10 Things Jazz fans should be thankful for

It's genocide day turkey day here in America, and one of the most gluttonous days of the year. (nothing says 'thanks' like your body physiologically shutting itself down so you do not eat anymore food) Anyway, so far this season the Jazz aren't one of the top 5 teams in the league (percentage-wise, the best teams are the LA Lakers, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns), but they Jazz very well could have been one of the bottom 5 teams if they felt sorry enough for themselves. There are a number of things the Jazz fans should be thankful for. Here they are:

1. Despite all the injuries/absences, the Jazz are still in it
	I felt as though the Jazz could hold then own in the chance that Deron Williams had to miss 6 weeks of action. Little did I know that he really WOULD be gone for almost that long. Even more upsetting was the fact that as a team, the Jazz lost quite a few players over that same time frame: Deron missed 13 games, Harpring missed 9, Collins more than 7, Okur missed 5, Boozer and Kover both missed 4 each, Brevin Knight and Andrei missed two games each as well. That's about 45 missed days of action, in only 16 games. The Jazz still managed to win 10 games and are only a win off of last year's pace. (Though, I thought that the Jazz would be 12-4 at this point in time this season, without Deron's injury) Aside from shitting the bed against the Knicks, Wizards and Bobcats on the road, and the ridiculous loss to the Bulls (on our homecourt) the Jazz have played pretty well in every single game. Utah is 8-1 versus the Western Conference this season so far, and while we currently sit half a game out of 1st in our division, the Jazz are undefeated in games against division opponents this season. The Jazz are still in this, and if the playoffs started today we'd face off against Houston again. Don't tell me that wouldn't be a favorable match up?
2. The schedule
	This is an easy one as the Jazz have a record of 10-6 even though they were a walking M*A*S*H unit for most of the season. We Jazz fans should be thankful for the schedule makers and the schedule they gave us. Our first five games were comically easy -- especially when combined with the fact that we played clubs that were either not very good, or without key players in the first few games. (E.g. Denver without Carmelo Anthony due to a suspension, the Clippers without Baron Davis and Marcus Camby for one game, Portland without Greg Oden, etc). Aside from the brutal 5 games in 7 nights Eastern Conference road trip (where the Jazz limped home going 1-4), the schedule has been pretty favorable early. Sure, this means that we have a brutal finishing schedule -- but I'd rather have it easy now when the team is trying to form an identity through all the injuries. If the Jazz had a brutal schedule now we may have 5 wins instead of 10.
3. Internal Development
	Regardless of who you play, you have to still be good enough to win games -- which the Jazz have been doing. The Jazz have been playing a kinds of crazy line-ups this season due to injuries -- and it's worked so far because of the internal development of the younger players. Paul Millsap, Ronnie Brewer, Ronnie Price and C.J. Miles have played in every game for Utah this season. They average between 21.8 mpg and 31.9 mpg -- and three of the four are averaging over 10 ppg. (Price is scoring the least, with only 7 ppg) Taking Deron Williams out of the equation (he's just as young as those guys), that's a pretty solid core of 4 young rotation guys. Two or three seasons ago if you told me that Millsap would be using dribble spin moves in the lane to score on his man, Ronnie Brewer would be hitting threes, C.J. would be taking it strong to the rim, and our point guard (Price) would be dunking with two hands I'd call you crazy. Even our really young (in terms of NBA experience) guys aren't doing that bad. Morris Almond (for all of his flaws) is shooting 53.6 fg% in the NBA against NBA defenses, Kosta Koufos had a series of games where he was a shot blocking force and Fesenko (all of 18 minutes played total this season) showed that he can play -- in 12 minutes of action against Tim Duncan and the Spurs he had 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and made all of his shots. We should be happy our kiddy corp. is doing so well. They are a big reason why the Jazz are winning.
4. Team play
	Without Deron Williams (out of 13 of the first 15 games), the Jazz have had to rely on each other more. This is no more apparent than the number of people who have played point guard for the Jazz so far this season: 5 (Deron Williams, Ronnie Price, Brevin Knight, C.J. Miles and Andrei Kirilenko). Everyone seems to be pretty pass-happy though, and the Jazz are still among the league leaders in some offensive statistics. For example, the Jazz worked the ball around so much that they still managed to be shooting the ball extremely well, 48.4 fg% so far, which is good enough for 3rd best in the league. The team is working well within the system, and it shows, as the Jazz are leading the league in assists per game (24.9 apg), even without a guy who averaged over 10 apg a game. Utah's also tied for 4th best in the league in assist to turn over ratio. Moreover, the Jazz have 6 guys who are averaging over double digits in points per game this season -- with Deron being close to making it seven (he's currently averaging 8.7 ppg in only 3 games). Defensively the Jazz have been working better as a unit as well -- finally being able to actually execute a good zone defense at times, and helping one another -- which has resulted in getting 9.1 steals per game (3rd best in the league). Imagine how much better it'll get with Deron stopping penetration, now that he's healthy again!
5. The Coaching staff
	Not only are the coaches a huge reason why the Jazz have weathered the storm early, but they are a huge reason why the Jazz have been in games at all. Who developed our younger players? The coaches did. Who has been making smart substitutions this season? Again, the coaches. Remember a few games back when we actually saw Ronnie Brewer play in the 4ht quarter, and how amazed we all were? Now we see that every game, and it's normal for us. That's a coaching decision that has paid off. Another happened to be taking Andrei out of 'observer mode' as a starter, and put him in 'active mode' off the bench. Speaking of our bench . . .
