Utah Jazz Player Profile: Alec Burks

Feb 22, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Utah Jazz guard Alec Burks (10) against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center. The Timberwolves defeated the Jazz 100-98. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE

PLAYER: Alec Burks

HEIGHT: 6’6”

COLLEGE: Colorado

NUMBER: 10

POSITION: G

YEARS w/JAZZ: 2011-Present

Alec Burks is an exciting young player for the Utah Jazz.  He is fearless on the court and plays like he is the best player on the floor.  He has a knack for drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line.  Most say his shooting is below average but he showed last year he is capable of making a jump shot when needed.  Below I have posted a link for a highlight video from his college career at Colorado.

I’ll bet I watched that video 20 or 30 times last year before the season started while we all waited for the terrible dark times of the lockout to end.  In college Alec was the go to guy for Colorado and, as you can see in the video, shined in that roll.  The kid looks like a real player, if the Jazz can just give him a push in the right direction we could have something really great here in Burks.  I read an article recently that compared Burks to D-Wade, now i’m not saying that I agree with the article completely but you can see similarities in the way they both play.  Both came into the league as below average shooters but are great at getting to the rim.  Wade’s numbers as a rookie were significantly better then Burks but he did also get more playing time. I don’t believe that Burks will be the same caliber of player that Dwyane Wade is now but you never know what any player will turn into when given the time.  It’s possible.

One thing I keep hearing about Burks over and over again is how he is fearless on the court.  I have said myself a few times how he seems to play like he is the best player out there no matter who he is playing with.  If you put Burks as a rookie next to a guy like Gordon Hayward as a rookie you can definitely see a difference in the confidence level of the 2 players.  Gordon was dealing with Deron Williams yelling and barking orders at everything Gordon did.  It did nothing but kill his confidence, while Burks on the other hand is growing with this team and seems to only be encouraged by his teammates.

Last year Alec started the season playing behind Raja Bell and CJ Miles and as the season went on I could not figure out why we were still giving minutes to either of these guys.  Raja was not panning out the way Utah hoped when we brought him back to Utah, the highlight of his season was when he got T’d up for getting in Kobe’s face (which of course made all Jazz fans happy).  As for CJ Miles, all I can say is HALLELUJAH!!!!  HAVE FUN WITH THAT CLEVELAND!!!!  I could not for the life of me understand why we were still giving time to this failed 7 year project when we had the 12th overall pick sitting on the bench.  Watching the Jazz games at the end of last season, before CJ got hurt, consisted of me and my younger brother Jake ripping on CJ every time he touched the ball.

Moving forward this season looks a lot better if you’re Alec Burks.    CJ is off to Cleveland and Raja has thrown such a fit that I don’t see any way that he will ever play another second in a Jazz uniform.  We did pick up Marvin Williams, who will play the majority of his minutes at SF, and Randy Foye but I think Burks will see an increase in minutes this year.  Depending on who starts I think Burks will be one of the first 3 players off the bench.  If the Jazz play it right and get Alec minutes now, we’ll be able to see what kind of potential he has before we go through another 7 year CJ Miles situation.

I believe this off season will be most beneficial to the rookies from last year Burks and Kanter.  Last season had to be extremely crazy for those two since they had next to no preparation for the season and didn’t get a full season like other players get.  This year they get a full off season, they have a little bit of NBA experience and they have their teammates helping them out and guiding them on how to get better.  It’s great to see that this team has stuck together as far as their off season workouts.  I hope the team can use that chemistry to put together another great season this year.

So to wrap this all up i’m extremely excited for Alec Burks and the entire Jazz team this year.  It should be a very interesting season to see how Alec has progressed as a player.  Alec put on a show in the Orlando Summer League this off season posting 17.2 points per game.  I expect Alec to be a great player for the Jazz for many seasons to come and with this young core of players could be one of the major keys for how much the Jazz will be able to achieve moving forward.