Archives For Jeff Lind

Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings v 5.0

Jeff Lind —  February 15, 2013 — 1 Comment

Hello Jazz fans! Just when you think you’re gonna have time to write that weekly column, you wake up and realize it’s A) February and B) 3 weeks later: Rip Van Winkle style.

So, here I am at All-Star Weekend getting ready to talk to Jeremy Evans about the dunk contest… what better time to drop in another LindList? Here are last week(ish)’s best tweets from the Jazz community:

10: @edwin_nba - The trade deadline is approaching, and the Jazz are in the thick of trade buzz. The team’s bigs are especially ripe for discussion, and although I don’t always disagree with trading a piece away (in theory), it’s plays like this one in Washington that make me think twice.

Millsap has been thinking about taking that charge since yesterday #WASatUTA — Edwin L (@edwin_nba) January 24, 2013

9: @SaltCityHoops – Jazz fans KNOW that Burks can do anything. ANYTHING, so I think we’re all more than a little shocked when he misses a couple gimmee’s from the line.

8: @jimborudding: One hashtag, so many tweets: #dunkidea

7: @LostTacoVendor – Whenever I think the broadcast crew can’t get more nonsensical…

6: @Enes_Kanter – Love is in the air, sweeties.

5: @My_Lo - Presented with no comment. Just a vigorous nod of the head.

4: @JaromMoore – A mention of church ball, and Durant in a post is SURE to guarantee pageviews in Utah, right? RIGHT?!

3: @5kl – What’s the #lindlist without a mention of Gordon’s tan (or lack thereof)? 

2: @djjazzyjody – I’m not 100% what Jody is saying here… but I am 100% sure I like it.


1: @JazzHype – Jerry Sloan stories + Fesenko = Magic.

Follow Jeff on Twitter!  Especially this weekend where you’ll get more of this:

 

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Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings v 4.0

Jeff Lind —  January 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

Well, before we do anything, let me apologize. It’s been a while since the last segment of the #LindList. The holidays, flu, hospital, and general craziness that surround the new year are to blame, but I’m back and ready for action. This week’s tweets are going to be a spattering from the past month. So much has happened, that I’m not even going to attempt a theme… I’m just gonna drop my favorites on you. As a bonus, we’re going to give a TOP 15, so hang on and enjoy.

But before we get started… This:

I hear you, Jeff Ross. I hear you. Now… ON WITH THE SHOW!

15:@UTESnJAZZ – The Jazz had some brutal losses over the last month. None worse than than December 19th’s outing against the Pacers. A night that got so bad it made Mayan jokes funny for a few minutes.

14: @BeardedMangus - Did I say “none worse?” Utah at Phoenix sure felt worse. Aside from Mayan jokes, there’s very few things as terrible to watch than ugly basketball (just ask UofU Men’s Basketball fans… ZING!!).

13: @Clintonite33 - As bad as things got during the last month, there were a few bright spots. One of them came in December at ESA against the Spurs. Tim Duncan came out swinging, but Mo Williams & the Jazz pulled it off, and subsequently…

12: @DavidJSmith1232 - I completely missed David’s origination of this hashtag, but no one could escape the ripple effects of it. Jazz fans had an absolute heyday with it as the Jazz crumbled down the stretch in Atlanta.

11: @sluhm - The “Big East.”

10: @5kl - Presented without comment.

9: @monilogue - As if Jazz fans needed another reason to whine about minutes. Thanks for this, Moni.

8:@da_breezman - But seriously… that Indiana game was terrible.

7: @the20thmaine – Another bright spot in the sea of awful Jazz basketball that was the past month was the Miami game.

6: @jazzhype - Speaking of Miami and Hayward’s hypothetical trash talk (that’s what we were talking about, right?)…

5: @saltcityhoops - Root Sports, everybody! Give ‘em a hand.

4: @tribjazz - Have I mentioned how terrible the Indiana game was yet?

3: @PaigeSauer - Gordon Hayward can never leave Salt Lake. Ever. What will we do without tweets like this?