6. The Bench
	. . . our bench is awesome this season. Sure, injuries have taken a bite out of our bench recently (Millsap has to start, Brevin is hurt, Kyle is hurt, Harpring is playing again, etc), but our bench has a lot of firepower. We actually won our first 5 games of the season because our bench was so much better than the other teams' bench during that span: +57 points, +34 rebounds, +27 assists, +16 steals, -4 blocks. (again, in just 5 games) The disparity would be even larger had guys like Baron Davis or Marcus Camby started in their games. In previous seasons our hope as fans would be that the bench doesn't lose too much ground during their time on the floor. Now we have the opposite expectation of hoping our bench extends the lead during games. This is further constructed by the belief that all of our early season challenges with injuries will only further season our bench guys. During the last 16 games we've had crunch time line ups made of up Ronnie Brewer and 4 bench guys. This is the silver lining of having so many injuries though, our bench guys are stepping up and can contribute.
7. Defense
	If you ever listen to our head coach Jerry Sloan you would come away with an integral understanding that the Jazz never ever *ever* play defense. This may very well be the case in Jerry's eyes, but when compared to the rest of the league the Jazz do not look too shabby on defense. Utah is allowing 95.9 ppg (even with all the injuries), which is good enough for 11th best in the entire league. We're doing better than noted defensive clubs like the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and under-rated Dallas. (At least when Avery was there) Furthermore, teams are shooting 45.3 fg% against the Jazz . . . while only being 17th best in the league, it's still better than a lot of clubs out there. Lastly, the Jazz are very stingy when it actually comes to letting the other team get a number of possessions. The Jazz have shown a better tenacity for the ball than I can remember (thanks to, early on, Brevin, Brewer, AK and 'Sap getting a lot of minutes -- the Jazz force 16 turn overs per game, that's tied for 4th best in the league). If you keep this in the perspective of how many actual possessions this is, this is a greater feat than other teams that play a quicker pace (like the Nuggets, who are 3rd with 16.4 turn overs forced per game -- but play a game with way more total possessions).
8. Andrei is playing great
	Can you imagine how poorly we'd be floundering if it wasn't for his all-around (dare I hint at a performance that's near all-star level) game this year? Sure, statistically he's achieving stats that ARE comparable to what he used to net as an All-Star, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking that the coaches will notice this, and put him on the team. For the record, though, he is playing 30.1 mpg and shooting pretty well (save for from deep -- but everyone's had this problem with Deron out so long). He's giving the Jazz 13.3 ppg (48.3 fg%, 82.7 ft% on an average of 6 fta per game, tops on the team); 6.1 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.6 spg and 1.4 bpg. He's down from his 14/9/3/2/2 first week of the season, but it's still pretty good. Statistically, he's having the 4th best season of his career -- and he's doing it off the bench! I've actually been more impressed with the stuff that he does that does not get much notice in boxscores. Specifically with the second unit he is always pointing and directing players to where they are supposed to be. It's a level of command and control that he deserves (as being the longest tenured player on the team) and finally gets, as the leader of the 2nd unit. It makes him happy, and he plays better when he's happy. He's had 15 points and above 8 times this season so far; last season he had 15 points or more 23 times the entire season including playoffs. Getting the ball in scoring position also fuels him on defense. Remember back when he had two blocks on Shaq with the game still in the balance? That happened in a game where he shot 50 fg%, nailed all of his free throws and finished with 19 points, 7 rebounds & 3 steals to go with his blocks.
9. Love him or hate him, Boozer is getting 20 and 10
	Now that everyone is back on the "I Love AK" bandwagon, and no one is even talking (for better or worse) about Fesenko, it's Boozer's turn to be hated on again. He's injured right now, and has missed the last 4 games (games in which Millsap has occasionally produced some really crazy numbers), but day in and day out, Boozer has been a key component in 8 of our 10 wins. Forget that, Boozer has come to play (on offense mostly) every game. Here's his stat lines in losses: 19 points, 18 rebounds; 20 points, 7 rebounds; 26 points, 15 rebounds; 17 points, 9 rebounds (in the 5th game in 7 nights) He's averaging 20.5 ppg and 12.3 rpg in our losses, so it's not like the losses are his fault. (per se) Dude is in a contract season, and we can't worry about what's happening this off-season right now. Right now wins are important, and Boozer's play so far has been quite positive. His defense still leaves something to be desired, but his numbers are hard to dismiss entirely. For those interested, Millsap's numbers in the last four games (all without Boozer) have been 15.3 ppg and 8.5 rpg. Clearly there is still a significant difference between the two, and we should be thankful that Booz has been so consistent so far this season.
10. Deron is finally healthy
	Sure, his minutes may be graduated right now, and he may play less in the second game in a back to back set than normal, but he's back. For good. Having him on the floor really made our offense look 'back to normal'; and Brewer's sharp cuts near the basket are useful again with Deron's passing ability. I'm thankful for him being back, as he elevates the team from being a 'good team' to being a championship contender.

