The Jazz's 3-point woes (both making and defending) have been documented and highlighted in recent losses. Ty Corbin has said that he's not a real big fan of the 3-point shot, but I think many of us were probably surprised to hear of the Jazz's new signing--DeMarre Carroll--and find out that he's not a shooter.
Earl Watson on KALL:
[Denver] emphasize taking a lot of 3s, they emphasize shooting the ball, they emphasize and encourage from long range. That's not our style of play, nor should it be. But I think we have to find a balance, because we have so many talented bigs and we have guys on the team now that's capable of being really, really good 3-pointer shooters. ...
I was reading where we are Top 5 field goal percentage offense, but we shoot the ball so poorly from the 3-pointer. But that's not really what we emphasize. We attack the paint; we go through our bigs.
When you think of all the guys the Jazz have let go of over the past few years--Kyle Korver, Wesley Matthews, Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur--your head starts to hurt. It seems like our most pressing roster need for years has been a reliable shooter.
I realize that you can't do something just because everyone else is, but when you consider the current state and direction of the NBA, should the Jazz give the three-point shot more emphasis in their offense (assuming, of course, that we have guys that can make them)?
Ty Corbin on Eric Brooks (Alec Burks)' lack of playing time (KALL):
He understand that I want to get him quality minutes on the floor, and because of where we are now and the way things are going, it's my fault. I just haven't had a chance to find minutes for him. I talked to him about staying ready, and he'll continue to work as much as he can in the time off and the time we have on the practice floor to continue to get better.
Burks' development is something I've been thinking about lately. One of the areas where he can improve is shot selection/frequency. If he's only getting garbage minutes on the rare occasion that he does gets minutes, those tendencies could get worse because what is there to do during garbage time but shoot? In other words, is playing garbage time more detrimental to his development than no playing time at all?
Some of my favorite Jazz moments are when you get to see players' personalities, and they shine through in this Jazzland post by the Deseret News' Jody Genessy:
Watson to Evans: "You want me to talk for you?"
Watson to me: "I'm his dunk agent."
Watson then talked about the viral campaign of Evans' video that showed him dunking over the 6-1 guard. "Bang. And we're pushing it—Twitter, Facebook."
Evans interrupting: "Everything, you name it."
Watson talking over Evans: "Website."
Evans interjecting again: "Photo Bucket."
Watson: "We sending out text message pictures."
Evans: "I've been on Photo Bucket."
Watson: "We’ve got G-Time putting it up on Butler highlights on the JumboTron at Butler."
Evans: "Even D-Fav's Georgia Tech. We've got all that."
There's a lot more, so be sure to click on the link above and put Jazzland in your RSS reader if you haven't already.
You know what amazes me when I think of how hard it's been for Jazz players to get All-Star recognition in recent years? How many years Karl Malone and John Stockton made the All-Star Game and started in the All-Star Game "despite" playing in Utah. Did they dominate their positions that much, or was it just a different era? Thanks to @prodigyJF, here's a Karl and John All-Star 1988-1997 All-Star mix:
Note: no wild dream this week. Sorry. My dreams have just been non-basketball related and kind of boring.
And so the Jazz roster now stands at 14. If you missed the news, the Jazz signed FA DeMarre Carroll. He's a 6-8 Forward, most recently out of Denver (four games played this season). He's taken six shots this year and made them all. He's a career 41% shooter, but he does not shoot threes. Except for the rebounding, he seems like kind of an extremely poor man's Kenneth Faried.
Thus far in his career, his best performance was his second game in the league: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and 5 fouls in 32 minutes against the Toronto Raptors.
Why the Jazz signed him is a bit of a mystery—especially since they already have 3 decent players that have a hard time getting playing time.
Some started thinking trade conspiracies as soon as he was signed. Or maybe it's because the Jazz liked his hustle. Perhaps they wanted to have two 7-man teams for inter-squad scrimmages. Me?
I believe the Dwarves felt uncomfortable going after a dragon with a party of 13, and Gandalf had to get creative to get a luckier number. Now can he find a magic ring to: 1) save our butts and 2) bring on an apocalyptic war 60 years after we win back Esgaroth?
