A Little Retrospect On A Young Season

Posted by Brian McCann on November 12, 2008

‘Young Season – Bright Future’

Ok, so maybe this post should come in a month or so when we actually have a feel for this season, and how much better the Jazz really are. Fact is, they have yet to play a really good team (Portland could be pretty good, and the McNuggets certainly have potential if they can keep focused on basketball, rather than what kind of weapon they are “packing” on a particular night). But, never-the-less, it is fun to apply a little retrospect even if it’s limited. So these are my unbiased (well, I guess partially unbiased…) impressions of this years Jazz thus far.

1. Please Deron, please come back. I feel lost, hurt and alone. I don’t know what is going on out there half the time. Granted, Brevin makes Jason Hart look like he belongs on a middle school’s girls’ tennis team, and Price has done a decent job of keeping energy up. But there is something missing. It feels like we are back in the anti-climactic Carlos Arroyo era. Yeah, some nights things looked pretty good, but we all knew there was something missing. You could just kind of see it after watching Stock quarterback for all those years. It’s the same thing with Deron out; some nights it looks good, but never really controlled.
2. Booze is playing like he wants it. Let’s analyze this a little bit: Carlos comes to Utah with great expectations. Carlos gets hurt. Carlos gets hurt again. Carlos seems like he is always hurt. Jazz fans call him weak and unreliable. Carlos gets better and dominates. Carlos plays with a bad back. Carlos all of the sudden starts playing like a fat Vin Baker with the intensity of John Amaechi (wow, it really was THAT bad). Carlos comes back this season looking like an MVP. Conclusion? Well, my opinion is last spring he was emotionally spent from the health of his son and dealing with being away from his wife, and all of the frustration that entailed (they are all now happily living in Salt Lake-many thanks to the gods of basketball). Also, his back finally got to him. Was he going to complain? Would you complain after the most intense fans in all of sports ridiculed you for always being hurt? Instead, he just cowboyed up. Don’t expect a repeat come May.
3. Defense, defense, please play defense! Dramatic? Yes, because I am frustrated. They don’t look that bad, they just don’t look that good. They do look better than last season. Fact is trying to win games by simply out-scoring the competition doesn’t win championships (see Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns). Maning up and refusing to let the other team score does (see Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs). So…STEP IT UP.
   
4. Ronnie and Paul look pretty good and would play 32+ minutes a game for a lot of NBA teams.
   
5. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t lose another game to a lottery team on the road. This is a little out there. Yes it is going to happen again, but my natural reaction is to punch myself in the face every time they play a game like the one they did Sunday. At least we only play in New York once a year. You think this would start to become a pride issue since the Jazz have not won a single game in New York since old Vaseline Hands ran the show (Maybe we can bring Stock out of retirement just once a year against the Knicks…just a thought).
   
6. Last but not least, congrats Jerry. You have done more for one team (as far as wins go) than any other coach in the history of this great game. It is truly a sport’s enigma that you have never won Coach of the Year. 20 completed years and ONE losing season (due to injury I might add). I can only say I have mad respect.

Well, those are my thoughts so far. Lets hope Utah can pull at least three of the remaining four games out on this eastern swing. Cleveland is always tough, but I think they can do it. I think in a large part this team still needs to realize how much talent they really have (deepest bench in the league according to nba.com). I am excited to see what they can do when healthy-I think we’re in for a pretty good ride.

4 Comments

Henry on November 12, 2008 said:

My Scoring system to the JAZZ players on Yesterday’s game against Philadelphia:

Boozer 23.8
AK 22
Millsap 18.3
Brewer 13.6
Koufos 5.6
DWill 4.1
Price 3.1
Miles 2.2
Korver 0.1
Knight 0.1

Linda McFarland on November 12, 2008 said:

I am sooooo frustrated tonight after just watching the Washington game!!!!!! There was some individual players who did well at certain times but no one was consistent. And I am sooooo glad that the officials are now all excellent, call everything just right, and are never biased and would never, ever, be fooled with flopps. They are still not giving Korver his quick release shot that he does so well and then is unhappy when he misses a shot where he has to stand and think about it. As I mentioned before, there were some “feel good” moments with C.J. and Milsap who was getting beat to death under the baskets. Now we have Kirlinko’s finger messed up. If all this keeps happening (Jared) we will never get a real rhythm going. We have really had the stars against us the last few weeks. Washington played a good game but we just keep playing down to the other teams we are playing!! Come on Jazz…….I have a lot of faith in you this year but it is getting a little shaky. LIFE OFF-GAME ON

ErnMon on December 14, 2008 said:

Hello Linda Mc
Glad to see you back in the swing. Like the new Jazz players I am a new blogger this year with out the anger and bad comments of last year. Hope Boozer gets healthy so we can see how it helps the playing of the Jazz, or doesn’t. Seems like the Jazz play more as a team with Ronnie Price at the point than they do with Williams. Maybe Price is more unselfish than Williams. Not that Williams isn’t good, but I think he needs some maturity in his game that isn’t there yet.

Linda McFarland on December 15, 2008 said:

ErnMon….Thank you. It is nice to hear you again. I don’t know what turned you into a new blogger but I (and I am sure everyione else) welcomes that new blogger. I think at this moment I could agree with you about Williams but I think it is because of his long injury period. I feel he had such a good handle on the game and players but being out has hurt him a lot and it has also given Ronnie a chance to improve a lot on his game. Give it another 2-3 games and Williams should be back at the top but I think it is wonderful to have Ronnie right there behind him. I think Ronnie can give a great boost to the team in rotation.

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