There are many things we all can be thankful for, as Jazz fans, the best is yet to come for our team this year. (Even some of the talk heads at ESPN have already admitted in their chats that the Jazz are the team to watch for the 2nd half of the season, or alternatively, the team to watch in 2009, depending on the guy chatting)

Game 3 Recap: Utah 89, LA Clippers 73

Game at a Glance:

The LA Clippers return home and return two star players to the active roster (Baron Davis and Marcus Camby) and hang tight for three quarters, only to allow Paul Millsap to outwork guys 4 inches taller than him and dominate the paint (he scored 15 points in a row for the Jazz in the 4th) while Carlos Boozer cheers from the bench. The Clippers went 9-20 from the free throw line while the Jazz made up for going 0-10 from three by going 25-31 from the line (despite Korver and Okur having 0-2 sequences from there early on). Jason Hart had a DNP-CD in Revenge Game #2.

Jazz Quartet -- Top Four Players of the Game:

Andrei Kirilenko	Paul Millsap	Mehmet Okur	Carlos Boozer
Photographed by Andrew D. Bernstein for NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Stephen Dunn for NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Noah Graham NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Stephen Dunn for NBAE/Getty Images
He locked down both Thornton & Mobley in the 2nd half *and* got a double double (15 points, 11 boards, 2 assists and 4 steals).	Scored 15 points and grabbed 5 board in a row in the 4th quarter to finish with 24 and 9. Added 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.	He let Andrei get a lot of his rebounds, and still has yet to hit a three; but his outside shot is getting better and scored 16 points (5/10 fg, 9 fta)	Boozer didn't dominate, and did not have to. In less than 30 mins he got 13 points (6/10) and had 8 boards.

Digging Deeper:

The Utah Jazz can finally say that they've beaten a team at full strength -- even if it was the first time Baron Davis and Marcus Camby actually played with each other. [I'm completely avoiding the easy dig at the Clippers and questioning how much of a 'team' they really are if all they do is isolate a wing and have him go one on one all night long.] Through the first three quarters this game was a pain to watch. The first quarter featured an overmatched C.J. Miles being absolutely torched by Al Thornton. The sophomore took it to the 4th year player and scored three times on Ceejay in the first 2 minutes of the game.

I don't want to be a dick here, well, maybe I do a little, but Morris Almond can get scored on just as easily . . . for those keeping score at home, Almond has played a little over 4 minutes this season and is shooting 67 fg%, and scored 5 points. CJ has played 44 minutes and shooting 33 fg% and scored 10 points. CJ also has one steal, 4 assists and 7 rebounds more than Almond . . . but he's played 11 times more minutes . . . I think Almond could pick up a steal and 4 assists in 40 minutes of action with the starters.

After Andrei came in the game Thornton only scored twice more the rest of the night. Mike Taylor got the start tonight for the Clippers while Jason Hart (who is having a hard time with the whole revenge game concept) got a DNP-CD. Baron Davis made an immediate impact in the game by hitting a three and pulling off one of those difficult DR.J flying out of bounds under the basket moves [see the move at 0:25 in this video if you don't know what I'm describing] that resulted in a nice pass to a cutting Camby. The Jazz starting guards were tepid in this game -- and made half of all their made field goals (2) in this quarter. The quarter ended 20-16 in favor of the home team.

