Trey Burke quietly had a pretty productive rookie season. The point guard out of Columbus, Ohio made the 1st team All-Rookie team, and was the catalyst to a young Utah Jazz team. I will say that last season’s rookie class was forgettable, but I feel that Burke was one of few gems in that rookie class. Burke, who is going into his second season will look to blossom in his second season. With a year of game experience, and a healthy start to the season will give Burke an advantage to be an even better player this season. Last year Burke missed four weeks due to a broken finger, and he didn’t play his first game until November 20, 2013.
The Jazz were 1-12 without Burke at the beginning of last season, and its tough to crawl out of a hole that deep. As a rookie Burke was placed in no man’s land with a team with dismal winning percentage, and then head coach Ty Corbin not placing Burke in position to succeed to the best of his abilities. Burke ended up averaging close to 13.0 ppg and 5.7 apg, and in the month of April, Burke played his best basketball and averaged close to 16.0 ppg and 9.0apg.
Fast forwarding to this season, Burke is playing under new head coach Quin Snyder, and during this year’s preseason it is pretty clear that Burke has improved as a player. All of numbers are up across the board, and the one thing that continues to stick out is the lack of turnovers from the young point guard, and an improvement of shooting percentage. Burke shot less than 40% last season, and during this preseason Burke, is shooting around 45% from the field, and over 50% from three-point land. Burke’s shooting percentages and lack of turnovers show that he put the time to work on his shooting, and it also states that his decision making is better with more familiarity to the NBA game. The Utah Jazz have a decent team, and with the improvement Burke, Hayward, Kanter, Favors to go along with the new system infused by Quin Snyder the Jazz should have more to smile about this season. The better the players around Burke the better he will be, and with that said Burke is on his way to become the next good point guard in the Salty Lake City.