Many moons ago, when the Jazz sat at 6-3 after five straight wins (four of which were against suspect teams), I wrote that the next 15 games would be a sample better representative of the NBA: some bad teams, some mediocre teams, and some good teams. How did the Jazz do? They went 7-8. Considering they still had a fairly easy schedule in terms of home vs. away games, that has to be disappointing.
And now the schedule gets harder.
People are starting to notice our young guys—and not only that we have several of them. Hayward has been chosen for the rookie/sophomore game. He's excited, but in classic Hayward form can't help but defer some of the honor to his teammates:
Sebastian Pruiti (the former NBAPlaybook.com guy who now writes for Grantland) has released an updated rookie rankings, and our own Enes Kanter makes his number 3 spot. This is awesome, because Kanter doesn't just get a write-up—when you're in the top 5 you get an NBAPlaybook.com-style video to go with you.
Here's a bit of what Pruiti has to say:
Kanter has done a very good job of moving without the ball. When his teammates drive into the lane, he finds space around the rim, catches the ball, and finishes in traffic. Kanter scores 1.192 points per possession while cutting away from the ball, and this puts him in the top 50 percent of NBA players.
I think most of us have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly Kanter is developing.
True Hoops just launched a new blog that I think could be filled with brilliant stuff. It's called HoopIdea, and it's dedicated to rule/system changes that could be made to make NBA basketball better. Here's its basic thesis:
We want a purer form of basketball. When you play a pickup game, the game flows continuously. No one is trying to get the other team in foul trouble. No one calls a timeout. Defenders don’t worry about the restricted area, or try to take charges. No way. Players try to make plays.
That’s what we want to see: Players making plays. Great passes. Superior teamwork. Spectacular action. Strong defense. Fantastic shots. Amazing dunks. Great basketball, all the time.
Some of the suggestions in the comments are predictably gimmicky and idiotic (4-on-4 in overtimes, soccer-style substitutions, 4 points for a half-court shot—I think Celtic fans just relived the Antoine Walker years with that suggestion and almost died). But I'm curious to see what they come up with in the actual blog posts.
Me? I don't know what rule changes would fix things, but the worst in-game frustrations are ticky-tack fouls and flops. I also have a scheduling crusade: 62 game season. I'll explain why sometime.
Open poll:
Does anything change regarding what you hope to see each game if the Jazz are or are not a playoff team?
For me it makes all the difference in the world—but I'm curious if others are the same.
I HATE losing, really really badly. I hate that we have lost two in a row and six out of our last ten. I like when we win and it was much better when we had won seven out of eight. I hate that we are getting beaten by point guards. Any point guard, take your pick and this year he will be a Jazz Killer. (OK minus Fisher and inexplicably DWILL) When it was just Beaubois I didn't think much of it but when things start to trend, I start to worry. Last night Collison was the latest of the point guards to exploit the Jazz. You think they would have learned their lesson from playing Lin the night before but apparently not. Darren Collison had 24 points last night with 17 of those coming in the first half, he set the tone and the Jazz crumbled under the pressure. Yes the Jazz came back to take the lead but couldn't finish out the game.
The loss against Indiana hurts us in the standings.
Ninth place is bad. Clark warned us yesterday that we would fall out of the playoffs and well the Jazz listened to him and fell out they did. The Jazz dropped 4 spots with just one loss. Tuesday morning we were in 5th place and now we sit in 9th. We may get back into the playoffs before we play on Friday, who knows in the wild, wild, west.
More concerning to me then just a few losses in a row are the way we are losing. All teams go through slumps, but when we come out how we did against NY and then repeat that against Indiana for a half, its discouraging. I like to see effort and for six out of the last eight quarters of basketball, I haven't really seen it. Yay that that the two quarters of effort were the last two and hopefully the Jazz can build on that play.
Things can be worse. This day 37 years ago this happened:
On this date in 1975, the New Orleans Jazz got their first road win in franchise history, ending a 28 game road losing streak. The Jazz beat the Hawks in Atlanta 106-102 to improve their record to 7-44
Source: AP Sportlight/Associated Press
I guess the Jazz got the win on the road in 1975 but it took them 28 tries! Winning on the road takes time as a team. I know we are considered a "young team" but are we really? I mean four out of our five starters are not that young. So maybe its more about time together as a team and experience than actual age?
