Tag Archives: Utah Jazz

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Filed Under: '09 - '10 Season, NBA, Season Predictions by KraverWP — Leave a comment
02/13/2010

Now that the All-Star game is over, it’s a good time to look back at the NBA season so far, and also ahead at what’s to come.

I’ve made a bunch of predictions on this site, and voiced multiple opinions, and now is as good a time as any to see whether the season is shaping up consistent with my predictions and opinions.

Starting with the Eastern Conference overall, I predicted the following playoff teams:
1. Orlando
2. Boston
3. Cleveland
4. Atlanta
5. Miami
6. Chicago
7. Charlotte
8. Washington

Just about everyone expected Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and Atlanta to be the top-4, and it looks like they will be. I don’t deserve any credit for getting that group right, nor do I think I deserve to be knocked for the fact they will apparently finish in a different order. If the playoffs ended right now, the only one of the teams I picked to be in that would not be in is Washington. I’ll give myself a pass on that one because of everything that has happened in Washington, but I seem to have underestimated the Raptors, who, at 29-23, are currently the #5 team in the East.

Out West, I predicted the following:
1. Lakers
2. Nuggets
3. Spurs
4. Mavericks
5. Trailblazers
6. Hornets
7. Suns
8. OKC

I’ll give myself a pass for picking the Hornets (who, if the season ended today, would not be in), because my pick was motivated by the man-crush I have on Chris Paul, and he has been injured for a significant part of the season. I’ll give myself credit for picking the Suns and Thunder, both of whom were not in the playoffs last year, and would be in if the season ended today. And I’ll beat myself up for sleeping on the Jazz, who, at the moment, are the #3 seed.

Looking at some of my opinions more specifically, I was a big supporter of the Sixers’ decision to sign Allen Iverson. Before Iverson’s first game, Philly was 5-15. Right now, they are 20-32, which means that they’ve been 15-17 since the signing. Where I come from, that’s called an improvement. Granted, Iverson has missed a bunch of games since he came back, so it wouldn’t be fair to say that he turned the team around. But, it also wouldn’t be fair to say that the Sixers made a mistake by signing him. I’ll give myself credit for that opinion. (It’s fun to grade yourself, by the way… you can give yourself credit for just about anything, as long as you can come up with some justification that makes sense to yourself.)

Another opinion that has, so far, stood the test of time, was the opinion I expressed, on November 29th, that people were getting a bit too carried away about Brandon Jennings. At that time, the Bucks had a winning record, Jennings had recently put up a 55-point game, and people were in a tizzy about this rookie who dropped in the draft. I said that people were getting carried away. Right now, the Bucks no longer have a winning record, so I’ll give myself credit for that opinion, as well.

Then there’s the ranting I did about the Jazz. On January 28, I asked who on the Jazz was overrated: Williams, Boozer, or Sloan. I said that one of them had to be, because each was highly regarded, and, yet, the Jazz were nothing special.

Well… Ummm… Huh.

The Jazz, if the season ended today, would be the #3 seed out West. They’re 9-1 in their last 10 games. I think it’s safe to say that I was wrong about that one.

Yeah.

In fact, that one leaves me with so much egg on my face that it almost wipes out any credibility I developed otherwise.

So… now that my predictions seem to be right only slightly more often than they are wrong, it seems that I’m not particularly good at making predictions. Therefore, of course, I’ll make some more predictions:

Cleveland, currently the #1 seed in the East, will not be in the Finals. (NOTE: They might make a major trade, which could obviously change things.) When they are not, the conventional wisdom will be that LeBron has no teammates who know how to play the game, even though those teammates are all good enough to contribute to a 43-11 team.

Utah, currently the #3 seed out West, will finish lower than #3.

San Antonio, currently the #5 seed out West, will win at least one playoff series.

The Nets will win at least 9 games, but only barely.

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Who On The Jazz Is Overrated?