2: @DJJazzyJody - [Insert joke about how horrific the Indiana game was... again. Because it was beyond terrible, and this tweet is funnier than anything I can produce right now.]

1: @LostTacoVendor - Never mind. There ARE a couple themes in this week’s power rankings.

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Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings v 3.0

Jeff Lind —  December 13, 2012 — Leave a comment

What a great week to be a Jazz fan! In the last addition of Lindsanity, the Jazz were an even 10-10, but since then they’ve ripped off three more strong wins and are currently sitting at 6th in the west with a 13-10 record. Anytime the Jazz beat the Lakers and Spurs in one week, you know the world may truly end, but if it does Jazz nation will go out with a smile on our collective face.

Anyway, Without further ado, here are this week’s Jazz Twitter Power Rankings:

10: @davidjsmith1232 - Sometimes the national media writes ridiculous articles that seem to imply that small market teams are always ready to toss chemistry aside, and bend over backward to accommodate crummy trades from league heavyweights. Well, we’ve been going to this high school for seven and a half years. We’re no dummies.

9: @shedeletes – It was a late game for local fans, but for those of us living in more easternly time zones, it was really late. Today we all pay the price (I feel like I’ve been walking around in a fog of giddy Mo Williams hallucinations). Glad I take a bus to work, and don’t have to operate heavy machinery. #wortheverysecond

8: @Lockedonsports - I asked this question (via twitter) last night: “If you were gonna buy one Jazz jersey today… Which player would you get?” I got a lot of responses (most of them were terrible… I’m looking at you, @itschappy), but the one I liked the most was from @jazzhype. Why? because it was for DeMarre Carroll… who is a total boss. Preach Locke!

7: @_alexisholt - Being a dedicated Jazz fan is a unique familial experience, so when you labor nearly 5 hours to add a member to our Isle of Misfit Toys, you get a place on the Power Rankings! Congratulations to Alexis and the newest member of our Jazz-clan, Felix. Have I mentioned that it’s a great week to be a Jazz fan?

6: @5kl - There was a minute there where I thought a shotclock operator was going to get choked out. It was a surly crowd in ESA last night, and people looked ready to grab their pitchforks. Luckily, Kris has a solution to the clock guy’s problem:

5: @CowhideGlobe - Losing to the Spurs isn’t a foreign concept to the Jazz, but why does it always seem to come at the hands of one red hot Spur?

4: @shandonfan - Seriously, shandonfan… seriously.

3: @DJJazzyJody - My favorite non-game storyline this week was the one where Jody outed a John Stockton Twitter fake because of his hollow non-Stockton-like swagger. Not on our watch, @johnstocktonpg. Not on John Stockton day (12/12/12)!!!! The world’s a safer place today than it was yesterday.

2: @LostTacoVendor - Any normal week, the Vendor would have taken home #1 honors with this gem:

1: @Doug_Cartwright – …but this is no normal week. This is the week that the Jazz emerged as a serious threat to teams in the Western Conference, the week that the Jazz slayed some dragons, and the week where some dude (I assume Doug Cartwright) strings several words & names together into a sentence that may or may not actually mean something!

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Dropped from the list: @AllThatAmar (3), @SaltCityHoops (4), @tribjazz (5), @UTESnJAZZ (7), @andyblarsen (8), @My_Lo (9), @monilogue (10)

Others receiving votes: @nickyjam21 155, @JazzHype 111, @jazzedUteman 26, @mharpring15 1

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Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings v 2.0

Jeff Lind —  December 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

What a week! Since the last Lindsanity post, our (then) 9-7 Utah Jazz have dropped three of four (one being a brutal one point loss at the hands of the Clippers), and are now dead even in the W/L at 10-10. Hopefully this week’s awesome group of tweets will improve morale and give the team some additional luck going into a tough slate of games. And here they are: This week’s top 10 tweets from Jazz Nation.

10: @monilogue – From one of my favorite Jazz bloggers and fans, Moni knows the order of operations when it comes to Jazz fandom: 1) Jazz 2) Jerry Sloan 3) buttering me up (somehow my brother ended up sitting next to Jerry Sloan at the Jazz/Clips game… with no good stories to show for it).

9: @My_Lo - It was easy to pile on the refs after the Clippers loss, but blaming a giant blown lead on officiating is a bad look, and Mychal (who’s never scared of dishing out unpopular opinions) spat truth here.

8: @andyblarsen – SAYING THAT… Chauncey-freaking-flopping-Billups. Preach Andy:

7: @UTESnJAZZ – First timer to the list, Chris says it like it was/is… because SRSLY Bavetta: Chris, Howard Eisley, and I still haven’t forgiven you.

6: @5kl – Has anyone figured out the method to Corbin’s rotational madness? I haven’t, and with a Favors injury and back spasms on the Al front, I don’t know if we will any time soon.

5: @tribjazz - Most of the tweets on this list only made me laugh as a defense mechanism against all the Bavetta/Billups pain, but this gem had me cleaning soda off my screen after I read it, which is what vaulted Mr. Oram to the 5th spot as a first week entrant.

4: @SaltCityHoops (7) - Like I said last week, it’s all about the subtleties with SaltCityHoops. He knows the idiosyncracies of the Utah Jazz fanbase & organization, and keeps an eye out for interesting microcosms of our unique culture. You say it best when you say nothing at all, Spencer. #FisherLiedGirls

3: @AllThatAmar (5) – Witnessing a player go from a scorching FG% of .727 to a horrific .147 within a week can drive a man to drink.

2: @LostTacoVendor (4) – Because I’m still not over it, and I don’t think anyone could have put it into better words.

1: @DJJazzyJody (2) – And speaking of tweets regarding flops, taking over the top spot this week is Jody, who depresses me to no end with this:

 

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Dropped from the list: @CowhideGlobe (1), @Neildos (3), @JazzmanJoey (6), @lockedonsports (8), @Enes_Kanter (9), @clintonite33 (10)

Others receiving votes: @CowhideGlobe 109, @davidjsmith1232 89, @JazzHoops 32, @mharpring15 1

 

 

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Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings

Jeff Lind —  November 29, 2012 — 3 Comments

We’re starting a new column this week that turns the tables on Power Rankings. As fans, we spend a lot of time critiquing players, coaches, fan bases, front & back offices, and even the fandom of upper vs. lower decks. Frankly, it’s ridiculous… so why not take it to the next level? It’s time to rank YOU. There’s no method to this madness, except that I own executive privileged on voting. I’m going to be doing this every week for the rest of the season, so bring it.

10: @Clintonite33 – Rarely do you find a blogger that tweets and writes harder, longer, or more gratuitously than Clint. He’s a staple in the twitter Jazz community because no piece of basketball news, stat, or quote escapes his all-seeing gaze. Always up for a discussion, Clint is a good guy to have on your radar (unless you’re the type that easily gets baited into a flame war). An all around good dude that keeps Jazzdom’s collective knee-jerk in check… whether you like it or not.

9: @Enes_Kanter - The big man with the big personality. Enes is the kind of player that Jazz fans glom onto: a hard-working gym rat with a larger than life attitude, some real basketball skill, and a desire to overshare. This particular tweet is nothing special… except for the hashtag. That’s the kind of stuff that ensures you a lifetime supply of free diet cokes in the SLC valley.

8: Speaking of work, have you met @lockedonsports? Hard to call yourself a Jazz fan if you don’t follow the man, and there’s good reason for it. He’s always locked in (BOOM!), digging through stats and basketball jargon to give the fan a smarter experience. Mr. Locke is a consummate pro, and a media guy that actually cares about the team and presenting sports the right way.

7: @saltcityhoops - I know, I know… feels like I’m just kissing the ring here, but nobody serves up the subtleties of being in and around the Jazz locker room and organization better than Spencer. Always entertaining, always a pro, and always spot on in analysis (hey… one of these days I’ll need a raise). His timely observations are always appreciated.

