Rodney Hood‘s offseason began with a “frank” exit meeting the day after the Jazz were eliminated from the playoffs, as general manager Dennis Lindsey challenged the fourth-year shooting guard to become more efficient and more consistent — and to prepare for a larger role. As Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune details, Hood has responded to that directive by staying in Utah for the summer and working harder than ever to get ready for the 2017/18 season.
“There were a lot of challenges we gave Rodney,” the Jazz GM said. “What he needs to be doing, his commitment level to his development. And he’s responded this summer. He’s going to be given a prominent role, and his development will be significant to us.”
With Gordon Hayward having left the Jazz for Boston, Hood will be required to take on a greater share of the scoring load in Utah, and as Lindsey suggests, the team’s success figures to hinge in part on how Hood responds to that increased responsibility.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Russell Westbrook won’t have to shoulder so much of the burden for the Thunder this season with Paul George in the mix, according to Shaun Powell of NBA.com, who believes that Westbrook will look to accommodate his new All-Star teammate as much as possible. Speaking of George, Brett Dawson went into detail on the veteran forward’s intense offseason conditioning regimen in an interesting piece for The Oklahoman.
- Speaking to Nick Gallo of NBA.com, Patrick Patterson talked about why he chose the Thunder in free agency this offseason and how he envisions his role with the franchise. As Patterson notes, heading to Oklahoma City will give him the opportunity to re-connect with Billy Donovan, who attempted to recruit him out of high school.
- With training camp fast approaching, Joe Freeman of The Oregonian is taking a player-by-player look at the Trail Blazers‘ roster. So far this week, he has examined Jusuf Nurkic, who is extension-eligible this offseason, and discussed Evan Turner, who will look to bounce back from a poor 2016/17 as he enters the second season of a lucrative four-year contract.
My impression of Rodney Hood’s offense is that he is magnetized to a splendid isolation that keeps him out of the team flow and the benefits of synergy. It’s not a fit in Utah, and being the new Gordon Haywood sounds like a stretch style-wise.
He has defensive ability and attitude so repurposing him as a stopper would likely work better. Last year he was bench offense which seems right for him but it was not.
His talent is widely recognized so he would be easy to move, especially still on rookie scale. However if he gets the Haywood job at Haywood money but does not do Haywood work, suddenly he’s a problem and that’s too bad.
I would like to see him put at starting PG, forcing the team to come to him. But Hood would probably have to be traded first for that… with Mitchell drafted, even Rubio’s days there may be short.
Dang bro so his name is Gordon Heyward and it’s pretty impossible to turn a pure scorer into a defensive stopper when they’re not known for defense at all. It would be very interesting to see him as a scoring combo guard running pick n roll but expecting him to run away with the point guard job or becoming a stopper is crazy.
On the NBA.com defensive ratings, Hood ranked 37 of 486 overall and 16 of 224 at guard. That is with last year’s focus of being offense off the bench– not the usual setup for such numbers. Imagine if he prioritized D!
I would say most players famous for defense were once scorers whose progress stalled– and turned to D to get into the lineup. Hood is on notice in Utah; he did not earn the 4 job he has. Hood’s a lesser Michael Redd because he doesn’t have a go-to thing like Redd did.
He’s in his fourth year, contract year, and needs to be able to promise something besides promise… he’s athletic enough to make a switch to PG or be a stopper, either of which would allow him to continue to claim promise rather than performance. Otherwise he will be compared to Hayward and it will be another stalled year going into free agency.
When I saw him, he could handle an on-ball defender while keeping his head up, which in theory would support his height advantage and thus vision; and he’s a thinker.
I think he might get scapegoated this year. Amiwrong
Hood is the next Michael Redd.
But hopefully healthier.