The Jazz already have one of the better rosters in the Western Conference, but Jordan Hicks of Basketball Insiders believes that they’ll get even better if and when Dante Exum can become the team’s third star behind Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
Per Hicks, Exum has elite size and length for his position at a height of 6-foot-6 with a wingspan of 6-foot-9. He also has a quick first step, superior acceleration, and top-level speed. Unfortunately for Exum, he has also had a career riddled with injuries. He played in all 82 games his rookie season, but went on to tear his ACL playing for the Australian national team the summer before his second season, causing him to miss the entire year.
Exum’s last two seasons have been promising, but he really flashed his star potential at the end of last year — especially in 10 playoff games, in which he showed his development on the defensive end of the court by guarding 2017/18 MVP James Harden. While guarded by Exum, Harden shot 21.4% from the field with no threes and four turnovers.
Lol. Jazz are a solid team but if OKC wasn’t such trash last postseason then they wouldn’t be getting this much hype. They’ll be fortunate to reach a WCF
Okc will be a totally different team with Robison back and melo gone. That’s adding the best defender and getting rid of the worst one.
That’s a little much. A lot of teams have a big 3 better then that
Medium 3? Sure. But, they have a lot of questions to answer before that with all three of those players.
Mitchell needs to prove he is legit and not a Michael Carter-Williams or Malcolm Brogdon type rookie phenom that doesn’t do much the next year.
Gobert is an elite defensive player, but offensively he is more Ben Wallace than Kevin Garnett. A fine complementary player for sure, but by no means a guy that will lead a team into a championship.
Exum needs to prove he can actually stay on the court and be good when he is on the court. He has done neither thus far. You don’t win games with your measurements.
All of those guys could step up past each of those criticisms, but until they do I think expectations should be tempered just a bit.
Mitchell is legit; he was making opportunities, not benefitting from them. Exum however has to repeat over full years what he did in 24 games.
But I would rather have him than the similar Ben Simmons because it could very well happen!
And how about Jinglin Joe Ingles? (I got that from BasRef, as well as 3 games missed in 4 years, good D, passing and 42% 3pt shooting.)
So Big 4?– no that’s all hooey. Utah is a solid TEAM.
link to espn.com
You must be a Cleveland fan. Because I see no benefit for any of those other three teams at all.
This trade makes too much sense. Why wouldn’t the magic want to trade 2 starters for Deng and Ron Burgundy.
No
Anyway back to the article, doesn’t make much sense, Exum has potential yes, but hasn’t done anything yet, he should reach all-star level before even put him in this conversation. Gobert very good deffensively but last year he was about the 10th best center in the league, at the same level than Capela & DH12, so not really at the level for a big 3, well maybe the 3rd, with a stretch. Mitchell had a good rookie season, but still is a long way to go, again needs to become an all-star before even talking about it, he could be a part of a big 3, yes of course, but not yet. In conclusion I think this is a very optimistic look on Utah. I still think them & San Antonio might well be the 2 teams left outside the playoffs this year.
What 9 centers were better? Gobert was really good!
Of course he was really good, that is why he makes it into the top 10, you gotta be good. Well my list goes, just by performance of last season… in my opinion:
AD, DMC, KAT, Drummond, Jokic, Embiid, LMA & DJ. All of this were better, then Capela, Gobert & DH12, were all just about the same, so yes he had a very good season, but as I have been saying for a while, we are enjoying probably the best wave of centers in the history of the league, as there are many other good ones still, like Kanter, Whiteside, Marc Gasol, Horford, Vucevic, Lopez, Turner, Nurkic & Adams. Also the rookies coming this year, WCJ, Ayton, MBIII, Bamba & JJJ, great time to enjoy the bigs.
lol slow news day, eh?
Funny some would say ingram is a bust but not this lame duck? Promising? Dude averaged 6/8 points the last two seasons. Dude is a bum rotational piece at best lol.
He had 17 per 36 last year….while playing very good defense. If he’s healthy, he should be a solid 15 per night rotational guy.
But I wouldn’t call him a big 3 guy. But rather a solid contributor.
More like 1.5
Lots of guys have had decent spurts or stretches, good playoff series, matchup good against certain stars, but Exum is so far from being a star it’s not even close. I think he could be like an Andre iguodala type player.
And Rudy Gobert is good but he can get played off the court against some teams, it’s really hard for any big man to switch on to elite guards and wings, that’s why draymond and Jordan bell are valuable players even if offensively they don’t have great scoring ability. Rudy can dunk and block shots at the rim but he needs to add a little more before he can be part of a big 3.
I get that they beat the thunder but that might not be a great measurement, Westbrook gets so into the one on one matchups, he forces things, takes bad shots in close games, turns it over in big moments, and gambles too much on defense, if that is your leader when you play in a series with teams preparing and game planning they will take away any advantage you had athletically. And Westbrook isn’t a great shooter so if you have good team defense to keep him out of paint he is easier to guard than some other guys.