Kirilenko is really taking command of this 2nd unit (that features Knight, Korver, Andrei (usually at the 2 on defense), Millsap and tonight Okur), and he is using his quicks to post up smaller guys and execute his patented alley-oop post up 180 layups while being fouled. Speaking of quicks, Millsap was using his face up / floor game to make some crazy layups and shots. You may remember that I suggested that Paul should use his speed and quickness more on offense . . . and he did tonight!

Utah's perimeter game hasn't been clicking (still looking for that first Money shot from Memo), and if the Jazz want to start beating good teams (instead of beating down on bad teams) then the offense needs to pick it up. What really saved us was our foul shooting (and the Clips bad luck there), you may also remember that we only beat the nuggets because of our foul shooting. So -- honestly -- we could be 1-2 right now if it wasn't for our luck at the stripe.

It's easy to fall in love with our defensive stats, but we've played some really bad teams,so there is no big secret WHY we've held teams to 82 ppg. It's because we played the Clippers twice and Denver without 'Melo. If we can keep teams under 90 after our brutal Eastern trip later this month then I'll be happily surprised. Almost as surprised as I was to see Korver miss two free throws in a row like he did right after hitting three in a row early on in this game. Korver did manage to net 7 points, grab 5 boards and steal the ball 3 times . . . had he made a few of this threes he easily would have been part of the Jazz Quartet up there.

Next Game: Wednesday November 5th, 2008 -- Portland @ Utah, 9:00 pm.

Holy Crap part deux!

Not only is Camby playing, but so too will Baron Davis! Going to be a much more interesting test for the Jazz now . . .

Jason Hart revenge game . . . #2

As I mentioned earlier, things did not go so well for Jason Hart and the LA Clippers last game . . . more than anything else, though, the oft-neglected (by the media) off-season trade orchestrated by Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor to move Hart for Brevin Knight looks even better the day after. Sure, the fans pretty much hated Hart for his play . . . but he was well liked by his team mates. Being well liked doesn't really mean anything in this league though, look at how Dee Brown was dumped after visiting all of those shitty little towns in behalf of the Jazz. What matters is production. Hart did not produce, but Knight has. More impressive is how Knight actually cares about his play and tries really hard on defense. He doesn't like getting beat and takes pride in his play. I remember in the nuggets game he got called for a cheap turn over, instead of complaining to the ref he just sucked it up, and stole the ball on the next play.

Hart has a chance tonight to make the trade seem a little less lopsided . . . and this is probably his best chance to do so. As the season goes on Baron Davis is probably going to be healthy to play in the last game (April 13th, 2009) these two teams play against each other. (Utah and the Clippers only play 3 times this season) The minutes are there, unless Mike Taylor plays the spoiler again . . . which very well could happen.

I don't have anything against Hart, given time he can be a solid NBA player, he just had a really bad season last year. I know that he doesn't suck as bad as he played last season because a few years ago I picked him up for my fantasy team back when he was first on the clippers and getting over a steal a game to go with 5 apg. (I only picked him up because I needed assists and steals and he was playing 5 games that week)

Anyway, this is the Jason Hart revenge game . . . #2! Starting tonight at 10:30 est! Truly a battle for the ages! (Maybe he'll score 3 points this time around?)

Game 2 Recap: Utah 101, LA Clippers 79; Game 3 Preview: Utah @ LA Clippers

Game at a Glance:

Things did not go so well for Jason Hart and the LA Clippers last game . . . they were really tired, having played in an overtime game the night before, and while they held it together for one solid half of basketball (tied at halftime 48 all), they got rolled in the 2nd half by a Jazz team that ended up setting a franchise record for fewest turn overs -- ever.

Jazz Quartet -- Top Four Players of the Game:

Andrei Kirilenko	Ronnie Brewer	Brevin Knight	Carlos Boozer
11 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals off the bench in 31 minutes of action.	16 points (6-10 shooting, 5 FTA), added 3 rebounds, 2 steals and a block in 26 mins.	8 points (4-6), 6 assists and 1 steal with zero turn overs and keyed the 3rd quarter run.	Another 25 and 10 game, shot 12-18 from the field and added 3 assists in 31 minutes.

