tournament I remember thinking to myself how cool it would be if the Jazz could draft him. At the time Trey was projected to go 15 or 16 which was right where the Jazz would be selecting. Trey had a monster game against Kansas and shot up draft boards and it looked like the Jazz wouldn’t have a chance to get him anymore. After the tournament I made a comment like “Well at least it won’t be so hard for announcers to have Burke and Burks on the floor at the same time”. Wouldn’t you know it that comment is probably what made the NBA gods let Trey slide down the board and gave the Jazz a chance to trade up to snag the best point guard in that draft. You’re welcome Jazz Nation.
Even though the Jazz have created a nightmare for announcers it should be a lot of fun watching these two guys play next to each other this season. Trey Burke is a very good ball handler and is great at penetrating the defense while Alec Burks as we all know is a slasher and has a great ability to get to the rim and draw fouls and/or finish. These two compliment each other perfectly with their skill sets as I see Burke driving and drawing defenders only to drop a pass off to Alec cutting to the hoop, defender rotating late and Alec getting the bucket and the foul while Burke earns an assist.
Burke and Burks are the most likely to get the starting jobs as the back court for the Jazz they will be spending a lot of time together on the floor but it seems that they’ve already been spending quite a bit of time together already. They both got limited time with each other in the Orlando Summer League before Alec rolled his ankle side-lining him for the remainder of summer league. The time they got to play with each other prior to him getting injured was valuable as they got to practice and play the first half of the first game together. While Trey didn’t have a good summer league overall he did look at his best in my opinion in that first half that he had Alec on the floor with him. It gave Trey another weapon on the floor and let Trey do what Trey likes to do best which is attack and distribute. After Alec went down Trey lost his best option on offense which really limited what Trey was able to do on the floor. He had to become the main scoring option which is not what Trey wants to be even though he is very capable of doing it.
There were also rumors that after summer league Trey and Alec were both in Las Vegas. I’m not sure if they were on their way to Santa Barbara for P3 or if they were there on a vacation but either way they were spending time together. The latest news about the two is about them going to Spokane, Washington to work out with John Stockton. Alec will definitely be used as a back up point guard at times this season and so spending time with John was great for Alec. Trey definitely benefited a ton from visiting Stockton as well as Trey has the desire and determination to become one of the best players in this league. To get there he seems to be willing to work as hard as he needs to and visiting Stockton shows that he has that determination to do whatever it takes to reach his goal.
Chemistry seems from an outside view to be building between these two and it should be a lot of fun to watch “The Burk Brothers” this season as both players have a ton to prove. Trey won about every award you could win in college and has tons of hype coming out of Michigan. He believes he should have been taken much higher in the draft then he was. There are people who wonder if Trey can make it in the NBA due to his size. Trey will play on a chip on his shoulder just like he has his entire life and seeing how he has yet to fail on any level to this point, I don’t see how he would fail now. Alec on the other hand is going into his 3rd NBA season. He has wanted more playing time just like any player who comes into the league and now he should get his chance. This is his chance to prove he belongs in the NBA and has the talent to be a very good player. In my opinion Alec has the most to prove of any of the young players on this roster. The path the rest of Alec’s career takes could very well hinge on how he preforms this season. I’ve added a few videos below to hopefully excite you about these two players this season! With media day less then a week away it’s time to get pumped up. Basketball is back folks.