Filed Under: Comparing Players / Teams, NBA, Talking About Hoops by KraverWP — Leave a comment
01/28/2010

No, I’m not asking whether anyone on the Jazz is overrated. I’m asking who on the Jazz is overrated. Specifically, I want to know this: between Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and Jerry Sloan, who is overrated? And don’t tell me that none of them is overrated.

I’ll get into the discussion in a bit, but first a bit of a digression… I hate the Jazz. They’re my least favorite team in the league. Frankly, I’m not even sure why that is. I think it has a lot to do with their name: Utah Jazz is one of the stupidest names I can imagine for a team. There ain’t no Jazz in Utah. There was Jazz in New Orleans, where the team used to play. The name made sense for a team from New Orleans. It’s a stupid name for a team from Utah. It’s like calling a team the Bronx Cornhuskers. Or the Miami Polar Bears. It’s just dumb, and, worse, because the name comes from New Orleans, hearing the words “Utah Jazz” reminds me that sports teams should have a connection to their hometown, and reminds of how much I dislike it when a team picks up and moves without acknowledging that it loses some of its character in the process.

But, to be fair, that can’t be the entire reason I hate the Jazz. I mean, “Lakers” made sense for a team from Minneapolis, but, when the team moved to Los Angeles, keeping the name “Lakers” hardly made sense. That’s the same thing I just complained about the Jazz doing, and, yet, I don’t hate the Lakers.

So, there must be some other reason. I don’t know what it is. Maybe I’m just jealous that most Jazz fans get to practice polygamy and I don’t. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, I don’t like the Jazz. Or their fans. At all.

Ok, digression over…

The Jazz have been on my mind recently, more than they usually are. I think it’s because I listen to the NBA Today podcast, and, within the last 10 days:
– Rick Bucher came on with a list of his top 10 players in the league, and included Deron Williams, and
– A segment was devoted to talking about where Carlos Boozer will end up next year, as if he’s some kind of star and it really matters for the league what team he winds up in.

Another reason the Jazz are on my mind is that they have been winning recently. They are, at the moment, the #4 seed in the West. Not bad. But, they’re only 2 games ahead of the #9 seed, so they aren’t exactly setting the league on fire, either. Yet, if Williams, Boozer, and Sloan were all living up to their reputations, this would be a top 2 or 3 team in the whole league.

Think about it: Williams and Boozer were both on the 2008 Olympic team. Thus, important people in important places think they’re very good players. The Jazz are the only team in the NBA with two guys from that Olympic team on it. I look at it this way: if those guys were really worthy of being Olympians, then you’d have to think that the Jazz would be a top 2 or 3 NBA team unless they had either (i) a monkey for a coach, or (ii) a roster filled with crippled dudes.

Not only is Jerry Sloan not a monkey, but he’s a HALL OF FAMER. Yup. His reputation is so sterling that he got elected to the Hall of Fame. Watch a Jazz game and listen to the commentators; they’ll go on and on about what an amazing coach he is. It’s like he broke into Brett Favre’s suitcase, and stole some of the Broadcaster Pixie Dust.

I’m not saying the guy can’t coach, but the Hall of Fame? Seriously? A Hall of Fame coach leading a team with 2 guys from the Olympic team, and they’re only 2 games ahead of the #9 seed? I’m sorry. One of those 3 dudes is overrated. Maybe 2. Or all 3.

As I said, maybe we could make sense of this if they were surrounded by a roster of crippled dudes. But they aren’t. There are 4 other guys on the roster who average double-figure points-per-game. There are 3 other guys on the roster who average more than 4 boards per game (including 2 who average more than 6). Kirilenko is consistently one of the league leaders in both steals and rebounds.

To be sure, this supporting cast is no All-Star team. But the supporting cast shouldn’t have to be a bunch of All-Stars for the Jazz to be successful, BECAUSE THE GUYS THAT THE SUPPORTING CAST ARE SUPPORTING INCLUDE TWO OLYMPIANS AND A HALL OF FAME COACH.

Yet, they’re only 2 games ahead of the #9 seed. So at least one of those 3 dudes must be overrated. Which one is it?

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