Did you know that the Jazz are 1-7 when their opponent scores 100+ points? ( the Pacers scored 104 yesterday) That is pretty dreadful stat. I wonder what happened to the amazing defense that we were seeing in January. I also wonder why we struggle in high-scoring games. Its curious to me since we are still a top 10 offensive team.
Another weird "finding' is that we are 3-3 in games that are decided by 3 points or less. I thought it would be worse than that for some reason . It seems like at the end of the game yesterday, against Toronto and against the Clippers we really didn't have plays to go to in the closing minutes of the game. Do the players shrink from the spotlight (they are 1-6 in nationally televised games)? Does Ty not have any end of close game plays or is it simply we lack a closer?
I miss when our players could do this: ( yes I am over the trade)
I know this a downer downbeat but if Amar can put picture of a train wreck in his game preview for how the Jazz are doing I can do a downer downbeat. Here is something happy just because we all do love the Jazz (thanks Prodigy/MemoisMoney)
So my question for today is:
As if beating us wasn't enough:
The Knicks had to go and poke fun at Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson's intimate moment from earlier in the year. Thanks, Jerks.
We are two days away from the league naming the reserves for the two All-Star teams and Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated, Marc Stein of ESPN, and Sekou Smith of NBA.com all believe that Paul Millsap is deserving of a wild card spot among the reserves from the West. It is important to note that since all of these guys picked Millsap as a wild card, he isn't beating out Lamarcus Aldridge or Kevin Love, two guys I think are more deserving than Millsap, but he's beating out guys like Kyle Lowry, Pau Gasol, or Tony Parker. I think that Millsap is deserving of being in the All-Star game, even in light of last night's poor performance. He's clearly the best player on a decent team and I think he has been better than Pau, Lowry, Parker, et al. He is still a top 10 player in the league in terms of Hollinger's PER. I also think that the second half of last year should be taken into account as a tiebreaker of sorts. But I would be very surprised if he was named a wild card. I just don't see it happening. And if I had to choose, I would choose for none of the Jazz players to have to go to Orlando. I would rather have them get 5 days off and a chance to heal. And as we know from Jazz commercials, they would just use those days to get better, not to rest.
It has been a fun season and there have been some great games, but the clock is close to striking midnight on this team. I'm afraid that once the Jazz fall out of the playoff standings, they may never see them again. But one reason I have a hard time believing in this team is because the Jazz are not a good road team, as evidenced last night when they failed against New York's Junior Varsity squad. Over the last 5 years, including 3 years where the Jazz were a playoff team, they only won 40% of their road games. If you combine that with the Jazz's current 2-6 road record this season, you are looking at something between an 11-22 and 14-19 record on the road this season. That will be hard to overcome, especially when you look at the many great teams that have yet to visit us at home (OKC, MIA, SA, DAL). I think it's great to believe in this Jazz team. I know many of you consider them a playoff team. But my self-proclaimed job is to provide evidence and a lot of it is weighing this team down.
Congratulations to TazzJazzFan and all you others who smarmily guessed my really easy trivia question from yesterday. The answer was Karl Malone, because the jersey numbers were doubling. 2-Stevenson, 4-Dantley, 8-Deron, 16-Elson, 32-Mailman.
For today, what do these players have uniquely in common?
Karl Malone, John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Moses Malone, Isiah Thomas
Open poll: How many Jazz players represent the team during the All-Star festivities and who are they?
ICYMI: @ZacLambert came across Pioneer Woman Jerry Sloan in the hallway of his church:
For some of us, while the lockout dragged on we were either removed enough from that sickening feeling resulting from losses or so desperate for the lockout to end that it was easy to get on baoard with on the "screw winning, develop the young players" movement. Now that we're a third of the way through the season (and ridiculously voting for All-Stars six weeks into the season, but I digress) and experiencing the joys of winning and the AAAARRRGGHHH! of losing on an almost nightly basis, has your stance in the Win Now vs. Develop Players debate changed? Is there a happy medium to be found here, or would committing to neither result in neither getting accomplished?
You probably remember when Twitter was starting to go mainstream (which was way, way after our own TazzJazzFan signed up), the media asked Jerry Sloan about it and he said that he didn't even know how to turn on a computer.
