For second straight year, Utah Jazz alums struggling for Cleveland

Former Utah Jazz players George Hill and Rodney Hood have struggled in the playoffs with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which brings back memories of the struggles of two other Jazz alums from a year ago.

After a hard-fought first-round series against the Indiana Pacers in which the Cleveland Cavaliers needed seven games to emerge victorious, many NBA fans thought they would be in peril in subsequent rounds, beginning with the Eastern Conference Semifinal matchup against the Toronto Raptors. Instead, LeBron James and Co. came out firing on all cylinders and managed to easily send the Raptors back into extinction with a four-game sweep.

In that series, the Cavs received contributions across the board and appeared to finally be playing with cohesion and rhythm. Many thought they would carry that over into the next round and then cruise into the NBA Finals. However, up to this point in their conference finals bout against the Boston Celtics, the exact opposite has been true.

In Game 1, literally no one on the Cleveland squad could get going. Kevin Love finished with a respectable 17 points, but it came on 5-of-14 shooting. Then, in Game 2, LeBron James was sensational with 42 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists, and Kevin Love played well once again, but outside of him, King James received little to no help from the rest of his role players.

And two Cavaliers who were the recipients of a significant amount of blame just so happen to be former Utah Jazz players George Hill and Rodney Hood. Hill has had a few bright moments in this year’s playoffs and is shooting over 50 percent from the field. But with just 8.6 points per contest while converting on just 27.8 percent of his three-point attempts, he’s largely been a disappointment. He also missed some time during the first round with back spasms.

His disappointing play culminated in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss as he finished the night with just three points in 33 minutes of action. Like many of his Cleveland teammates, he’s looked sluggish and ineffective against a well-executed Boston defense.

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But Hill’s overall disappointing play can’t even compare to that of Rodney Hood. Many thought that Hood would flourish in Cleveland alongside LeBron James. With James commanding so much attention on offense, it was presumed that Hood would be available to spot up and excel by draining wide open threes.

Instead, Hood has been unable to find any sort of rhythm. He’s often tried to force things on offense and fallen into similar bad habits that he displayed in Utah such as over-dribbling and putting up ill-advised shots. His frustration with his play and role apparently boiled over last series as it was reported after Game 4 against the Raptors that Hood refused to enter the game during garbage time.

He actually had one of his better games in Game 1 against the Celtics, finishing with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting, but a lot of that scoring occurred at inconsequential times. And when viewing his performance in the playoffs as a whole, it’s been really bad.

He’s averaged just 4.9 points per game while shooting 40.3 percent from the field and an awful 11.8 percent from deep. He’s also averaging a plus/minus of minus-6.8 in the postseason. His play has been so discouraging, that in a post-game press conference with Tyronn Lue, one reporter went as far as to ask the Cavs coach why Hood was still in the rotation, a question Lue didn’t take kindly to.

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For several Jazz fans who, despite any poor feelings about the way things ended in Utah, have wanted to see the former Jazzmen play well on the biggest stage, it’s been somewhat disappointing to behold. And, unfortunately, it’s actually been pretty reminiscent of a year ago.

Last season, the Cavs traded for former Jazzman Kyle Korver midway through the season and also signed Deron Williams who was waived by the Dallas Mavericks. In fairness to Korver, he’s been awesome in this year’s playoffs and at times has been Cleveland’s second best player. And last year, he wasn’t awful overall in the postseason, but did shoot under his career averages from the field and from deep, and only put up 5.8 points per game.

And in the NBA Finals, he absolutely laid an egg for the Cavs. In five games against the Golden State Warriors, Korver managed just 4.4 points per game on 36.8 percent shooting from the field and 31.3 percent from deep. Though he made other contributions prior to that, his Finals disappearance was largely what was remembered of the former Jazzman in his first postseason with the Cavs.

As much as Korver struggled, though, former Jazz point guard extraordinaire Deron Williams was exponentially worse. Overall in the playoffs, he managed just 4.3 points per game and in the Finals, he was all but nonexistent. In just over 12 minutes per game, he put up a mere point per game on 12.5 percent shooting from the field and 11.1 percent from deep. The Warriors seemed to lick their chops every time D-Will took the floor as he was useless on offense and an easy target on defense.

Needless to say, it was a far from flattering end to Deron Williams’ brief tenure in Cleveland.

In other words, unfortunate though it may be, for the most part Utah Jazz alums have simply not fared well recently in the NBA Playoffs as members of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kyle Korver’s been the main exception to that, but he was awful in last year’s Finals and has been held in check against Boston thus far this year. Beyond him, though, George Hill, Rodney Hood and Deron Williams have all been atrocious in a Cavs uniform.

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With LeBron’s supporting cast doing so little to help him out, he and his Cavaliers team now find themselves in a daunting 2-0 hole to the Boston Celtics. Perhaps the former Jazzmen and the rest of the Cleveland crew will find some sort of a groove at home in Games 3 and 4, but based on what we’ve seen so far, it will certainly take a major reversal.

Personally, I hope to see the likes of Hill and especially Hood, for whom I’m particularly concerned, turn their play around, but I’m feeling less than confident. The Celtics have put Cleveland on lock-down making their chances of returning to the NBA Finals appear to be in serious jeopardy.

True, you can never count out King James, but unless George Hill, Rodney Hood and others pick up the slack immensely, even LeBron’s heroics won’t be enough to save this Cavs team.