Utah Jazz

Utah Jazz Ceilings and Floors, Part I: Guards and Wings

Among the most common and often divisive topics of basketball debate is the theme of player ceilings and floors. It’s fun in large part because it’s such an inexact science – attempting to look years into the future and...

Derrick Favors: A Reason For Hope

Overlooked and underappreciated, Derrick Favors might never get the respect he rightfully deserves. On another team, in another market, he almost certainly would get more hype. But Favors is more than just hype — he’s...

Roundball Reminiscing: My Saturday in the Hall

Pay no attention to the grown man choking back tears in front of the video board. There must have been some dusty air particles floating around Western Massachussetts last weekend, or else somebody was waxing seriously...

Interviewing Dr. Lyle Mason, Part III: Owners, GMs, Dante, and Gobert

This is my interview with Dr. Lyle Mason, continuing from Part II. Lyle, an orthopedic surgeon, was the Jazz physician for 36 years and sat down with me for a couple hours to talk Jazz and the NBA. My questions are in bold; his...

Jimbo’s Mailbag – Preseason Predictions

Here at Salt City Hoops, we’re occasionally accused of being too analytical. Basketball is a fun sport, they say, and we’re being too objective about it. Jumbo Rudding, on the other hand, is not analytical. He is zany. He...

Interviewing Dr. Mason, Part II: AK, Deron, Ty vs. Quin

I recently spent a couple of hours with Dr. Lyle Mason, picking his brain on the last 36 years of life — just barely more than half of his life — as the team physician with the Utah Jazz. It’s impossible to perfectly...

Interviewing Dr. Lyle Mason, Part I: Jazz Beginnings, Stockton, The Shot

I recently spent a couple of hours with Dr. Lyle Mason, picking his brain on the last 36 years of life — just barely more than half of his life — as the team physician with the Utah Jazz. It’s impossible to perfectly...

Why Trevor Booker Could Be Utah’s Small-Ball Alternative

Draymond Green was one of the breakout stars of the NBA last season, and deservedly so. His elite and versatile defensive skills allowed the Warriors to build the league’s best and most adaptable defense despite his undersized...

Jazz Break into Big Three Territory

Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney recently released their annual Top NBA Players for the upcoming season, and one of the greatest surprises is embedded so deeply that few but Utah Jazz fans are likely to see...

End of Summer Odds Update for the 2015-16 NBA Season

The landscape of the NBA could be very different this time next year. Teams that were on the outside looking in have now etched their way back into contention, while others have fallen deeper into irrelevance. The 2015 offseason...