Jazz fans got a nice surprise today when they found out that Darryn Peterson would be suiting up to play again in Summer League tonight. It\u2019s very likely it had something to do with comments made by Caleb Wilson after Peterson didn\u2019t play against Chicago.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve loved about Darryn Peterson it\u2019s that he takes these things personal, he absolutely cares. So, in a way, I\u2019m grateful to Caleb Wilson for giving us another Peterson game.<\/p>\n
That all said, it might have been better if Peterson had not played, because he really struggled to shoot the ball. Tonight, Peterson shot just 4\/16 from the field and couldn\u2019t seem to find any rhythm. It\u2019s probably a sign of fatigue for him not to hit those shots, especially since most of them were short.<\/p>\n
But shooting poorly doesn\u2019t mean Peterson didn\u2019t impact the game in a positive way. Yes, the shot wasn\u2019t falling, but scoring the ball was the thing everyone knew Peterson could do coming into the NBA. The questions for Peterson surrounded his playmaking for others and, to some extent, his defense. Peterson had 4 assists in this one and could have had more. He was blitzed all night and consistently made the right pass. But Peterson was not only passing the ball but also solid on the defensive end. Peterson had 2 stocks in this one (steals and blocks) and was solid guarding his man all night. And even though the shot wasn\u2019t falling, Peterson still got to the line. It\u2019s scary to think of what he will do when the shot is falling, and he\u2019s still getting those trips to the free-throw line. And aside from the X\u2019s and O\u2019s talk, it\u2019s that competitiveness and care factor that should have every Jazz fan excited. He wants to be great, and he doesn\u2019t back down from a challenge. He\u2019s willing to have bad games<\/p>\n
Finally, Peterson also showed that he can stay healthy. That, in and of itself, was probably the biggest question of all coming into summer league, and Peterson has answered it. One of the factors for Darryn Peterson not going #1 was his health, and that\u2019s now been proven not to be an issue. The Jazz come out of this now with a player who was considered the consensus #1 to start the season. Now, he ends up on the Jazz and has answered all the biggest questions critics had.<\/p>\n
Other players played in this game as well. Easily the most notable outside of Peterson was Bez Mbeng, who played great for Utah. Taking advantage of the focus on Peterson, Mbeng shot 4\/5 from the field, 1\/1 from three, and was 2\/2 from the line. He also dished out 5 assists and grabbed 4 rebounds with 1 steal (I\u2019m not sure that 1 steal is correct if I\u2019m being honest).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s nice to see Mbeng have a nice game, and we\u2019ll see if he could potentially make the team again next season. If he can shoot the ball like he did, defend well, and pass within the offense, there\u2019s no reason he can\u2019t be a connective player in the vein of a Josh Hart.<\/p>\n
All in all, it was a solid performance by Peterson in every aspect outside of shooting the ball. Had he shot it well, Utah would likely not have lost the game to San Antonio 94-82. The good news? Summer League doesn\u2019t matter. My guess is this is the end of Summer League for Peterson, and now the training for the upcoming season begins. No doubt, knowing Peterson better, this will be motivation for him moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jazz fans got a nice surprise today when they found out that Darryn Peterson would be suiting up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,969,474,4075,4074,534,8572],"class_list":["post-787853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio-spurs","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sanantonio","tag-sanantoniospurs","tag-spurs","tag-utah-jazz-game-coverage"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116928168798590849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}