At the time, they also asked Jazz players about Twitter. As both have since become Twitter users, Jarron Collins and Matt Harpring's attempts to explain what Twitter was and their opinions of people that use Twitter are now pretty funny.
Jamaal Tinsley's play last night was one of my favorite performances by a Jazzman this season so far. You really just can't help but root for the guy the way he's been rooting for his teammates all year. It didn't amount to anything, but check out this move when he dribbled between the legs of David Lee:
Note: Sorry for the late DB. I have sick kids, which meant I spent the morning doing the bane of every teacher's existence: preparing Last-second Emergency Sub Plans. Ugh.
I'm bummed the Jazz lost last night. At the same time, I loved the game.
I loved the fast pace in the first half. I loved how the subs were able to push it to a 10-point lead in the early 2nd quarter. I loved the grind and spit-fight between the two teams in the second half. I loved that the Clips obviously came out pissed off at being embarrassed in the last game—and I loved that the Jazz stuck it right back at them. I loved watching two superstars go crazy against us (that would be the Clips). I loved watching 8 guys giving everything they had on the other side (that would be us—sorry Josh Howard, you can't be included).
And do you know what else I loved? That our guys weren't calling it a "moral victory" or anything of the sort. Here's CJ:
And a CJ quote from (via SLTrib.com)
I don’t take anything from this. It’s a loss. I felt like it is a game we should have won. We had a chance to win. That beginning of that third quarter really hurt us. We missed a bunch of easy shots and a lot of jump shots. And then towards the end we had chances. They made big shots, and we had a couple we didn’t convert.
I feel like Marilla Cuthbert discovering Anne Shirley's been recommended to take a test to attend college. Reading this stuff from CJ Miles, watching him become a really good player and showing some pretty nice leadership, I'm left staring gape-eyed and crying out in pride: "Really? Our CJ?"
I think most fans look at a loss last night, not necessarily as a "moral victory", but still differently than a player: with an eye looking for good things. Afterall, that's what we care about: whether our team is consistently awesome or on the right path to getting there. And here's what looked like it's on the right path:
Of course, it wasn't all sunny roses:
Something called the "Lob City Ledger" was impressed with the Jazz. After giving grades to their Clippers heroes (Paul, Griffin, and Mo of course), they decided to hand out a grade to the Jazz:
Clips Nation had this to say about the Jazz:
Give a lot of credit to Utah in this one. Those boys came to play, and never gave up for a second. The Clippers opened the game with an alley-oop from Paul to Griffin, and followed that up with a series of big time finishes at the rim. But the Jazz continuously had an answer, looking to get out and run from the outset, putting a great deal of pressure on the Clippers. While Paul Millsap struggled tonight, Al Jefferson was terrific, torching the Clipper bigs with 18 points on 9/11 shooting in the first half. Throughout the entire game, the Jazz looked to push, allowing them to get transition points and trips to the free throw line. In addition, getting the ball across half court allowed them to initiate their offense early in the shot clock, assuring quality possession after quality possession. A lot of credit is owed to Coach Tyrone Corbin. He has done an excellent job of getting his team to execute what looks a whole lot like Jerry Sloan's old offense, without a great passing point guard. We saw some really nifty sets tonight, with Utah running diversionary double cuts pulling in the entire Clipper defense, followed by a third cut leading to an easy layup. They also executed great simple back cuts for easy points as well. Really great stuff, and maximum effort for 48 minutes as well.
Poll:
Oh, and another odd Jazz dream I had after the jump:
Over the past few weeks, here at SLC Dunk, we've written about Paul Millsap and Jeremy Evans participating in All-Star weekend. Not to be over looked are our Rookies, Burks and Kanter. Previously, Alec Burks has gotten love from Sebastian Pruiti in his weekly NBA Rookie Rankings at Grantland. This week he places Kanter at number 10 on the list (Burks gets mentioned with "The Rest" at the end of the article). The big men he ranks above him are Jon Leuer (averaging 25 minutes a night) and Markieff Morris (21 minutes) and have really been the only ones to play better than him. Kanter has also had an article written about him by Scott Howard-Cooper at nba.com, in which he offers high praise for the the young Turk that is, by most accounts, exceeding expectations for his first season. That article is here. Hopefully this attention adds up to the rebounding machine getting an invite to the Rookie-Sophomore Game in Orlando.
