Utah Jazz: Grayson Allen makes debut in Jazz blowout

Grayson Allen and the Utah Jazz kicked off the Utah Summer League with an impressive victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

It was a packed night in Vivint Smart Home Arena on Monday evening, as thousands of fans crowded in to get a much needed Utah Jazz basketball fix. I know I needed it.

They didn’t disappoint. Led by a balanced scoring attack, the Utah Jazz would gain an impressive 92-76 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

The Jazz would lead by as many as 30 in the game and only briefly trailed early in the contest. They were led by Georges Niang, who poured in 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 2-of-4 from three. Niang could find himself with more playing time with the Jazz this season after spending almost the entire 2017-18 campaign with Utah’s G-League affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars. As a 6’8″ power forward, he led the Stars with 22 points per game, and shot 52.7 percent from three.

He wasn’t alone in the scoring department. Kelan Martin, Stanton Kidd, Grayson Allen and Tony Bradley each scored in double digits.

Martin scored 13 points in the game, while also adding eight rebounds. He put on an impressive display of shooting, going 3-of-4 from deep. As a senior at Butler, Martin averaged 21 points and six rebounds per game. Kidd would also score 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from three.

The biggest applause during the introductions was for Jazz rookie Grayson Allen, and he definitely played like a rookie early on. He started the game 0-of-4, and finishing at the rim was definitely a problem when facing the length and athleticism of the Spurs bigs. He would eventually get his feet under himself, though, and finish 4-of-12 for 11 points.

The most impressive part of Allen’s game was by far his playmaking ability. Allen averaged 4.6 assists during his senior season, and outside of his freshman year, he never averaged less than 3.5 per game.

Those passing instincts showed in this game, especially early on, as Allen routinely passed up decent shots for himself in order to get better shots for his teammates.

“The nerves were definitely there,” Allen said after the game. “The nerves, anxiousness, excitement, which leads to speeding up and going too fast on some stuff where you should slow up and make a good read.”

The nerves were a bit noticeable in his shooting, but Allen filled up the box score in impressive fashion finishing with 11 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Tony Bradley was perhaps the Jazz player that I was most excited to see, and while he struggled to finish consistently around the rim, he did impress with solid rebounding and rim protection.

Bradley scored 11 points, to go along with 11 rebounds and four blocks. Both his rebounds and blocks were game highs.

He still has a lot of work to do to improve his game, but he showed impressive flashes of development in this game, and at only 20 years of age, he is still the youngest player on the roster.

Next: NBA free agency: Utah Jazz showing interest in Nemanja Bjelica

Overall, it was an impressive win for the Utah Jazz, and they should only get better with more time together on the court. They will be back at it Tuesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies.