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?)

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)

Things to look for this season: Brevin Knight

Last season at this point in time I was cautiously optimistic about the Jason Hart signing. I was peeved that the Jazz chased away Dee Brown, and the primary reason seemed to be that the Jazz needed a veteran point guard to fill in the gap left by Derek Fisher's exodus from Utah to go to New York Los Angeles to be closer to where his daughter would continue to get treatment for her cancer. (btw, her specialist is still in New York, not LA guys)

I did not know much about Jason Hart, but he was a guy I picked up for my fantasy team a few seasons ago when he was money for 5 assists per game and at least 1 steal (late in the fantasy season you search out for guys who play on teams that have 4 games in a week that can help you win your head to head). Last season, though, my cautious optimism was quickly replaced with disgust as Hart would try to Will Smith is way through games, and never pass the ball. (He got a grand total of 86 assists last season for the Jazz, 1.5 per game -- and he's a point guard. Matt Harpring got 82 last season, and he isn't exactly known for his play making ability as a stone-handed forward.)

Alas, Hart is no longer on our team, as he was traded for Brevin Knight this off-season. I haven't been a huge Brevin Knight fan in the past because: he is really small (5'10 height), he can't stay healthy over a season (been in the league since 1997-1998, and has played in the following number of games each season: 80 {rookie season}, 39, 65, 53, 53, 55, 56, 66, 69, 45 and 74 games last year That averages out to 59.5 games played per season and Brevin possesses a truly epic shooting range disability: career 14.2 3pt %, 0 for 6 last season, has made only 16 in his 10 year career, never made more than 3 in a season before for a point of reference, Gordan Giricek only played in 22 games for us last season, and he made 12 in our uniform in 2007-2008 alone.

Photographed by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty Images

That said, the point guard spot is much better with Knight at the wheel than with Hart. Trading away a 3rd string guy for a possible 2nd string guy who makes less money is hardly a bad thing -- so kudos to Kevin O'Connor for that move. Additionally, Knight is less likely to take shots that he's not going to make -- unlike Hart who used to believe that he could make every shot he took. (2007-2008 statistics: Hart 32.2 fg%, Knight 40.4 fg% . . . ugh, that's not much better though) Anyway, what three things should we, as fans, look out for this season from Brevin Knight?

• Be a pure point guard: Brevin, due to a number of factors (size, inability to get easy shots for himself) has to be a pass first point guard. This suits Jerry Sloan fine as there are plenty of guys who can score on our team. He's a professional and he actually plays defense. Being a pure point is going to stabilize the 2nd (or 3rd) units as he is a 10 year vet, and the oldest guy on the team (at the ripe old age of 32). He's been playing against our offense for 10 seasons, and none of the plays have changed, so he comes into training camp with more experience than his competition (Ronnie Price -- who actually played here last season) does. Additionally, as fun as Price is to have on the floor, he's really an under sized 2, while Knight is an under sized 1. Price has better scoring ability, but Knight is a point guard's point guard. Which gives him the inside track to play the 8-10 mpg that Deron isn't going to in the playoffs.
• More playing time at PG than Ronnie Price: That doesn't mean that Price isn't going to get playing time this season -- he may very well beat out Knight as the season goes on -- but over all Knight is going to get more playing time at the PG than Price will. This is partly because Jerry Sloan has been experimenting with having Knight and Price on the floor at the same time (with Brevin handling the ball), going for a very fast, tenacious back court that he's had to contest with in previous seasons with varying results (i.e. a Chris Paul, Jannero Pargo style line up). I really don't know how often we'll see that backcourt, but it would give the Jazz a different look than in previous years.
• Don't expect 5+ apg and 1.5+ spg this season: Knight has career averages of 6.6 apg and 1.8 spg. Those are very nice numbers to have . . . though those numbers are predicated on playing over 20 minutes per game. Last season he had a relatively healthy season (he played in his 2nd most games in his career) and gave the LA Clippers 4.6 ppg, 4.4 apg 1.9 rpg, and 1.4 spg. He also played 22.6 mpg last season. There are only 48 minutes per game at the point. Deron Williams can be penciled in to play anything from 35-42 on a given night. The last two seasons Deron has played 36.9 and 37.3 mpg. I think with the dearth of point guards this season Jerry will attempt to regulate his star's minutes, and scale that back to around 36 mpg early on; though I wouldn't be surprised to see him average 38 for the season. That leaves about 10 minutes to divided between Knight and Price. This problem is a little easier as Knight isn't a lock to play in 80 games in any given season, but one of those two guys looks to pile up a lot of DNP-CDs this season. 10 minutes makes it very hard to really get a lot of stats. Knight is a good assists and steals guy -- but how stat-happy will he be in playing less than half of the minutes that he's averaged over his decade long career?

That may be something to look out for as the season goes on. He's not going to make a stink according to his off-season interviews around the time of his trade, so that's good. And when it comes down to it, I'm just happy that the Jazz got rid of Jason Hart . . . it's even better that we got Knight out of the deal. (even if he just plays 3rd string) This season is going to be special for Brevin, because it's his first on a contender, and that usually brings out the best from long suffering veterans. (He played for the late 90's cavs, the bobcats and the clippers among other teams in his career! That's harsh!)

No new posts since Oct 5th, 2008

Yeah, I haven't posted anything since then, but well, what can I say, things have been busy at work, and I haven't really *made* the time to blog. The time to blog exists, but I was rather distracted . . . you know . . . some things are more fun than spending hours in front of a computer screen. Hopefully I will make more time with the season almost here -- though I seriously doubt I'm going to be able to compete with the more 'newsy' related Jazz blogs that promptly blog about and discuss each and every game. (like SLC Dunk and True Blue do)

In the meantime, here is a funny picture of Dee Brown and Deron Williams back when they were in college.

Their place was a lot cleaner than my place was back in undergrad

YouTube Tuesdays! Dee Brown Dreamin'

I think Dee Brown is a fantastic person, and he's a pretty good ball player as well. He was the prince back at Illinois (even though he was on the same team with Deron Williams and Luther Head). He then was drafted by the Utah Jazz, played very well as the season (and especially the playoffs) continued, did all the stuff the Jazz wanted (even spent part of his summer touring remote towns on behalf of the Utah Jazz, and played for their summer league team when he didn't have a contract) -- but didn't get a guaranteed contracted from them for his efforts.

He spent a year playing in Turkey (at the behest of Mehmet Okur) and now has made it back to the NBA -- this time with the Wizards. I wish him all the best this season, he is a fan favorite wherever he goes. The D.C. fans will love him. Dee also writes and spends time in his recording studio when he's not playing ball . . . here is one of his tracks. (It's very positive)

Dreamin' by Dee Brown