6: @JazzmanJoey - If I mention Deron Williams in this intro, can we consider this tweet Jazz related enough to warrant a power spot? Oh, yes.

5: @AllThatAmar - Pretty sure that Amar spends half of his life in Twitter Jail, but when he’s out roaming the digital badlands, he delivers some gems. He’s a volume tweeter to be sure and he takes a lot of shots, but when he’s on, he’s on.

4: @LostTacoVendor – Full of snark, vinegar, and generally reporting from a strip club, the Vendor knows his audience. He hates all of you, and you love him back for it. Short on patience but long on his vitriol for front office bureaucracy & players who mail it in.

3: @Neildos - Because I can’t get enough second-hand Jerry Sloan folklore. Ever.

2: @DJJazzyJody - The Deseret News Jazz Beat Writer is always a darling of Jazz tweeters, and rightfully so. Not afraid to take a stand on fan-issues (booing cheerleaders?), he just gets twitter, how fans want to consume it, and what they want to hear from their locker-room reporters. Jody always delivers the news respectfully, but doesn’t take himself too seriously. It’s a good mix.

1: @CowhideGlobe (@lauremonoto with the bump/set) – Because sometimes people tweet rad things that are right on so many levels.

So that’s it for this week’s Twitter Power Rankings! What did you think? What did I miss? Who should I be following that I’m currently missing? Tweet me, DM me, hit me up… I’ll see you next week.

Follow Jeff on Twitter!

Others receiving votes: @SurlyMae 123, @5kl 105, @jazzhype 80, @mharpring15 1

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Condensed Season? No Problem

Jeff Lind —  January 26, 2012 — 1 Comment

Note from the Editor: Spencer Horner joins Salt City Hoops to chat condensed season and this young Utah Jazz team.

Tom Smart, Deseret News

Last fall, I told my wife that an NBA season was the only present I wanted this Christmas. I got my wish. However, the season has arrived with basketball’s top minds predicting it to be one of the sloppiest in NBA history. With only a few days of training camp and a shortened preseason, teams haven’t had much time to gel and players are in their worst shape ever.

The jam packed 66 game schedule hasn’t helped much either. Teams are playing 4 or 5 games a week, which means less time for practice, player development, and team strategy. This also means less time for injury recovery, meaning more banged up veterans. Injuries are going to mount up and NBA Darwinism is going to favor the young, and athletic.

As the Jazz have started a playoff worthy season, it struck me that this team is built for lockout season success. First, they are younger than ever at an average age of 26. But more importantly, the Jazz’s roster is deeper than ever.

Tyrone Corbin has the team on a consistent 10 man rotation, keeping lineups fresh with frequent substitutions. Al Jefferson has anchored the team as the highest scoring center in the West with 18.3 ppg. But on any given night, Millsap and Favors are also capable of posting consistent double-doubles. Coach has now worked rookie Alec Burks into the every game corps of Jazz wings including Bell, Hayward, Miles, and Howard. Don’t leave Earl out either. Watson has been awarded bigger minutes, providing a consistent floor general for the Jazz’s second unit. In recent weeks, coach has had Watson and Harris on an equal split.

This young and athletic lineup will allow Coach Corbin to outrun opponents over the course of a game, hopefully, leading to easier points in transition. Their roster depth will also continue to mitigate the risk of injury throughout the brutal condensed schedule. There have been games this season where 5 or more players have offered double digit points. If a player goes down or has a bad day, another can fill in the gaps. This year’s Jazz are a team of talented role players that can have each other’s back night after night.

On a defensive note, I almost did a full Hollywood spit-take when I heard that the Jazz were leading the NBA in blocked shots earlier this season. I don’t think I can remember the last time I heard that statistic being associated with the team. Now, at the close of last week, the Jazz were top 10 in Blocks, and Forced Turnovers. I’m not saying we should hang a “We are Swat Lake City” banner or rename the stadium “Defensive Solutions Arena,” but it’s obvious that the Jazz are playing some great team defense.

