SLC Dunk

Another Sunday, another Syncopation . . . goodbye to December, New Years Resolutions, finding time for Jeremy Evans, and a look back at some Andrei Kirilenko.

December is over, and so is the year 2011 – good.

It was a really bad year for Jazz fans, and I’m not going to repeat that big, sad list of things I wrote about all the way back in Sunday Syncopation #45. (You are, of course welcome to read it, it’s a pretty big list talking about everything that went down for us in the last year) I think that 2012 is going to be the start of things turning around for our franchise again. We have a lot of piece right now, and some fit with each other, and some currently do not. January, more so than in other years, is going to be a learning month for our Jazz. I got into it a bit over in the Monthly review/preview thing going on that I call Jazz Route 66. We did not have much of a training camp, or a preseason. All the days saved from travel because of our homestretches should be used towards teaching, learning, watching film, and practices.

The main Achilles heel this season for our team isn’t going to be the number of games with little rest (God knows we’re resting a number of guys a little too much right now), it’s going to be the number of practices the Jazz can’t hold due to the compacted schedule. January appears to be one of the only months where this is possible. And the Jazz have to make the most out of it.

In fact, the Jazz SHOULD be having a practice right now as I type this. It’s not like they played hard last night. So good riddance to 2011, and let’s bring up 2012.

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New Year’s Resolutions

If you are like me you’ve probably resolved to do something more in the next year, or do another thing less . . . but didn’t really stick with it. It’s always a fun exercise to be introspective about the previous year, and honestly think of something we can improve; and then just say ‘forget about it’ in another few months. In that vein, here are a few resolutions for our Utah Jazz Family:

• Raja Bell – "I resolve that if I’m taking away Alec Burks’ minutes I can take him under my wing during practice and in games to help him reach the NBA level sooner."
• Alec Burks – "I resolve to be patient and ready for when my number is called. Young players can make quantum leaps in this organization, and I can be one of them."
• Jeremy Evans – "I resolve to smile on the court less, and do things like this more often."

• Derrick Favors – "I resolve to never attempt a layup again, when I should be dunking it."
• Devin Harris – "I resolve to speed up the pace of the game more, and try to get us some easy baskets by pushing it in transition."
• Gordon Hayward – "I resolve to not get frustrated when I’m having a bad game, because I can help the team in more ways than just making shots."
• Josh Howard – "I resolve to most my game to what the team needs, and not what I think I can get from the team."
• Al Jefferson – "I resolve to prove all the doubters wrong by being the first option on a team that plays well, for once."
• Enes Kanter – "I resolve to work hard on my standing vertical jump. It is the only thing holding me back from averaging a double double as a rookie, off the bench."
• C.J. Miles – "I resolve to take it to the hole more."
• Paul Millsap-- "II resolve to do more of those crazy face-up dribble moves when the play breaks down."
• Jamaal Tinsley – "I resolve to shoot the ball a bit more this year."
• Earl Watson – "I resolve to shoot the ball a bit less than I did in December."
• Tyrone Corbin – "I resolve to call time outs more, and objectively recognize who is and is not earning playing time, with some level of internal consistency."
• Kevin O’Connor – "I resolve to be scouting the draft really effing well right now."
• Greg Miller – "I resolve to tell my Land Cruisers I love them at least ten times every day. Merely five times a day isn’t nearly enough."

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• Jazz Fans – "We ALL resolve to take a chill pill sometimes, we’re only 4 games into the season."

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Video of the Week:

…sigh…

Thanks to JazzBasketball1 on YouTube for this.

An athletic defender who does all the hustle plays, likes to facilitate the offense by making the pass to the guy who gets the assist . . . and blocks shots . . .looking at the December Player and Team stats it really hit home for me that he’s gone. We’re going to miss Andrei for a lot of reasons, probably the most underrated one is the fact that he used to do things for our team that our team sorely needed.

...sigh...

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Stats Class

No stats class today, go re-read my stats piece for December again.

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Finding a place for Jeremy Evans

All of us arm chair coaches have at some time or another tried to figure out how much each guy on our team should be playing. I’m not going to go into it here, except to mention that Jeremy Evans is a problem. He’s a problem because he does things so well when he’s on the court. I don’t expect him to be able to play 40 mpg, or even to maintain his absurd production if he was playing 20 mpg a night. I do think that in a just and reasonable world, he should be play more than 6.5 mpg. If he was making a fool of himself when he was on the court, or not running the plays, I could see a reason to keep him on the bench. It is almost criminally absurd to keep him glued to the bench. It’s even more absurd when you look at his (and Alec Burks’) efficiency and compare it to that of Josh Howard and C.J. Miles. Hopefully in the next few weeks well see all four of those guys have nice contributions for us. Right now Miles and Howard are shooting in the 30 fg% range, and Evans and Burks are double that. Burks will get his time, I do not doubt it. Evans is the guy I worry for. Right now he’s behind every SF and PF on the roster. Which sucks.

LET THE ELEVATOR GO TO THE TOP FLOOR!

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Hope you didn’t miss . . . .

all the science that we Jazz fans are dropping . . . check it ALL out at:

• http://www.theutahjazzblog.com/ -- Clint's got a great piece on the Spurs game there, must read!
  
• http://jazzfanatical.wordpress.com/
• http://www.saltcityhoops.com/
  
• http://jazzfanz.com/

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Did you know . . . ?:

…that Andrei Kirilenko has eighty seven 20 points games, and three 30 point games in his career? He also has 75 double doubles with points and rebounds, and 6 double doubles with points and assists. While he only has two triple doubles, he has 8 games of at least 5 points, rebounds, assists, and steals. He has 19 games of at least 5 points, rebounds, assists, and blocks. He has three 5x5s, and missed out on a handful more. On March 23rd, 2004 he missed it by 1 steal. On March 19th, 2005 he missed it by 2 steals. On November 30th, 2007 he missed it by 1 block. He also has 9 5 x 4’s (at least 4 in each category). It is good to note that Andrei only played 40+ mins in any of these games mentioned less than 5 times.