Utah Jazz Player Ranks: Nos. 15-11

14. Tibor Pleiss

Tibor was the 31st pick in the same draft as Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors. He was originally drafted by the Nets, but they sent him to the Hawks, who then traded him to OKC. NBA teams loved his potential, but were nervous to use a first-round pick on him due to his desire to play in Europe for a couple years.

Pleiss has played in the Spanish league since 2012, splitting time with FC Barcelona and Laboral Kutx. FC Barcelona is often considered the best non-NBA basketball team in the world. While in Barcelona, Pleiss backed up another center Jazz fans are familiar with in Ante Tomic. Pleiss was a victim of Barcelona’s preference for veteran players and went from playing 21.8 minutes per game with Laboral to playing only 13.3 in Barcelona.

With the Jazz owning the rights to Tomic and keeping tabs on him, they were able to see a lot of tape on Pleiss and were impressed enough to sign him to a multi-year deal.

The German center’s stats look pedestrian over the last two years until you realized he only played 13 minutes per game. His stats per 36 minutes tell a different story, as his averages come out at 16.7 points, 10.11 rebounds, 0.75 assists, 0.92 steals and 1.72 blocks. Those are some compelling numbers.

While Pleiss can block shots, he isn’t near the same level as Rudy Gobert on defense. He does not have amazing lateral quickness, which hurts him making some rotations. Still, David Locke recently did a film breakdown of Tibor and the quickness may not be as big of an issue as many people seem to think it is.

While he does need to work on his passing, Pleiss looks to be more developed offensively than Gobert. He has a decent amount of post moves and can catch the ball very well. Pleiss also has some range on his jumper. In a recent workout with the Utah Jazz, he hit 66 of 90 three pointers. Sure, it was just a practice setting, but not many centers in the NBA could match that number.

The reason Pleiss is where he is on this list is somewhat similar to Neto. He has yet to prove anything in the NBA. There are a lot of things about Pleiss that make a lot of sense on this roster. However, with the recent addition of Jeff Withey, things became slightly more complicated. Pleiss has the chance to be much better than this ranking, but he has to prove he can go up against the big boys.

Next: Player No. 13