I’m excited. The Jazz are coming together as team and chemistry is developing. They are devoted to defense, and playing unselfishly. Add that up and they have the potential to be one of the most athletic and talented teams in Jazz history.

But the Jazz’s biggest tests are yet to come. They’ve had their fair share of and haven’t proven themselves against major contenders yet. We’ll see how fit they are for this unique season

Follow Spencer on Twitter!

In Al Jefferson, Gordon Hayward, NBA, Paul Millsap, Utah Jazz
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Poking the Hornet’s Nest

Jeff Lind —  December 9, 2011 — 4 Comments

I’ve been sitting here for a few hours trying to find the right words to express what I’m feeling about this Paul/Lakers/Stern hoopla. I’ve got nothing… I don’t know what to say. Instead, here’s a timeline of last night’s events as they unfolded to me:

3:58 pm: The trade was originally reported as follows (by a twitter MUST follow Adrian Wojnarowski):

I was furious. Not at the league, per se, but at the Lakers… here they were pulling off another blockbuster trade, while keeping all their major pieces of a championship contender in place. Imagining the Lakers with Paul, Kobe, AND Gasol was too much. Super teams… you guys win.

At 3:58.30 pm I tweeted this:

And I meant it. The league JUST went through a lockout with a major focus on bringing parity and competitive balance to the league! This particular trade seemed to flush all of that, and let the Lakers trade three quarters for a silver dollar.

At 4:06 pm this happened:

That changed my feelings completely. Suddenly, the Lakers didn’t seem so scary. They were forced to give up Gasol and Odom (the length that REALLY killed the Jazz year after year), and they were left with Kobe (bad knees), Bynum (bad knee), and Chris Paul (no knee at all). In a compressed 66 game season, they’d be hard pressed to come out of it in one serviceable piece. I mean, sure, they’d be scary in spurts… but when you’re playing back to back to backs on those legs, you’re going to have major rotation problems.

The three team trade was supposed to go something like this:

Lakers:

  • Get: Chris Paul
  • Give: Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom
An exciting gamble for the Lakers. They get the (second) best point guard in the league, and pair him with Mamba. This gives them at least two seasons to make a run at the finals with two of the best five players in the league.

Rockets:

  • Get: Gasol, cap room for new free agent
  • Give: Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin
They get one of the top centers/players in the league to replace Yao, and have a ton of cap room to get a new free agent. The Rockets are a team that have notoriously stashed assets for a moment like this, and they finally made their move.

New Orleans:

  • Get: Luis Scola, Lamar Odom, Kevin Martin
  • Give: Chris Paul
New Orleans made the most of the hand they were dealt, and turned their all star PG into a core of players they can build around. I’ll be honest, if the Jazz had pulled this trade off for D-Will (who I consider to be better than CP3), I’d have been happy.
Looking at it like that, things seemed relatively fair. I started to feel better. Sure, the thought of Chris Paul on the Lakers forced blood from my eyes, but when you see what LA had to give up to get him, it made sense. And it was finished. Done.

Then at 7:07 pm THIS HAPPENED:

Turns out the league owned Hornets (see: 29 owners and David Stern), were not impressed with this trade, and they were not going to let it happen. Owners lost it, complained to David, and Stern made the final decision to kill the trade. Unprecedented. All hell broke loose, EVERYWHERE. My twitter feed, emails, and texts blew up. Before I went to bed, I had over 50 emails in my inbox, and when I woke up I had almost 30 more waiting. I saw everything from “David Stern was right” to “David Stern has lost his mind.”