Digging Deeper:

Obviously the game would have been much more different had Baron Davis and Deron Williams actually played . . . but instead we had the Cuttino Mobley (20 points, 3 rebounds) and Tim Thomas (16 points, 7 rebounds) express vs. the Ronnie Brewer (16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals) and Carlos Boozer (25 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists) show. It was not too hard to figure out which side won based on those stats. Even the Jason Hart/Brevin Knight under card was very one-sided: Hart started the game but did not finish, and had a grand total of 2 points (1-4 fg), 2 assists, and 1 rebound. Knight came off the bench and had 8 points (4-6 fg), 6 assists and a steal.

The big surprise was Mike Taylor, a rookie PG for the Clippers who ended up playing 33 minutes and finished with 13 points and 4 assists. On TV it looked like he was a giant compared to Brevin Knight, and his long arms and quick first step were a major component of his success against the Jazz on Saturday night. A second, smaller surprise was that in garbage time Jazz fans got to see Morris Almond, Kyrylo Fesenko and Kosta Koufos all play at the same time in an NBA game -- which may be an event that may never happen again... Almond looked good with his shooting stroke; Koufos looked like a rookie who was immediately attacked on offense and defense by Kaman, who scored on him and blocked his shot; Fesenko did much more in less time than Koufos, getting a steal, a rebound and a nice dunk.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for winning another game without Deron Williams (and Jerry Sloan, Matt Harpring and Jarron Collins) let's point to the fact that this was a Clippers team that doesn't know each other, whose best players are injured and played an overtime game the night before. Also we were at home . . . where we seem to play pretty well at.

Game 3 Preview:

We get the other end of the home and home series tonight with a game in LA this time around. I do not know the status of Davis and Camby, aside from that they are listed as Day-to-Day. Having one of those two back, in addition to playing at home, may be just enough to push the Clippers over the top. The close proximity of these two games only compounds the problems the Clippers displayed on Saturday -- they may go absolutely nuts on defense trying to pressure the ball tonight. Heck, even their coach hinted at it:

"We let them be too relaxed with the basketball and they made some easy plays," (LA Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy, 2008 via ESPN.COM)

On the flipside, Brevin Knight sites the running game as the primary reason why a) it was easy for him to play well, and b) the lack of defensive pressure. (If you run, then the other team can't dig in on defense)

"If we can stay up-tempo it makes it a lot easier for me, and in the half-court the Coaches are doing a great job keeping me in plays that I know pretty well, and the guys are really working with me and hanging in with me." (Brevin Knight, 2008 via 1320 KFAN.COM)

If you combine the two you pretty much spell disaster a game that should have a lot more turn overs in it than 24 total. These are the types of road games that good teams win though . . . and with Boozer averaging 25 and 10, Memo averaging a double double, Ronnie Brewer scoring 16 ppg off of 58 fg% and Andrei coming off the bench to average 14 ppg, 8 rpg, 4 apg, 3 bpg and 2 spg the Jazz should win -- regardless of where the game is being played.

The game is tonight @ 10:30 pm EST time in LA -- for those that care. Go Jazz Go!

Jason Hart revenge game . . . #1

Jazz host the Clips tonight at the Delta Center. There's a virtual all-star team of talent that may (or may not) miss this game in the names of Deron, Baron, Marcus, Kyle, and so on. We may get to see an Epic battle between Jason Hart and Brevin Knight tonight . . . unfortunately, I'm not going to be around to watch the game live . . . so I'll have to catch it when I go home. ESPN has us at overwhelming favorites tonight, so we have that going for us.
	Jason Hart -- "scoring" machine	Brevin Knight -- actually knows how to play point guard, unlike Hart.

Utah Jazz Pre-Season 2008-2009: Top Transaction of the Off-Season

After being bounced out of the 2007-2008 Playoffs by the eventual Western Conference Champion LA Lakers the Jazz were faced with some glaring roster talent holes. The top three (for as long as this group as been together) have been:

1. the need for a defensive bigman,
2. a defensive wing player,
3. and more insurance at the point.

That last point is interesting because with Deron Williams' being drafted by the Jazz in the 2005 Draft you'd think that we'd be pretty solid there. It's actually a double edged sword because we have such a good point guard that we rely on him so much (over 37 mpg the last two seasons). If something were to happen to him (knock on wood, or well, knock on the current injury) then we would need to make up that 37 mpg that he's not going to be able to play somewhere. For those of you who are late to the party, this is exactly the current situation that the Utah Jazz are in.

And because of it, and a variety of other reasons, trading for Brevin Knight was the top transaction of the Off-Season.

But back to those points for a bit . . .

