Hello,
Entering Thursday's NBA draft, the Jazz had the 14th and 21st picks in the first round. Utah turned those two first round picks into Trey Burke of Michigan. I'm excited by that move, the Jazz desperately needed a young, quality point guard. Via another trade the Jazz were able to get a center that they were coveting in Rudy Gobert. Getting another young big should help the Jazz and I'm also good with that pick. Late Thursday night the Jazz also acquired the rights to Brazilian Raul Neto. I don't know how well he'll work out, but another young guard is worth the risk.
Now the Jazz need to go to a complete youth movement. They should let most of their veterans leave, only keeping a few as back up players. There's no point for the Jazz to repeat the miserable season of last year. Sadly Utah is stuck with Marvin Williams. As for Paul Milsap I'd be good if they let him go or if they resign him, he probably still has another few productive years in him. I wouldn't break the bank to keep him though.
As soon as possible the Jazz should renounce their rights to Jefferson, unless they can get some kind of beneficial sign and trade for him. Since they can keep Randy Foye relatively cheaply, perhaps they should bring him back. I'd love for the Jazz to have a great 3 point shooter to give Kanter and Favors more room to operate in the post. I just hope that they both learn how to play great defense, unlike the one dimensional game of Big Al Jefferson. Big Al's game is as unimaginative as his nickname.
Utah already has Enes Kanter, Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward and added Burke, Gobert and Neto. I'm not a big Hayward fan, he's too skinny to get to the basket on a regular basis. I hoped for more from him when he was drafted by the Jazz. Utah had three veteran point guards last season, Mo Williams, Jamaal Tinsley and Earl Watson. Now they can dump at least 2 of them. Keep one as a backup to Burke, but play Burke 40 minutes a night. Give Gobert and Neto a few minutes a night as well, if either makes the team. They probably both will, but you never know what you are getting with international players. Are you getting Dirk Nowitski or Darko Milicic?
The 2013-2014 Jazz team probably won't win a lot of games, but they'll sure be fun to watch. The Jazz were unwatchable for most of last season.
Going into the draft I hoped that the Jazz wouldn't draft Shabazz Muhammad, Mason Plumlee, Kelly Olynyk or Jeff Withey. Technically the Jazz did end up selecting Muhammad, but that was part of a trade the Jazz made. I was very pleased when one pick before the Jazz's first first round pick Dallas selected Olynyk. (Olynyk was getting stuffed by the center of the the 16th seeded Southern when the two teams played in SLC in the NCAA Tournament.) The Mavs very smartly traded Olynyk to the Celtics for the 2013 #16 pick and two future second round picks. (Although part of the reason to make this trade was to create cap room for Dwight Howard. Is Jerry Jones in charge of their player personnel moves as well?) The Mavs ended up with the player I hoped would end up in Utah, Shane Larkin. I just love how athletic he is.
Brooklyn selected Plumlee at 22 and later traded for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Look for Plumlee to only play a few ineffectual minutes a game. In the second round, at # 39, the Trailblazers drafted Withey. I stumbled across something so funny I'm quoting it verbatim from ESPN.com: "Withey is one of the best shot blockers in the draft. He doesn't really do much else, but he's a guy who should get 15 minutes a night as a solid backup." I had to laugh when ESPN was showing highlights of Withey, they kept on showing the same play over and over again. I'm guessing because that's about as many great plays Withey had this past season. I hope he's smart and took his college education seriously, he won't be in the NBA long.
The trade the Nets made seems to indicate that they are the way up to the detriment of the Knicks. I hope New York enjoyed making it all the way to the second round last season. The Bulls have Derrick Rose coming back, the Pacers have Danny Granger come back, the Nets got a lot better with their draft day trade. Meanwhile the poorly run Knicks only had one pick in the draft. They used that to draft Tim Hardaway Jr. The Knicks should let J.R. Smith go after he opted out. With Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks already have one too many ball hogs who's a poor shooter. Will the Knicks even get out of the first round next season.
I love that Dwight Howard is probably not going to resign with the Lakers, although the Lakers will be glad that they weren't able to resign him in a couple of years. Howard is extremely athletic, or at least used to be, people allow his potential to blind them to the kind of player he'll never be again. There's no way I'd want Howard to play for my Jazz, if he's still a key player in the NBA in 5 years I'd be very surprised. I wonder how many free throws Howard has shot this off season.
Back in March I wrote about the absurdity of any team signing Howard to a max contract. Giving him about $122 million for 5 years, really. If they are going to give away their money, they should give it to something that is much more useful. I predicted that Howard would stay in LA because they could give him the most money. Howard is all about himself, he's indicating he won't go back to LA. Maybe he's putting up smoke screens as well. When all is said and done, I'm glad that he won't end up in Utah.
Having Howard for all of last season and hearing all his whining before the season I can't believe that the Lakers really still want him. They went to the bizarre lengths of putting up signs to ask Howard to "Stay". As Dan Patrick says you are the Lakers, you don't beg anyone to play for you. The Lakers putting up signs made me laugh, but I started thinking about it a little more. Maybe the Lakers are just putting on a facade and don't really want Howard back. Are they making all these moves to cover themselves with the fans for the future.
What does ESPN NBA expert Tim Legler say about the best fit about Howard? I like what Legler says about Howard about being beat up and how he may no longer be in the prime of his career:
Sticking with the Lakers and their future players. The Lakers only had one pick in the NBA Draft. I'm not sure what their draft criteria were. It seems they were looking for a slow, white, pasty guy who's not going to last long in the NBA. If that was their criteria, they made the best possible pick. The Lakers drafted Duke's Ryan Kelly. That's hilarious, is today June's Fools Day? Sure Kelly can shoot, but who is he going to defend? He just doesn't have the athleticism to last in the NBA for long. Perhaps when he and Plumlee are out of the NBA in a few years, they can form a company. It looks like the Lakers are on the way down for a bit, not the way that Bryant wanted to go out.
Meanwhile in the NFL: The moral rot of the Dallas Cowboys continue. Although Josh Brent has been imprisoned because of the repeated bad decisions he's made, Dallas keeps him on the roster. Why? I have no idea. The Cowboys have said that they still want to support him through the legal process. That's fine, but he doesn't need to be on the roster for them to support him. I would think the Cowboys would expect a lot more from him, there doesn't seem to be any consequences for his repeated errors. I wouldn't call them mistakes, because he keeps on doing the same stupid thing over and over again.
So then why do the Cowboys keep him around? I think it's because Jerry Jones thinks he can still play. Jones is so desperate to show that his way is the right way, he wants to keep Brent on the team in hopes that one day he'll help the Cowboys win. Of course all the bad karma he brings on the team doesn't help the Cowboys any.
Just when I think the Cowboys have finally hit their nadir, they find a way to hit a new low. The moral rot of Jones and his desperation to be relevant continues to haunt the Cowboys. How many more years of this bullcrap do the Cowboys and their shrinking number of fans have to go through before there's relief?
themusicaddict
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