Not pretty, but Jazz is 1-0

I give a B- / B to Jazz today. Can’t close the game nicely. Luckily, we have a great schedule, I believe if we can play B (or better) in the coming two games, we can take Clippers down back to back. Don’t take me wrong, they have some capable players (as mentioned in my previous post), but they need at least 20-30 games to get the system right, unless they have a genius coach.

Very likely D Will can play on the 4th, and the Big Game, vs Trail Blazers at Home. Go Jazz!

Other notes for today games,

Raptors – an interesting team, two PFs – Bosh, O’Neal create spaces for their 3-pt shooters. They are 10/16 in 3s today.

Lakers – good and bad to see Lakers destroy Clippers today. Good – Clippers is not yet ready; Bad – Lakers is really a formidable team.

Spurs – without Ginobili in the first part of the season, Spurs will have a hard time, and just as last season, every single game counts for their playoff spot.

Warriors – without Monte in the first 2-3 months, Warriors may just miss playoff for another season.

Lakers tells the world they are still the contender

Every Jazz & NBA fans, this season NBA TV provides high-quality videos for us to recap different games, very enjoyable. Check that out!

Some notes on two of the today games.

Trail Blazers @ Lakers

Lakers easily crushes Trail Blazers today. If you have watched the recap, you could see Kobe is still Kobe, a scoring machine. Up to this moment I think Lakers is the biggest enemy of Jazz in this season. Their bench is as deep as us. And watch out Ariza, he could surprise you this season. Versatile Odom as sixth man, déjà vu….

Oden, another injury. No matter how talented and how ready he is (as the press said), he won’t be a star if he is so easily injured.

As predicted, Rudy Fernandez, first NBA game, very solid performance, keep it up (not vs Jazz though).

Cavaliers @ Celtics

Obviously Mo Will (ex-Jazz) has shared some of the scoring burden from LBJ. But I don’t think they could be the Eastern Champion this year. Firstly, want to declare that am not a fans of LBJ simply because there is no fun to watch a player to score purely by his physical strength. And their roster is still…unpromising. Gibson is an over-rated player, Ben Wallace is not in his best times, Delonte West is still a question mark.

Anyway, can’t wait for our home opener!

The Second Thought of CJ as a starter

Starting CJ Miles seems to be so natural if we follow the development since the first preseason game. Coach Sloan wants AK to add some sparks in the second team and (gratefully) AK does not have any problem with this arrangement (so far). But let me do a second thought here.

Foremost, transforming AK into a Sixth Man is a good choice, and worth trying. I don’t’ have any problem with that, and so as most of the Jazz fans.

A newspaper in Utah has raised an interesting question – why don’t we start Korver? Without doubts Korver has the caliber as the starter of Jazz (and perhaps even more convincing than CJ). However, putting him in the second team will fit him more, and also could add the ranges that our second team needs badly. Therefore, not starting him is the right choice.

Wait…, if Harpring is healthy, actually I may prefer him. He could set the right tone at the start of the game, and he is always a reliable player that Sloan trusts a lot. Perhaps the only worry is that he may not be athletic enough to defend some of the awful weapons in opponent’s starting lineup.

Jazz Rolled Over Trail Blazers in the Preseason Finale

In the first half, still the old defense problem – can’t stop the perimeter shooting from the opponents. This kills us when the other team has hot hands, and they do in first half.

But the intensity we put on defense in second half is something Coach Sloan would like to see, and hopefully we can carry this momentum in the regular season.

Kyle Korver has another sharp shooting night, hitting 4 out of 6 three point attempts. When we are in full team, are there anyone wouldn’t be jealous on our 2nd Team? Ronnie, Korver, AK, Millsap + Harpring / Fesenko / Kosfos.

One thing I am glad to see is the mutual respect from Price and Knight.

Let’s see what they told the press after the game,

Knight – “Like I told you when I got here, it wasn't going to be a me vs. him (Price)".

Price – "He hasn't been around just to be around. He's been around for a reason and that's because he can play. He provides a presence on the floor that shows that he's a leader and he knows what he's doing."

D Will, at least 2 weeks from return.

D Will, aka our Man, needs at least two weeks to recover. I don’t expect him to return ahead of schedule because Sloan won’t let risk his players on the floor, especially D Will.

Let’s have a look on the first few games opponents.

Oct. 29 Denver
Nov. 1 L.A. Clippers
Nov. 3 at L.A. Clippers
Nov. 5 Portland
Nov. 7 Oklahoma City

Great schedules, not the very top teams in the league. A perfect opportunity to train up our guys without D Will. Just imagine if we play against Lakers / Spurs, etc… Q4 may be half-rubbish time already. With the above schedules even if we lose, very likely it would be a close game – good for training purpose. But…as a Jazz fans, we certainly hope to take all of them down.

Lastly, would like to draw your attention to the roster of LA Clippers, which we will play back to back in the 2nd & 3rd game.