The need for a defensive bigman has not been taken care of, though, the Jazz have been drafting size for a bit now (Kyrylo Fesenko in 2007, Kosta Koufos and Ante Tomic in 2008 -- all three are 7'1 or better). The law of averages suggests that maybe one of them will develop into a better interior defender than either Carlos Boozer or Mehmet Okur sometime down the road. As it stands right now, Fesenko's blocks per foul ratio was already better than both of theirs (significantly) as a rookie.

The Defensive Wing project (aka. Ronnie Brewer), on the other hand, is going into it's third year of existence and early projections look promising. So really, the only thing Kevin O'Connor (who is severely underrated as a GM) had to address urgently this off-season was shoring up point guard. [Which is fine, as he's going to be really busy next off-season]

So what did Kevin do this off-season? He turned Jason Hart (our 3rd string guy) into Brevin Knight (who might actually start for us if Deron is out for longer than 2 weeks). Hart was so bad for us last season that trading him for Miami Heat's Chris Quinn would have clearly been a great trade for the Jazz. Trading for a better player, a guy who has a career assist to turn over ratio greater than 3:1 over a decade in the league, mind you, makes this transaction as a no brainer. The absolute cherry on top is the fact that Knight makes less money than Hart, and Knight is an expiring contract.

It's an under-rated move because it wasn't a team with a lot of cap space signing a big name guy like Elton Brand or Baron Davis . . . but as far as reward goes this was huge. Knight is a steadying force, a veteran guy who can help us win on the road (we won on the road with Fisher, we lost on the road when our veteran presence was Harpring), and a really tenacious defender. He gets a lot of steals and he's really scrappy. He can play man-to-man defense against the shorter, quicker guards. (There's currently a pretty good one right now that the press talks about)

Lastly, with the events of this Pre-season resulting in a very key injury (that we shouldn't be too worried about), hind-sight suggests that out of all of the transactions made this off-season (and there was more than one) . . . that this was the most important one to make.

Really, if we had to go one week without Deron and rely on Hart and Price I'd really be worried. We could conceivably go for one and a half months without Deron now that we have Knight and Price and still be leading our division.

Trading for Brevin Knight was the top transaction of the Off-Season. Thanks Kevin O'Connor!

NBA Stars Back in the Day . . .

I got this from over here, and props to them for finding it. It's kind of entertaining to see some of the 'personality' of these stars stay consistent from way back then: for example Alonzo Mourning looks like he wants to fight, Kobe is smug because he's popular, and Magic is a smiling fool. I do agree with the author of that post that I am stealing this from (ethanator1088) that Larry Bird looks like he was born during the depression according to this picture. Anyway . . . enjoy the video.

Here's the full list of kids pics:
Allen Iverson Kevin Garnett Emanuel Ginobili Baron Davis Emeka Okafor Shaquille O'Neal Pau Gasol Dennis Rodman Devin Harris Shawn Kemp (looks like LeBron's dad . . . I'm just saying) Yao Ming Tony Parker Kobe Bryant Larry Johnson Vince Carter Tim Duncan Charles Barkley Mike Bibby Alonzo Mourning
Andrei Kirilenko Dwyane Wade John Stockton Kenyon Martin Magic Johnson Anfernee Hardaway Scottie Pippen Sebastian Telfair (with cousin Stephon) Reggie Miller	Dirk Nowitzki Larry Bird Karl Malone Pete Maravich Grant Hill Dominique Wilkins Steve Francis Jason Williams Paul Pierce Patrick Ewing (looking to be sponsored) Michael Jordan

Fun stuff . . . the song is kind of down-tempo though, so if you like Sarah McLachlan then you'll like this. (and really, who doesn't own a few of her albums already . . .)

Sorry Haters -- Deron Williams' injury isn't going to hurt the Jazz

First of all, Deron Williams got hurt over the weekend. Everyone knows about this already, and it's been blogged about already. (Some good reads on the subject can be found: here, here, here, and here) I was particularly surprised to find that David James had basically blogged about exactly what I was going to write. (Props to you, DJ!) That said, everyone is entitled to their take on this situation -- I look at the 'glass if half full' point of view on most things, and as a result, this injury is not going to hurt the Jazz. The best news so far is that Deron isn't going to be out for the season. He's only going to be out somewhere between 2 weeks to a month. That's the estimate that I've read the most online, and as a result, let's say that the worst case scenario is that Deron can't play for 6 weeks. (Three times the best case scenario) What's going to happen in 6 weeks time (from his injury, back on October 18th)?

