Utah Jazz: 4 reasons to eye Duke basketball draft prospect Matthew Hurt
By Matt Giles
Why the Utah Jazz might draft Matthew Hurt: Aging veterans at his position
Inspecting the Utah Jazz’s primary nine-man rotation this season, one should notice that three key components will be either 33 or 34 years old by this time next year. Two of those three are stretch forwards in Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanovic (the third is guard Mike Conley).
Considering neither Ingles nor Bogdanovic is a freak of nature in the athleticism department as it is, folks might imagine both are on the verge of either retiring or moving at a dangerously slow pace within the next few seasons. Consequently, it seems Utah ought to be on the lookout for guys who might be capable of fulfilling a similar role to those two current double-digit scorers.
Enter Matthew Hurt. He possesses a confident trigger from deep. His deft jab-step fakes and subsequent silky fadeaways — from all distances — are a thing of beauty that should translate to the pro level.
In terms of ballhandling and passing, he’d potentially be on par with Bogdanovic, at least after a year or two adjusting to the pace in the NBA. And although Hurt may never match Ingles in this regard, it definitely wouldn’t hurt for him to learn a thing or two from watching the savviness of “Slow-Mo Joe” nowadays as a remarkably reliable fill-in point guard.
As for defense and rebounding, well, as is the case with both Ingles and Bogdanovic, these aspects of Hurt’s game will probably always have to be just a work in progress.
Finally, let’s ponder the wildcard nugget that could make Hurt an attractive option for the Utah Jazz come draft night…