Hello,
The Utah Jazz cast off many of their veteran players from the last few years, letting Big Al Jefferson and Paul Milsap go elsewhere. I always loved Milsap, but I can't believe anybody paid the one dimensional Jefferson so much money. Utah also cut ties with a few other veteran players from last year. I was perfectly good with the Jazz going with the youth movement, in fact I wish they would have gone with the movement before last season's trading deadline.
The Jazz are building around Derrick Favors, an absolute beast. I don't think that Favors will live up to the incredibly high hopes I had for him. However I still expect him to be a game changer and I look forward to following his career for the next few years. The Jazz are also building around Enes Kanter, Gordon Hayward, Alec Burks and when he gets back from injury Trey Burke. I'm expecting at least solid futures from Rudy Gobert and Mike Harris.
Hayward is a perfectly good player, but I wasn't heart broken that the Jazz didn't sign him to a contract extension before the exclusive signing period expired this last Thursday. That means that Hayward will be a restricted free agent in July, which means the Jazz can match a contract that anyone offers him. If I am the Jazz any contract more than $8 or $9 million a year, I'd have to let Hayward go. He does have a high upside, but he'll never be a superstar. He's too small and isn't bulky enough to get a clutch basket around the basket when the Jazz absolutely need it. He will make the Jazz, or some other team, a great complimentary player though. (Thanks to espn.com.)
Sadly the Jazz youth movement has already been stilted twice. Once when the Jazz management wasn't more aggressive last season. The second time was when Trey Burke injured his finger and is out until around Christmas time. Sadly injuries are just a fact of the professional game. It's too bad the Jazz can't use this time to develop another young point guard. The Jazz will get by with the veteran combination of Jamaal Tinsley and John Lucas III. Perhaps the Jazz can throw a few point guard minutes to Burks, after all you can never have too many ball handlers.
On Saturday night the Jazz jumped out to a 56-40 lead and I thought they had a great chance to win the game. However that wasn't to be, led by James Harden the Rockets stormed back to win 104-93. Again Harden showed just how great of a player he is. He's so deceptive in how dominant he can be.
Meanwhile Dwight Howard continues to be a over hyped fraud. I love that people think the Rockets are going to the NBA Finals because of the addition of Howard. Please. Watching that game last night reminded me of how glad I am that the Jazz stayed far away from the Big Brick in free agency. Will the Rockets get past the Thunder, Clippers, Grizzilies or Spurs? Nah I don't think so.
Yes I know that Howard had a lot of rebounds in his first two games, but that was when he was trying to make a statement that he was worthy of all the Rockets money. He had 42 rebounds in his first two games but only had 9 rebounds on Saturday night. Howard was 4-8 from the field and 7-10 from the free throw line to finish with all of 15 points. The 7 for 10 upped his free throw shooting percentage to 50% for the season. I'm sorry but when Howard is making $20.5 million this season, shooting 70% from the free throw line should be his mininum free throw shooting percentage.
I still maintain my prediction that the Rockets will regret Howard's 4 year contract within 2 or 3 years. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if Howard is out of the NBA about the same time as his contract ends. He clearly has no passion for the game, shouldn't his offensive game be much more advanced after being in the league for 9 years. Anyone that buys into the Howard or Carmelo Anthony hype, I sure don't want to hear your stock picks. Howard is nowhere in the same league as the great Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwan.
Anyway the Jazz were doomed by the two things that killed them in their first two games, less than great free shooting and a complete inability to close out a team. Part of that is due to the youth of the team, but also to the coach. I don't think Tyrone Corbin is the head coach that will be able to take the Jazz to a NBA championship. The Jazz still have a long way to go to learn how to close out a team, it's going to be a long, long season.
This is a great time for the young Jazz to learn these lessons and hopefully they'll be utilized in upcoming seasons.
Coming tomorrow, time allowing, another one of themusicaddict's greatest blogs of all-time. It will be for Living Color's "Vivid".
themusicaddict
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