Opening act: McLeod provides energy for Jazz
By Phil Miller
The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah's Keith McLeod. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The most specialized task in baseball belongs to the closer, the pitcher assigned to secure the final three outs and nothing else.
Keith McLeod has developed the opposite specialty for the Jazz: He is a starter, instructed to provide energy and precision at the beginning of each half - and nothing else.
Through four games, the third-year guard has played more minutes than all but four of his teammates. Yet he has not so much as stepped on the floor during the second or fourth quarter of any game.
It's an odd existence, sort of a human jumper cable: He gets the engine running, then lets the car go off without him.
And once he sits down, he might as well kick off his shoes and break out the smoking jacket and pipe. His work is done.
"I'm not questioning it. I'll play when Jerry wants me to play, and that's what he's decided will work," McLeod said with a shrug. "I ain't tripping or fussing about it."
Neither is Sloan, who didn't set out to invent a new role for his point guard. It just developed as the coach tried to cope with a problem he has never faced before: juggling three point guards.
"It's not a comfortable thing. You're sitting on pins and needles when you've got three guys, trying to sort things out," the coach said of his trio of McLeod, Milt Palacio and Deron Williams. "We've gotten off to a fairly good start in our games so far, but there hasn't been anybody who has stepped up enough so you'd say they've been overwhelming and deserve to play 40 minutes."
"I'm just trying to keep our guys as interested as possible," Sloan said.
But keeping McLeod off the floor in the fourth quarter may be making the games more, um, interesting, too. McLeod has played 92 percent of the minutes available in the first and third quarters thus far, and the Jazz have outscored the opposition three times out of four in the first period, and three out of four in the third. (The Jazz were outscored by Phoenix, 10-2, in the two minutes that McLeod missed in the third quarter Saturday.)
With McLeod on the bench in the second and fourth periods, however, the numbers are reversed: Utah has had a better second quarter than its opponent only once, and a better fourth quarter only once.
Nobody would suggest that McLeod is the sole reason for those numbers. But Sloan said he likes what he has seen from the 25-year-old guard. "He's had some struggles with his shot, but Keith is keeping us in our offense," Sloan said. "That's been encouraging."
Williams is the designated closer at the moment, and has had plenty of solid moments. Palacio has gotten far fewer chances, is frequently playing an unfamiliar two-guard position, and his effectiveness has suffered as a result. In Monday's overtime victory at Charlotte, for example, Palacio did not enter the game until 5:50 remained in regulation, a response to Charlotte's decision to play point guards Raymond Felton and Brevin Knight together.
It wasn't Palacio's best outing. He knocked over Felton for an offensive foul with 1:49 left, then stepped out of bounds for a turnover with 1:14 to go and the score tied. He committed three other fouls, sending the Bobcats to the line for six free throws (they made five). And he missed three of four free throws of his own, including a pair with the Jazz trailing by a point in overtime.
"It's tough" to ask a player to come in cold in the fourth quarter, Sloan said, "but he's a veteran."
Still, the thought of asking McLeod to make a rare homestretch appearance occurred to the coach.
"I talked it over with the [assistant] coaches a couple of times about possibly changing and putting Keith back out there," Sloan said. "But I went ahead with Milt because he's got experience and looks to get other people the ball."
Don't expect McLeod to go Terrell Owens over the lack of ninth-inning opportunities. He points at the Jazz's record - 3-1 heading into tonight's meeting with the Nets (5:30 p.m. MST, FSN Utah) - as proof that Sloan's rotation is working so far.
"I definitely want to play," McLeod said. "But if he goes with Deron and Milt and they're getting the job done, then I'm all for them. That's the important thing."
http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_3197007
New Keith McLeod article
Great article. I think Keith's shot will come around, but he has to keep doing everything else. Assists, defense, limiting turnovers, etc. He is 4-6 through the middle of the 3rd tonight, but the Jazz are down 9. Deron Williams will probably take over by the middle of the year, but there is no way that Milt Palacio should be playing over Keith.
