Utah Jazz first-quarter grades: SGs Donovan Mitchell and Grayson Allen

Grayson Allen

Grayson Allen was kind of amazing during preseason play. Over five exhibition bouts, he averaged nearly 13 points per game and shot a blistering 51 percent from the field and 52 percent from 3-point range.

I don’t think any reasonable person expected him to keep up that level of production during the regular season but, make no mistake about it, there were definitely some openly gifting him “steal of the draft” distinction. He even picked up a vote or two as the top draft steal in the NBA’s annual Rookie Survey.

Right now, though, he’s not closed to that. He’s looked exactly like the thing he is — a young player struggling to find his footing against bigger, more athletic, more experienced ballers.

Allen has appeared in 14 games for the Jazz and is averaging just 10 minutes a night. In his limited court time, he’s really struggled to put the ball into the basket, shooting 35 percent overall and 29 percent from deep.

And, as fellow J-Noter Josh Padmore points out, he’s not doing much besides scoring, averaging just 1.5 assists and 0.7 boards per 36 minutes.

And the Jazz D has conceded 113 points per 100 possessions with Allen in the game. That’s not good.

Nevertheless, the Jazz were always playing the long game with Allen. And there have been a handful of occasions where his sneaky-good athleticism has shown itself, so you still have to think he’ll be able to hang. The fact that he’s struggling a quarter of the way through his rookie season shouldn’t be of major concern.

First-quarter grade: A C- by the slimmest of margins, but we’re not sweating it.