As for Burks, he is going to have a more difficult time. The Rookie Ladder rankings at nba.com is a guard love fest that seems to be based on which one is jacking up the most shots. Check the list out here, then look at the numbers at basketball-reference.com. Burks has played almost half as many minutes as most of the players on that list, but is shooting better than all but one (they're all pretty bad). His PER is 3rd best and his DRTG is second best. We'll see how it plays out, but a couple of more good outings while he's getting more minutes with Raja out, and he could help himself.
Next we can look at the Sophs. As Locke has noted many times on the radio and his blog, the sophomores are struggling this year. The only PF/C that are playing as well as Favors are Cousins and Monroe, who are both on pretty bad teams, and again are doing it with more minutes. If you look at the comparison and check out the per 36, they are all fairly even.
Hayward, on the other hand, is in the same boat as Burks, but added is his noted struggles shooting this season. However, its not as bad as you may think. Here is the comparison for the rookie small forwards. Paul George is having a great season, but Hayward is not far behind. He is leading in assists and steals, and has the second best PER.
It probably won't be possible to see all of our young guys at All-Star Weekend, so if you had to choose one rookie and one sophomore, who do you think should represent the Jazz, and why?
Well, it happened, and we all survived. Jimmer Fredette came to town and left and the Utah Jazz pretty much remained intact. I'll admit, that I don't get what all the hullabaloo was about. If you didn't know that there was going to be some craziness, or fans who only came to the Jazz game to cheer Jimmer, then I'm not sure you've been paying attention. I think we can all agree, that it is probably for the best that the Jazz didn't draft Jimmer, just from all the attention it would have taken away from professional basketball and the Utah Jazz. But for two nights a season, I don't mind a little ridiculous excitement. Everyone comes to professional sporting events for different reasons and no reason is better than another. According to the SLTrib, Alec Burks was a little taken aback by all the commotion.
"I have never seen anything like that. That’s crazy the way he gets that recognition. I thought Jay-Z or someone had walked up, but it was just Jimmer. So it’s crazy."
Gordon Hayward had a similar response*, with one difference. Hayward said, "It's crazy how everyone loves Jimmer. I thought all-star rapper TJ Fredette had walked up, but it was just his little brother Jimmer. It was crazy."
I found this tweet by fellow Jazz fan Dustin Turner interesting:
Besides Dustin being the first Jazz fan I've ever heard claiming to have correctly predicted the Deron Williams trade, I thought the idea behind this particular trade he alludes to was interesting. The trade wouldn't work by just being a swap of Marion and Beaubois for Howard or Miles under the rules of the CBA. But the Mavs could trade Beaubois and Brian Cardinal for Josh Howard as long as the Jazz agreed to take Shawn Marion and his 3 years/$25 million contract into their trade exception in a seperate trade. But even if I don't think the Mavs would make this trade, I do think it brings up a good point. The Jazz are in a position to absorb somebody's bad contract for a couple of years, WHILE taking on a talented young player or draft picks along with it, much like Oklahoma City did for us with Matt Harpring and Eric Maynor. So take that to the trade machine with you. Go find some bad contracts (where the first year is under $10.8 million) and trade them to the Jazz along with some picks or young talent on that same roster. It's fun. i'll see you in an hour.
The play, or really the overall energy of the team was a little discouraging this weekend. They looked tired and apathetic at times against the Mavericks and sloppy and distracted against the Kings. I saw Paul Millsap take some heat for his lackadaisical play and I agree that he looked disinterested for the first time this season. But I think we assume that Millsap gets worn down as the season progresses, or as games are played closer together, but as you can see from this graphic, that isn't the case.
You can take away my Jazz fan card, but I have yet to get a chance to listen to the Karl Malone appearance on 1280 the Zone from Friday. I have heard bits and pieces of what was said, but I would love to be filled in a little more. So tell me (and others) what I missed. What did Karl Malone say that rang true to you? What was the funniest thing? What was the most ludicrous thing he said? Congrats to rxmike, who correctly guessed the last Utah Jazz trivia question. The answer was "Utah Jazz players with a colorful nickname." For his efforts, rxmike won this bib:
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