The core
Bojan Bogdanovic- durability
If you haven’t noticed already, Bojan Bogdanovic takes a lot of hits during games. He is surprisingly good at finishing layups through contact despite his limited athleticism, and oftentimes he hits the deck afterwards. I was really scared when he turned his ankle in the season opener that it would hold him out for a while, but Bojan has pure grit to play through pain.
There is still 55 games left in the regular season and Bojan needs to be fresh for the playoffs. If he continues to get banged up during games eventually it will catch up to him, so for this Christmas I am wishing for some additional durability for Bojan Bogdanovic. He has been everything the Jazz hoped him to be and more, and they need that to be available and healthy in April.
Donovan Mitchell- Popularity
Donovan Mitchell is close to his first All-Star berth. Because Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are both missing major time with injuries, that has opened up a couple backcourt spots for All-Stars out west.
One of those will obviously go to Luka Doncic because of his MVP caliber play. The other spot is a dog fight between Mitchell and the rest of the field. In my opinion that spot should go to Mitchell if All-Star weekend was tomorrow.
CJ McCollum had a slow start to the season, Devin Booker‘s team isn’t the playoff lock they looked like early on, Jamal Murray hasn’t been as special as the Denver Nuggets hoped he would be, and Buddy Hield has been great but his team is only entering the playoff picture.
My only worry is that NBA coaches might be biased towards Mitchell when they finish picking the All-Star rosters. Mitchell should wish for popularity to make sure he doesn’t get outvoted by coaches in love with Devin Booker’s game.
Rudy Gobert- better free throw touch
Last night the Atlanta Hawks committed plenty of fouls against Rudy Gobert, and for the better part of the game most of Rudy’s points came from the free throw line. At the end of the game Gobert missed four foul shots in a row. Fortunately the score was out of reach for the Hawks at that point.
If Gobert wasn’t fouled in the last minute he would have shot a respectable 10 of 15 from the foul line. He has the touch, he just needs to string it together more consistently. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Utah in another tight game soon where Gobert’s free throw touch will either save or kill the Jazz.
Well that wraps up the wishlist for the usual 12 Utah Jazz players we see on the court. If you have any suggestions or disagreement to what should’ve been on the wishlist, let me know in the comment section or on Twitter. Go Jazz!