Today:
The overwhelming emotion I’ve seen is one of disappointment and confusion. People don’t understand why Stern felt like he had to move on this. Local media is furious, the National Media is gathering pitchforks, and the TrueHoop network is going nuts. NBA fans are in shock. I’ve heard educated journalists say that this is the end of David Stern. Some are even saying this is worse than the Donaghy game fixing.  I wouldn’t go that far, but the waters are certainly muddied, and here’s why:
  1. This comes across like Stern, as commissioner, killed the deal. This isn’t true. Stern killed the deal as a representative of the collective Hornets ownership (the other 29 owners). Boiled down, it would be like Gail Miller saying “no” to the Williams trade at the eleventh hour and (as an owner) it’s her right.
  2. This is the problem with the LEAGUE OWNING A TEAM. It’s idiotic. How can a collective ownership of 29 individuals be trusted to make the same choices an independent owner would in a vacuum when bajillions of dollars are on the line? It’s not possible. Not when the stakes are this high.
  3. If this doesn’t get resolved in a satisfying way, does it hang a “Fire Sale” sign around the Hornets franchise? I say yes. If this trade block stands, CP3 ain’t getting traded… ever, which means in all likelihood he’ll leave for nothing next season. If there wasn’t an argument for contraction before today, here it is… signed, sealed, & delivered. This effectively neuters the Hornets franchise.
The Commissioner’s office has defended the decision with the following:
“All decisions are made on the basis of what is in the best interests of the Hornets. In the case of the trade proposal that was made to the Hornets for Chris Paul, we decided, free from the influence of other NBA owners, that the team was better served with Chris in a Hornets uniform than by the outcome of the terms of that trade.”
Whether the decision was truly made freely from the influence of other NBA owners is debatable, and I’ll leave it to you to decide if the trade was blocked for true “basketball reasons.” Regardless, I think this trade will ultimately go through. David Stern is getting publicly crucified for his role in this, and he knows it. It’s only a matter of time before public opinion rings so loud that it deafens out his ability to lead effectively. Either he’ll step down, or fix it. I’m willing to bet that with the OUT he’s being offered with team appeals, he’ll ultimately let the trade happen. Otherwise… who knows where this will end up. As fans, we collectively got over the lockout pretty quickly, but what kind of lingering effects will this fiasco leave on the league? Time will tell.

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Equally Selfish

Jeff Lind —  November 4, 2011 — 3 Comments

Editor’s Note: As the lockout trudges on, Salt City Hoops continues to add talent to our arsenal. Sam Strong is the newest contributor to the team… but we’ll let him tell you about it. – JL

Hey guys,

I’m the newest contributor to SCH so I thought I would tell everyone a little about myself before proceeding to whine about the lockout, one of my many talents.

I was born and raised a Jazz fan in Bountiful and graduated from Bountiful High (But not before painting my less-than-in-shape chest for a playoff game. See: game one, 2007 series against the Rockets tape for anyone brave enough to dig through the archives.)

I was excited to get into UCLA and started here as a freshman in 2009. I’ve served as sports editor at the campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, where I still work as a beat writer for the football and basketball teams. I also interned at the Los Angeles Daily News last summer and I’m currently interning at Grantland.com.

I also had a brief stint over at TrueHoop’s ClipperBlog but as exciting as Blake Griffin is, I jumped at the chance to join the team here at SCH. I’m looking forward to writing here and engaging with you guys about the Jazz.

Without further ado…

Getty Images

Basketball has always been there for me.

When I was a kid, the start of the NBA season was a sign that I was that much closer to destroying the gift wrap that surrounded that holiday season’s finest game console.

During high school, the start of the NBA season usually coincided with the not so gut-wrenching decision of seeing a D-Will dominate CP3 in favor of going to the annual Harvest Dance

During my last two years in college, NBA opening day came just in time to provide a distraction from midterms or terrible football teams.

But this year, my rock, the date circled and then circled again on my calender came and went quietly. As I’m sure all followers of the sporting world noticed, the NBA did not play games on its scheduled opening date which came last Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Not only did the red circles on my calender bleed onto Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, I had the lineup of games I was going to watch using the NBA League Pass that I attempted to buy before the good people at the cable company told me it wasn’t available. The Jazz, of course, were set to host Houston but the only basketball on TV sets in Salt Lake City this week has come in the form of KJZZ’s “Jazz Classic,” an attempt to distract fans by reminding them of the good ol’ days (I’ll admit to the distraction working on me. You better believe I’m firing up the Slingbox to watch game four of the ’97 finals from Los Angeles.)

