Grading the Jazz: Juan Toscano-Anderson and Udoka Azubuike
Editor’s note: Second in a series evaluating and grading every player that was on the Jazz’s final 2022-23 roster.
The Utah Jazz only had two players who were on expiring contracts this year, and although they aren’t likely to be offered another deal by the Jazz, it’s worth looking at how they performed this season.
Juan Toscano-Anderson — Grade: C-
In 22 games with the Jazz, Juan Toscano-Anderson underwhelmed. After a couple of solid seasons with the Golden State Warriors as they were working through injury-plagued seasons, Toscano-Anderson seemed like a gritty, do-it-all kind of guy who could also shoot pretty reliably.
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But, after the Warriors’ main stars returned to the lineup and Toscano-Anderson’s role diminished, so did his efficiency.
His story has been one that is pretty familiar in the NBA — a lesser role that leads to less eye-popping results and then an even lesser role on the next team.
More often than not, those players end up being forgotten and lost at the ends of benches unless they are able to really show their worth.
Unfortunately for Toscano-Anderson, he never really popped in Utah. He had a couple of good games and a few nice flashes, but he averaged just 3.4 points in 15.2 minutes per game, shooting 40.3% overall and 17.4% from 3-point range.
To his credit, Toscano-Anderson received praise from head coach Will Hardy and the rest of the coaching staff for his attitude, his help with younger players, his communication and competitiveness.
But when players are being praised for those things and not their on-court talent and skill, that’s also worth noting.
It’s totally possible that Toscano-Anderson is a rhythm player who needs more time on the court to really feel comfortable and to shine in a role, but that’s not what he had in Utah and his time on the court with the Jazz was a little disappointing.
Udoka Azubuike — Grade: F
First, I think it’s important to note that the Jazz get an F for drafting Udoka Azubuike. That is a separate grade and has nothing to do with how he performed, and we should not hold the Jazz’s poor decisions against him.
It’s also important to say that some freak injuries and unfortunate timing are not reasons to not like a player, to an extent.
In three years, Azubuike has played in just 68 NBA games. He had one injury after another, and then when he was healthy he was either behind the likes of Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside or Walker Kessler and Kelly Olynyk.
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But, even when Azubuike was able to get on the court, he was all too often either not conditioned correctly or didn’t know where he was supposed to be.
After three years, you would want a player to not have to be directed around by teammates and be out of position so often.
Even so, the most glaring problem with Azubuike was just his skill level relative to other replacement level players.
That issue was made clear and obvious this season when Damian Jones joined the team at the trade deadline.
In Jones’ first seven minutes of action on the court, it was clear that he deserved backup center minutes over Azubuike.
Azubuike does not get this grade because of the Jazz’s choice to draft him, and he does not get this grade because of his injury history.
He gets this grade because he hasn’t proven that he deserves more than an expiring deal.