Baron Davis (very capable player, looks like he will miss the games vs Jazz)
Chris Kaman (very capable player)
Ricky Davis (capable, selfish, one-man-game player)
Marcus Camby (always an insider force)
Al Thornton (capable player)
Cuttino Mobley (capable player)
Steve Novak (capable player, pure shooter)
Tim Thomas (capable player)
Eric Gordon (capable rookie)
Jason Hart (let’s forget him / pray him play more mins vs Jazz)

I would call it an exciting and unpredictable batch of players. If the coach is genius and create a system that they can play well together (perhaps 5-10% chance), it could be a miracle team like GSW in past 1-2 years.

Thoughts after the 6th Preseason Game

Jazz is going back to 3-3, and will try to fight for a winning preseason record before the season opens. After looking at the Boxscore, I have a few thoughts.

Well, not a Boozer fans, but do like his Offensive Rebounds and FT % in this game. Wait…can you commit less turnovers, and do a better job in FG %? To be fair, a good game for him.

Typical AK’s game, which shows clearly his versatility. He did a bit of everything (probably also due to D Will’s injury) and will love seeing him to keep his aggressiveness on Blocks. Let’s set a target for him, how about Top 10 in Avg. Blocks per game?

Brewer, 10 Rebounds, and four of them are offensive boards, bravo. Still can keep his good performance on Steals. Let’s aim for Top 10 in Avg. Steals per game.

We are almost sure that Koufos and Almond will at least spend some time in D-League. Fesenko still needs to work harder considering that he only got six…wait for it….six seconds on the floor even Collins is not in the lineup. I guess Sloan is more comfortable to put Millsap on the Centre position in short-term.

By the way, let’s not be too worry about D Will injury. Anyway, it is a long season.

Koufos, we will see you in D-League?

Koufos bounced back from a 0-for-5 performance vs Portland. However, his 11-pt, 7-rebound performance vs Denver does not seem to impress Sloan at all.

Sloan told the press after the game, “He has a long way to go. I think everybody's pulling for him, but he's got to be held responsible for not knowing where he's supposed to be after a while. He's got to learn how to get to the right spot, know what play we're running, know what we're doing defensively."

My translation – Sloan is (slightly) disappointed considering that Koufos has been learning the Jazz system for a month. He still lost his defensive position and was not completely sure how Jazz runs the offense.

I guess Koufos’s working attitude (which has been complimented by different persons in the team) can’t compensate his slow learning curve. Well, after all, there has to be a reason that he is the 23rd pick, but not much earlier. Other teams are not idiots…

Good and Bad. Sloan wont’ be so mad if he did not see the potential from Koufos (...I have no disappointment on Jason Hart's performance on the court...he simply should not be on the floor in the first place...); but the kid from Ohio may need to spend most of his 08-09 season on the bench / playing in D-League.

Who will be the pleasant surprise this year?

Before last season, not many people expect Brewer could take up the starting SG role for the whole season and he did impress us by his athleticism of running backdoor and attacking the rim constantly.

So, who will give us a surprise this season? Two names appear in my head.

Mehmet Okur

“Okur? He always gave us surprise by his buzzer beater in the past two seasons, didn’t he? What more surprise we can get?”

Well…No one will doubt Okur’s shooting ability, and his coolness in handling the clutch shot, we never see him performing consistently well. Ironically, he is somewhat consistently inconsistent.

It seems that he determined to bring himself into aother level (perhaps also to raise his negotiability in the coming summer?). He decided not to play for Turkey National Team. He came back from his own country one month before the start of the traninig camp to kick start his physical training. He is in great shape now (I sort of know when I saw he ran the floor in the first preseason game vs Lakers).

No wonder Sloan said some great things about him – “That's what you hope everybody does: get in great shape, so they can run up and down the floor."

Let’s see how well he plays this year. To me, two words are enough – “Consistently Good”.

Kyle Korver

The press always blah…blah…blah… about Jazz’s winning record since Korver joined mid last season. Agree his addition to the team did give Jazz some positive impact but the improving record is not entirely because of him, perhaps 25% (?) from my humble opinion.

Well, his killer skills 3-point percentage was below 40% last year, which is way off from his standard. At the end of the day, time is needed to learn how the team runs and get into the system.

After half a year, we see progress. His shooting % in the three preseason games is well above 50% and he is actually the scoring leader so far. I am not say these numbers mean everything, especially in the not-so-competitive preseason, we do have every chance to see a even better, sharper-shooting Korver this season.

Quote of the Day, by Coach Sloan, which shows his black humour.

"That's the only thing I have a problem with. Sometimes we get in a big hurry to bury the other team. The three-point shot only counts three, it doesn't count 20."

Impatience may have cost CJ his starter position

Jazz is never short of Small Forwards. However, Harpring is still recovering from his ankle infection while Coach Sloan seems enthusiastic to try AK as the Sixth Man, all in a sudden CJ Miles may have got a chance to be in the starting lineup of Jazz, at least in the first couple of games.

Wait…he did something not so clever in the Preseason Game vs Portland. After a zero-shot first half, CJ came out in 2nd Half and took two shots in consecutive possession, and committed a turnover followed by an immediate foul.