I walked past Staples Center on Wednesday only to find a massive L.A. Kings banner adorning one side of the arena. I turned on the T.V. on Thursday night in hopes that basketball would magically appear but I had to settle for MLS playoff soccer. I was eager to prove to my one, obnoxious Heat-fan friend (everyone has one, right?) that Paul Milsap’s 46 points that came almost year ago weren’t a fluke but the Jazz’s game in Miami on Nov. 9 is out of the question.

We’ve all gotten false hope when the players and owners are reported to “get closer” to an agreement but whatever hope fans had last week was surely erased on Thursday when 50 players threatened to dissolve the players union, a risky move that could force a deal but could also take a number of months.

I don’t pretend to know why that tiny, little 2.5 percent of basketball related income could forbid millions of fans from viewing the world-class basketball the NBA is known for but somehow, it has. Somehow, the fans are the biggest losers while the negotiations continue.

I wonder if the players and owners know the agony that their fans are experiencing. I know both sides claim to know how monumental the fans are to them but I have to think a crazed Minnesota Timberwolves fan (if such a thing exists) working as the mediator would get a deal signed much more quickly than a guy in a suit if both sides could see the sense of urgency in the fan base.

Whether a decertified union gets the two sides anywhere close to a deal, it’s a shame that it has gone on for 127 days with the fans, the people that make the whole thing go, powerless to end it. I don’t support either side because I can see both sides of their juxtaposed goals but I do know that both sides are being equally selfish.

I’ll now go back to pretending to care about the NHL and the MLS cup in hopes that the labor talk settles soon.

When it does, I expect co-signed apology card from David Stern and Billy Hunter.

Follow Sam on Twitter!

In Uncategorized
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Go Young or Go Home

Jeff Lind —  October 19, 2011 — 2 Comments

Editor’s Note: As we sit and wait for David Stern to emerge from moderated discussions with the union, Todd Peterson joins us and talks fans and expectations for the young Utah Jazz. -JL

Djamila Grossman | The Salt Lake Tribune

Obviously the big concern on everyone’s mind is “are we going to have an NBA season this year?” Hacked twitter accounts and “gulfs” aside, we still don’t know. So instead of complaining about life under a horribly oppressive lock-out regime let’s do what we would normally do during the off-season…..speculate over the starting lineup. With the uncharacteristic uncertainty of the franchise there has been a lot of talk about who should get the starting nod and I plan on arguing that the front office should “blow up the team” and go young. In this discussion there is, in reality, only one legitimate argument that we need to consider and that is winning. If you try to say that the team should play the veterans because they have earned it, or because they’re being paid so much, or maybe even because they are better then I simply suggest to you some patriarchal Ricky Bobby logic, “if you ain’t first you’re last.” The only question the coaches need to consider when picking the starting five, or in distributing minutes is who will help win the most games? Because “winning” theoretically has a different meaning for each fan we will consider the different scenarios below.

The Ring Seeker: This is the fan that has the “been there, done that mentality.” They won’t be happy with the team until they are turning over cars, & kissing their girlfriend in the street after the team brings home the crown. This fan could live with a self-created lottery pick next year and would survive a less than involved role in the playoffs for the next couple of years if it meant a title was waiting down the road. The Ring Seeker is concerned with the long term because (let’s face it) there’s no viable option for having a ring ceremony at the beginning of the 2013 season. To this fan, I ask this: If the veterans can’t take the Jazz to the pinnacle this year then when can they? Obviously the most recent moves by the team have been away from veterans and so why should they not continue that trend by transferring the playing time over to the younger generation as well? Any hope at a title involves the young guns. Why waste playing time and starting experience on players that ultimately aren’t going to be a part of the long-term goal? Now, I’m not saying KOC should get rid of anyone on the team that has more than one year in the league, I’m just saying they should be used as support players to help bring along the rookies and sophomores. In other words without a championship in the near future, why not develop the “potential” into all-star output.

