The Utah Jazz: a core-having team? Let’s just get it out of the way now. YES. The Utah Jazz are a basketball team, and they have a core group of players to build around.
Tibor Pleiss may or may not be part of that core.
Forget about Tibor, though. He doesn’t matter right now. These are the names of the dudes who matter right now: Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert. CORE. HARD CORE. That’s a core if I’ve ever seen one. Now all they need is a SG and a PG. Enter Rodney Hood? Hell yeah. Put him in the core also. I don’t give a damn. Their PG situation is right now best represented thus: ???????????. Don’t talk to me about that Australian. Or the other one. Dante Exum is not part of any core until he shows more than flashes of competency. Sorry. That’s just how it is.
Tonight showed what happens when a team with a core played against a team without. Before you dispute me, Anthony Davis, being just one player, is not a core in and of himself. That’s one of the rules of cores. They need to have more than one player. Another rule of cores: Derrick Favors just made Davis into his personal slave. With fury.