During this time span the Jazz would have played around 20 games (18 regular season and 1 pre-season), and the first possible game Deron will play in would be the 1st game of December. So that means that in the worst case scenario Deron *may* miss the entire first month of the season. It's a really good thing that the NBA finals happens in June, and not November then. Furthermore, the schedule is pretty light during this time period -- you can take a look at the full schedule here, or read about how important it is for the Jazz to get off to a good start here. The types of teams we play don't change if we don't have Deron playing. For the most part, these teams are pretty crappy.

Lastly, there are some key injuries/suspensions to other players that do make a significant difference as well. (unless, of course, you don't think that Carmelo Anthony, Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, Steve Nash and Manu Ginobli aren't difference makers) Now let's break down the hypothetical (and entirely unnecessary) 6 weeks without Deron Williams:

Week 1: October 19th, 2008 - October 25th, 2008

Number of games	Date	Type	Opponent	Location	Opponent Ball Handlers
1	Oct 23	Pre-Season	Portland	Home	Steve Blake
					Jerryd Bayless
					Brandon Roy
					Sergio Rodriguez

The NBA season doesn't start for the Jazz until October 29th, and there is only one Pre-season game left. This game (against the Blazers) means nothing for Deron, so there's nothing lost by having him out. So for the first week of Deron's injury the Jazz are missing nothing -- in fact, the Jazz get a chance to really figure out who can handle the ball, get the Jazz in their offense, and find out who's going to start between Ronnie Price and Brevin Knight. Other candidates for running the team include C.J. Miles, Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko. For a whole week of only ONE game (a preseason one at that), this isn't going to be any problem for a Deron Williams-less Jazz team.

For the record, the T-Blazers have the advantage when it comes to ball handlers in this game, but this game doesn't matter at all.

Week 2: October 26th, 2008 - November 1st, 2008

Number of games	Date	Type	Opponent	Location	Opponent Ball Handlers
2	Oct 29	Regular	Denver	Home	Allen Iverson
					Chucky Atkins
					Anthony Carter
					Smush Parker
					Mateen Cleaves
	Nov 1	Regular	LA Clippers	Home	Baron Davis *
					Eric Gordon
					Jason Hart

The 2nd week is when the Jazz start their NBA season. The first game of the season is against the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets have the advantage at the point with Deron out as they have Allen Iverson, Chucky Atkins and Anthony Carter all available (as far as I know). I don't know if Smush Parker or Mateen Cleaves will make the roster, but the Nuggets are more capable at the 1 for this game than the Jazz. The good news is that this game is at home, and the Nuggets will be without Carmelo Anthony -- who will be suspended for this game. This is the home opener, and the other team is more hurt than we are (Deron vs. Melo), so I say that we start off the season with a win.

The 2nd game of the season is against the LA Clippers. The only thing we have to know about this game is if Baron Davis will play in it or not. There are conflicting reports on the Internet (he may not miss any time, or he may miss 4-6 weeks), but if he doesn't play, this doesn't look like that bad of a week if you ask me. If he does play changes things a bit, but the Clippers are still a less talented team than the Jazz are without Deron Williams. If the game ends up being Eric Gordon and Jason Hart against Ronnie Price and Brevin Knight I think my Tivo will destroy itself.

Oh, and by the way, most reports suggest that Deron will be shelved for two weeks. This is the end of two weeks. Not too shabby . . .

Week 3: November 2nd, 2008 - November 8th, 2008

Number of games	Date	Type	Opponent	Location	Opponent Ball Handlers
3	Nov 3	Regular	LA Clippers	Road	Baron Davis *
					Eric Gordon
					Jason Hart
	Nov 5	Regular	Portland	Home	Steve Blake
					Jerryd Bayless
					Brandon Roy
					Sergio Rodriguez
	Nov 7	Regular	Oklahoma City	Home	Earl Watson
					Russell Westbrook
					John Lucas III

This is when things start to get a little bit more challenging. There are three games on tap, a road game against the LA Clippers, then home games against Portland and the "we're not even settled in yet" Oklahoma City Thunder. There is nothing too special about any of these games save for the fact that Baron should be healed by now, if he wasn't for the previous game. Over all I'd take the Jazz to win any of these three games (if not all three) as they are the most talented team (hype be damned!) on each night this week. I think the Jazz will be up to play against Portland, and defend their home court against a team that owned us last season. Oklahoma's ball handler's don't scare anyone.

So far we've only played 1 playoff team -- and that's Denver without Carmelo Anthony. I'm sure if Deron is out three weeks that we're not going to be really hurting without him.