Obviously, Coach Sloan didn’t like it - "It's like I don't get any shots the first half, so I've got to show you I can get them off the second half, that's not a good way to do it."

Korver is another choice, and I personally prefer him because it could add some ranges to the starting lineup. Bear in mind that both Brewer & CJ are not great in their mid-range jumpers.

Nonetheless, Jazz won’t match the four-year USD14.8m offer sheet of CJ for nothing. Quite likely we will see CJ in actions for ~15 mins per game in the beginning of the season. The rest is literally on his hands.

The Northwest Crown Fight? Not quite, at least for this game.

Jazz 93-80 Trail Blazers

Highlights:

AK looks very comfortable to come out of bench, and actually I always like his versatile talent, despite of his lackluster performance in 06/07 Season.

Fesenko’s 10 point, 10 rebound would give him an edge on Koufos (who get shouted about shooting too much, 0/5 from the field). But be aware that it is not a competitive game.

Sloan summarized the game concisely – “You can't get excited about this game. Their best team was sitting on the bench."

Indeed...Boxscore of the Game

One thing for sure, the surge of Portland Trail Blazers will intensify the West Coast / Northwest division competition. Let's do a stock count on its roster - Brandon Roy, Aldridge, Travis Outlaw, Oden + a bunch of supporting cast - Webster, Blake, Przybilla, LaFrentz, Frye, and more importantly - Rudy Fernandez.

You watched him in Beijing this summer, and probably you were impressed by him in the Gold Medal match with the Dream / Re-deem Team – huge shots one by one, and big dunk despite of Dwight Howard's challenge from behind.

At this point, I believe they could be in Playoff.

Collins, the role model in working attitude

"He can play or not play, and he's going to do his thing"

"He's going to go out and try to hustle, try to draw charges. Things like that. If he gets the ball in his hands, he's not afraid to pass it ... to somebody and give them a better shot. He'll set screens."

"(he) knows his assignment. And that's a huge thing if you're going to have a team game"

"When you start to run a play, he's going to run the play. ... There's a lot to be said about that."

The above is what Sloan said about Collins in a recent interview.

Despite the fact that Sloan became a lot nicer on remarks of his players to the media after his tense relationship with AK in last summer, the above statements made by Sloan did mean something.

Perhaps Collins is not the most skillful / talented player in the squad, he does know what his place is, and more importantly he brings the right attitude to the team. And that could be the reason why Sloan keeps Collins in the team, for so many years.

Very likely his minutes will go down this season, his value to the team won't change.

Pre-season

First of all, thanks for reading this. I hope this place could gather a group of Jazz fans in Hong Kong, Asia or even in the world. Having said that, enthusiastic NBA fans are more than welcome.

Back to the main theme - Utha Jazz, starts the pre-season by beating Lakers (hope it bodes well :P ). I had a glance on that, and looks like Jazz becomes a better team than last year. Our bench depth can easily make others envy.

I want to highlight a few points here,

Ronnie Brewer gained 13 pounds (should be, and hopefully mostly muscles) this year. He is getting fitter and even if his skills do not have a leap, he could do a lot of damages by constantly attacking the rims.

CJ Miles apparently has become more mature. If Brewer is not in top form, CJ Miles can replace him, with the same style of playing, though honestly he can't attack the rim and run backdoor as effective as Brewer.

Kuofos, Fesenko will fight the back-up Centre place with veteran Collins. I can't see much of Kuofos yet because after he hits his very first shot, he hurt his hamstring and not even show up in the second game vs Suns. Fesenko did not impress Sloan since the start of the training camp. However, Sloan did say some good things about him after the loss vs Suns. But...he said something immature that make me think he may not have the mental strength to compete in the NBA level yet. Here are what he said after his 12-min match-up with Shaq,

"It was really hard, I realize that I am not big, I am not strong. I am small girl compared to Shaq. So I have a lot of work to do - I have a lot of work to do - and I need to start right now if I want to make the team, at least this year." - small girl...come on, may be you should use a better word... it is not humble, it is not a respect to Shaq, it just shows you are not mentally ready...

"One time after I push him in the back, he look at me and this look I will see probably in my nightmares."- nightmares...how can you compete in NBA when you are scared by a look of Shaq...

I hope this is just a poor choice of word and a lack of media interview training for him. But I do admit that he is a hardworking player, and looks like he also knows how to pass the ball around.

Anyway, back to the point, Fesenko is the 2nd year player, hopefully will get more mins than Kuofos because Sloan really seldom uses rookie. (I am not completely sure this time though because Sloan did praise him pretty much during the training camp) At the end of the day, perhaps Sloan will still keep using Collins for the first 20% of the season and play it by ear.

Key message is, our bench is really strong.

Two more notes,

Brevin Knight does not impress me yet, however, strongly believe that he is better than Jason Hart.

By the way, I am not a big fans of Boozer because I think his soft defense was the main reason for our losses in playoffs in last two seasons.

That's about it for this post, hope could share more with everyone soon. Stay tuned.