Showing posts with label Kevin Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Love. Show all posts

Sunday, July 26, 2009

USA Basketball scrimmage pictures! Woo!

Here are some of the (jazz related) pictures from the scrimmage featuring Kyle Korver, Paul Mil$ap and Ronnie Brewer (and coach Ty Corbin too!). All the pictures were photographed by Andrew D. Bernstien for NBAE/Getty Images.

Team Photo

Here is the team picture (L to R): Bottom row is Paul Millsap; Top row is Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and Tyrone Corbin.

Thad

Kyle is on offense, and at half court here. Great job Kyle!

A. Randolph

Here Millsap watches Anthony Randolph throw it down

Jokes

Kyle jokes with Thad Young and business casual friday guy.

Dont want to make you look bad so I will pass

Here Kyle defends Ronnie Brewer, uh-oh, Kyle is on you . . . you better look to pass!

rest

Brewer and Millsap take a breather

Mic

Durant talks while Brewer mentally constructs new ways to defend him

Thad

What does this picture have to do with the Jazz? Oh yeah, Kyle is in it waaaay in the back. Great job Kyle! Keep it up!

Air Brewer

Brewer makes airspace to dunk on Durant

Love me tender

Kevin Love dunks on Millsap

Love me true

Here the two are going for the same rebound . . . but obviously looking at two different things. I wonder who got the rebound . . .

Air Brewer again

Brewer skies in for two more!

Kyle in stealth mode

Okay Amar, now really! What does this have to do with the Jazz? Ah yes, Korver is behind Westbrook (foreground) in the center of the picture, in stealth mode.

Ty does not care for your conversation

And Tyrone is over near a cheerleader on the right hand side.

That's one tall kid, if Kyle is 6'7

It was business as usual after the game for Kyle, who seems to be moving into the Kevin Costner period of his career.

I'm open . . . for the love of God I'm open

Thad Young is trapped behind the basket and Millsap is looking for a pass -- ‘Sap, that pass isn’t going to come, Young is going to shoot this. It was that kind of camp for Millsap – it seems.

the juice

Let’s finish this with some OJ going up and over some Korver defense! You can do it! Go JAZZ!

Friday, November 7, 2008

All Euro (Whitey) Team comment and other thoughts on recent blog articles I've enjoyed

I love readings blogs . . . that's actually the main reason why I created one as well -- because I wanted to give back. Unfortunately I don't have all the time in the world to read them anymore, but I try to keep abreast of blog posts via BallHype.com. (They are fantastic, I use BallHype.com more often than I use Google.com) Anyway, here's a selection of blog posts and my take on them --

Rebounding Differential Rankings in the NBA [Nov 6] -- Khandor's Sports Blog talks about something Jazz fans have been very lucky to have over the last few seasons, and actually positive rebounding differential. Utah is a strong rebounding club (currently #6th in the NBA in differential at +5.00 as of November 6th, 2008). Last season the Jazz were tied for 3rd over-all with the Boston Celtics at +3.1 rebound differential; Cleveland was at +4.2, and Houston at +4.0. Two of the clubs above the Jazz (Detroit and Philly) have played the Raptors though, and thus, those rebounding numbers look highly inflated. Khandor shows a nice chart and talks about it a bit. I tend to value rebounding differential more than actual average RPG because it shows how good (or bad) a team is compared to other teams -- as opposed to being an isolated number by itself. I wish the Raptors do get better rebounding, as they are one of the teams that I root for. Thanks Khandor for blogging about this, it's nice to know that I'm not the only crazy person out there who likes stats.

Zach at Gunaxin.com recently blogged about The All Whitey Basketball Team -- Zach describes and details a 12 man roster of purely American white guys. He comes up with Kirk Hinrich, Mike Miller, Mike Dunleavy Jr., David Lee and Chris Kaman as starters. The bench is comprised of Brad Miller, Kyle Korver, Steve Blake, Kevin Love, Wally Szcerbiak, Troy Murphy and Nick Collison. I don't think that team would suck. (It would be a whole lot better than an All-Asian Basketball team, for starters . . . and as a guy who's parents were born in Asia I can say that, I guess in that Russell Peters type of "i'm a minority so I can be racist" type of comedy that Sarah Silverman employs) That's a tangent though . . . I wanted to make an all European Basketball team to counter . . . this is what I came up with (In no order):

  1. Tony Parker (PG) -- France/Spurs
  2. Hidayet Turkoglu (SF/SG) -- Turkey/Magic
  3. Andrei Kirilenko (SF/PF) -- Russia/Jazz
  4. Dirk Nowitzki (PF/C) -- Germany/Mavericks
  5. Pau Gasol (PF/C) -- Spain/LA Lakers
  6. Jose Manuel Calderon (PG) -- Spain/Raptors
  7. Sasha Vujacic (SG/PG) -- Slovenia/LA Lakers
  8. Rudy Fernandez (SG/SF) -- Spain/Trailblazers
  9. Predrag Stojakovic (SF/SG) -- Serbia (Croatia)/Hornets
  10. Linas Kleiza (SF/PF) -- Lithuania/Nuggets
  11. Mehmet Okur (PF/C) -- Turkey/Jazz
  12. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C) -- Lithuania/Cavaliers

If you want only "White Euros" then take out Tony Parker and put in Beno Udrih instead and start Jose instead. I think that team would be pretty comparable to the USA Whitey's team, though probably beat them in a 7 game series handily. The Euro team would surely flop a whole lot as well . . . the toughest guy on the European team would have to be either Kleiza or Okur, which says a whole lot.

"I was saying booo-urns . . . !" - Hans Moleman from The Simpsons. "Apparently" the NYC Crowd is not booing Chris Duhon. Or are they? Read it at What would Oakley Do? The Duhon/Fog Light analogy is as hilarious as it is apt -- and reason enough to read this article.

Apparently Jerry Sloan has been coaching the Jazz since the Ronald Reagan years . . . the Salt Lake Tribune brings the funk on that while I ponder just how many years I've been a fanatic fan of the NBA . . . and how much else I could have accomplished in my life if I was not . . .