Week 4: November 9th, 2008 - November 15th, 2008

Number of games	Date	Type	Opponent	Location	Opponent Ball Handlers
5	Nov 9	East Road Trip	New York	Road	Stephon Marbury
					Chris Duhon
					Nate Robinson
					Jamal Crawford
	Nov 11	East Road Trip	Philadelphia	Road	Andre Miller
					Louis Williams
					Royal Ivey
	Nov 12	East Road Trip	Washington	Road	Gilbert Arenas *
					Dee Brown
					DeShawn Stevenson
					Juan Dixon
	Nov 14	East Road Trip	Charlotte	Road	Raymond Felton
					D.J. Augustin
	Nov 15	East Road Trip	Cleveland	Road	Mo Williams
					Daniel Gibson
					LeBron James
					Delonte West
					Eric Snow

If Week 3 was a bit more challenging, then Week 4 is a killer. This is one of our numerous Eastern Conference Road Trips. This trip is going to be *only* 5 games long, and all takes place within a week. Furthermore, this team features two sets of back-to-backs, three 3 games in 4 nights deals, and ends up being 5 games in 7 nights. How ridiculous! If Deron isn't healthy by Week 4 I just say keep in him Utah. The last thing we need is for him to test out his body against this Eastern Conference Circus. For the record, Gilbert Arenas may not play in this game, the Bobcats suck, and the Knicks do as well. There is no way that we're winning in Cleveland when it's the 2nd night of a back-to-back and the 5th game in 7 nights though.

That said, if Deron is healthy, we can win quite a few of these road games . . . if not, this is the only bad week if he's out for 6 weeks.

Week 5: November 16th, 2008 - November 22nd, 2008

Number of games	Date	Type	Opponent	Location	Opponent Ball Handlers
4	Nov 17	Regular	Phoenix	Home	Steve Nash *
					Leandro Barbosa
					Goran Dragic
					Grant Hill
	Nov 19	Regular	Milwaukee	Home	Luke Ridnour
					Charlie Bell
					Tyronn Lue
					Damon Jones
	Nov 21	Regular	San Antonio	Road	Tony Parker
					Jacque Vaughn
					George Hill
	Nov 22	Regular	Memphis	Road	Mike Conley
					Javaris Crittenton
					Kyle Lowry

Week 5 is much better than Week 4, as there are only 4 games to play. The first pair of games are at home, and the last two are on the road. The first game is against the Phoenix Suns, though Nash may be injured for this game as well. (what luck! No Carmelo, possibly no Baron, maybe no Gilbert, and now maybe no Nash!) It's still going to be tough to beat the Suns without Deron though. Thankfully the next game is against Milwaukee -- and their point guards are worse than ours are. (How many times a season are our ball handlers going to be better than the other teams' when Deron is injured?) The first road game is in San Antonio (Manu is injured as well), but I still expect a loss, as it's in San Antonio. The last game of week 5 is against Memphis -- which isn't a very experienced team when it comes to handling the rock either.

I'd be happy with a 2-2 split this week -- especially after the horrible Week 4 East Road Trip.

Week 6: November 23rd, 2008 - November 29th, 2008.

Number of games	Date	Type	Opponent	Location	Opponent Ball Handlers
4	Nov 24	Home stand	Chicago	Home	Kirk Hinrich
					Ben Gordon
					Derrick Rose
					Larry Hughes
	Nov 26	Home stand	Memphis	Home	Mike Conley
					Javaris Crittenton
					Kyle Lowry
	Nov 28	Home stand	Sacramento	Home	Beno Udrih
					Bobby Jackson
	Nov 29	Home stand	New Jersey	Home	Devin Harris
					Eddie Gill

This is the last week of my hypothetical worst case scenario . . . we all know that Deron Williams isn't going to be sidelined for the first 18 games of the season with an ankle injury. If he was, though, this last week could finish on a very high note on this four game home stand. All four of these clubs stink, and while they appear to have an advantage at PG with Deron out I know that we are still more talented then all of them. The first game is against the Bulls, and you know that the Jazz will be fired up for that, as it's at home (and you know, the revenge factor). The home game at Memphis could very well be an AK-47 5x5 night. Sacramento has a lot of shooters, but they don't have any defenders. New Jersey is crap.

I have the Jazz going 13-5 over the first 18 games of the season without Deron Williams. I have the Jazz maybe winning 3 more games if they had him. The schedule and injuries are in our favor -- and any rest for Deron is fine with me. So yeah . . . Deron Williams' injury isn't going to hurt the Jazz. If anything, all of this time without relying on him is going to make them better.

And really . . . he's not going to be out for 6 weeks, probably 2 or 3 if there is a set back. (You know, a grand total of 5 games)