There is not much good news for the Utah Jazz this season, which has been mired in injury waves and on-court combinations, and the poor record is not much, but one of them must be the Italian player Simone Jr. Fontecchio, who is bringing the confidence he gained from the summer and the adaptation he gained from the second year, has been eyeing his impressive improvements, not only in the shooter position, but also in showing the potential of his vision and rebounding ability, and his desperate defense for teams lacking wing depth, which has made him one of the team's key rotation players.
The Italian NBA sophomore, the rookie year performance is not stable, plus the team does not give much playing time and ball possession, in good physical conditions, it highlights the lack of self-confidence, including the first year of entering the league, he has played four teams in four different countries in the past four years, and his wonderful performance in Europe has made him more and more valuable and intensive, and finally came to the NBA, but this summer, his wife only expects one thing: can she stay in the same country and play on the same team this time?"Please don't be traded this summer".
The summer basketball tournament may have been a turning point, returning to Italy to represent the national team, and after Paolo Banchero decided to play for the United States instead, Simone Fontecchio became the "Italian Jordan" - or his idol "Italian Kobe", not only showing his excellent skills and leadership skills, but also becoming the team's natural scoring pillar, showing strong offense and strong defense in the game, leading the team to win the quarterfinals, and contributing an average of 18 points per game56 rebounds, and was also selected as the second team of the best team in the World Cup, especially in the round of 16, with 30 points alone, leading the team to a narrow victory and promotion is the most critical.
The success of this international event not only brought him an aura of fame, but also boosted his self-confidence, which was reflected in his second year of NBA performance. In this chaotic season for the Utah Jazz, the team has regressed in almost all metrics, of course, due to a decline in personal data, but among the players who have returned to the team this season, Simone Fontecchio is the only player who has improved per game (63->8.7), which of course is also reflected in all the hit rate metrics associated with it.
These improvements in statistics are naturally due to the increase in playing time, which is due to the affirmation of head coach Will Hardy. In the start of the season with injuries and various situations, Simone Fontecchio actually didn't get much time, even if he played because the ball was mostly in the hands of the backcourt, he was mostly just turning back and running, but Simone Fontecchio did not complain, and still tried desperately to do what he could in the only time, especially in terms of the dismal defensive end this season, he received a lot of recognition and appreciation from the manager, Will Hardy said before" He's a fighter, he just keeps burying his face there and defending and it looks like he's in a boxing match and his hard work pays off."
The Jazz's mental uplift this season has almost coincided with Simone Fontecchio's start, because for Will Hardy, who is looking to build a new team culture this year, the Italian is the kind of player he wants: "He doesn't make excuses, he's willing to compete no matter what the situation is." Will Hardy also made it clear that Simone Fontecchio's second season has a very different kind of confidence, and believes that he can accomplish more - not just defensively, but also in the potential of multiple roles on the offensive end, "He's a good shooter, but he's not just a shooter, he can cut, run and defend, he's very athletic, he's not just catch & shoot, he could change a lot of people's perceptions of him."
In fact, in the middle of the season, Simone Fontecchio not only actively defended and grabbed boards, but also the flexibility on the offensive end and the shooting skills that can effectively help the team open up space, but also injected new offensive possibilities into the team, which naturally won the praise of the team's management and coaching staff. Will Hardy added that "Simone Fontecchio understands his role in the team and has turned consistency into confidence, which is what has driven him to flourish". During his tenure as a starter this season, Simone Fontecchio averaged 11 per game9 points 38 rebounds, 2 assists, 37He shot 9 percent from three-point range, scored in double figures in eight of his last 15 games, and scored a season-high 24 points against the Trail Blazers in the fourth quarter, and in one report, Simone Fontecchio is even considered the fifth-most reliable player in the Jazz roster based on an analysis of advanced data.
It also led him to draw more attention, such as comparing former Jazz player Bojan Bogdanovic, who has a similar development trajectory and style of play. The two are also foreign players who left their homeland to develop in the United States, and they have also established the status and strength of the top strikers outside the United States, both are 203cm forwards, and they are also mainly shooters and off-ball runners. Bojan Bogdanovic is certainly the better player now – and despite a 26-game losing streak, he's still the Pistons' top scorer since his return, and has proven himself past year as the Pacers' top scorer and Jazz's second scorer. But few people remember that when he first entered the league, Bojan Bogdanovic was regarded by the Nets as an existence enough to give up the renewal of Paul Pearce, but his performance was bleak, and it was not until his fifth year in the league that he began to become a player of the current level, but in fact, the Croatian averaged only 11 points per game in his second season, and his shooting percentage was even worse than Simone Fontecchio.
It's not fair to compare the Italian with his former Jazz brother, Simone Fontecchio still has the disadvantage of being two years later when he joined the league, and Bojan Bogdanovic once showed near-All-Star firepower and consistent shooter output, at this point in time, it is too heavy to ask or ** Simone Fontecchio can meet. But in the second year, there is a good turn of the turn, and we can really be optimistic about his growth, and at the same time, we also see that he has better body and athleticism than Bojan Bogdanovic, and it may be impossible to become an elite shooter, but the Italian star is expected to help the team in more aspects, such as cutting, defense and rebounding, and perhaps a more suitable template for him is a 3-and-D forward who develops a little more in the direction of Klay Thompson (of course, this is not the level of shooting).
Because of his upward performance since the summer this year, Simone Fontecchio has also received more attention, including Jazz Twitter because he has a post in Italian, Italian basketball** is a tabloid every three days, a big newspaper every five days, as the pride of Italian basketball, and around him is full of hope for the future of the national team. The prevailing perception now is that he has proven himself capable of standing in the NBA.
But can it further become a consistent starting point for a team?It's up to him to see how far he can grow, but at this point, the subtlety is the state of the team and his expiring contract, the Jazz are now at an awkward point of ambiguity about the future, and Simone Fontecchio's two-year contract is about to expire, although the seedlings are sprouting, but the current situation of the team and the number of personnel, can he continue to give him a lot of time to hone and grow (after Lauri Markkanen and John Collins both returned, he is back on the bench for the time being)?And if you train him to break out of the cocoon, is it destined to leave at this point in time, which is equivalent to helping others get married?If you don't give him time, how can you expect him to grow into what the team expects?
This big headache is left to the team and the coach to worry about for the time being, let's first observe and enjoy, another foreign player looking for a dream, can Cinderella become Snow White's struggle story!