The Perennial Contender: This fan just wants to be assured that they are going to be interested in basketball come late April. They hold on to that almighty Jazz argument of “at least we have a team that is always in the playoffs.” This fan wants to be in the playoffs; (1) preferably this year, or (2) worst case scenario, next year. There is no interest in spending any time at the lower rungs of the league regardless of what that means for the future. In this case we look at the roster for this year and maybe some of next year. By continuing with the veteran players, the team would basically be staying with the starting lineup from the end of last season. Obviously last season had its difficulties on and off the court so it may be unfair to gauge the players based on the end of last year, but that’s all we’ve got. The team played 25 games without D-Will, and won 8 of those, a winning percentage of .32 (you forgot how bad it got, didn’t you?). Over a full season that percentage would translate into about 26 wins, better than just six other teams last year (Twolves, Cavs, Raps, Wiz, Nets, Kings). If the lineup remains composed of mostly veteran players we have to ask, what do we think the vets are going to do differently? By not changing the lineup the team must be saying that the starting players are either going to play better, or that everyone is (prepared for/happy with) a 26 win season. If it’s the later then why not win 26 with the rookies? At least they will be getting some experience while the team wallows in mediocrity and piles up the draft picks. If, on the other hand, the thought is that something is going to change with the starting vets, then what is it? Is Jefferson going to learn how to play within a system instead of being the black hole on bad teams? Is CJ going to be consistent and contribute the way fans have always wanted? Is AK going to stay healthy and be the AK we saw in Eurobasket? If you really believe these things simply because we are starting a season that doesn’t involve the D-Will trade or Sloan leaving, then I’m impressed with your overzealous faith in the team.

The Ego Protector: Finally we have the fan that has nightmares of seeing a young kid from the Miller bloodline on the lottery stage wearing goofy glasses and vying for one of the top three picks, and not because we made a trade and finally got a lucky break. This fan’s biggest ambition for the Jazz is to stay comfortably above the Raptors, Cavs, Kings, and Twolves of the league. They need instant validation that they aren’t party to a despicable team, or otherwise they may just jump ship. The question here is who can win instantly? This is probably the hardest question to answer right now for this team as we know so little about some of the guys. We have to ask whether or not the rookies and sophs can post a better winning percentage then the .32 from the end of last season? Staying in the meaty area of the league (roughly a .48 winning percentage) would require 13 more wins then what the end of the year vets did last year (13 games = difference between .32 and .48). So we are wondering whether the veterans or the young guys can be 13 games better. Assuming that health is the only legitimate change from last season; my argument is that either group, young or old, can basically win the same number of games next year, so we should only be considering what is best for the team in the long run (May I end this argument by saying that any fan that is happy with the mediocrity described in this section is not a true fan of Jazz Nation and should be buying Miami Heat jerseys and putting Yankee stickers on their iPhone covers. Nuff Said).

In the end, the argument for the young players is summed up in two words, “Why Not?” Whether you are a ring seeker, a perennial contender, an ego protector, or maybe a combination of them all it’s hard to answer this question. With so much speculation and so much uncertainty we can’t help but rest our hopes on a miracle of team unity, health, and championship play to magically appear out of the ashes of last season, but it is simply not logical to wait for that. We’ve got to look to the future, start planning for the team’s great return to basketball prominence and that is only going to come through the young players. So put ‘em in coach! We want to see them make bad passes, we want to see their lapses of thought, we want to scream at their stupidity through the t.v., but most of all we want to see some sort of decision towards a chance at progress. Let’s keep this streak of bold moves alive.

 

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ESPN’s Over/Under, Northwest Division

Jeff Lind —  September 20, 2011 — Leave a comment

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

ESPN’s Truehoop network takes on the Northwest Division in today’s 5 on 5. Our very own Nick Smith chimes in with his take on one of the leagues more stacked group of teams. Check it out!

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