I admit, Thon Maker did some impressive things against the Jazz. “Impressive” in that it is a miracle every time he manages to catch the ball (that means not having just bonk off his hands) and manipulate it into the basket without losing control of it. There were multiple plays where I said out loud to my cat “wow, Thon is actually doing something good”. I had to break my traditional complete silence to mention how good he was playing. That means something.
He was still sorta lost on defense, with the Jason Kidd “switch everything” defense still engrained in his mind, but he managed to make some nice plays anyway with his lengthy arms. Actually, it seems like every good play he managed to make is because of his length. He can shoot threes right over people, he can reach over people (to bat the ball, never catch it), he can hook over people. His length and his hustle almost guarantee him minutes despite him not being good.
I’ve seen enough of him over the years to know that this is nothing more than a random bunching of his sporadic successes on the court. All those innumerable trade offers I’ve put out there for him, those are still definitely on the table.