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)

Returning to the Promised Land

The Jazz brass, coaches and owner have done three things well in the post Stockton-to-Malone era:

Retuning to the NBA Finals does not occur by chance, but by following out a long term plan.

I. The first thing that the Jazz brass (and co.) has done well is they've established a winning formula, and have enjoyed a consistency that other franchises have lacked. While this has the drawback at some level of inherent stagnancy, the NBA mandated rules changes have kept the Jazz coaches on their toes. One particular rule change which threw a major wrench in the system was the removal of the previous Illegal defense rules. Now Zone Defenses are allowed -- even pseudo-Zones are hard for the Jazz to handle as it's man-to-man defense, but an extra guy to rove around and get in passing lanes -- daring the pound it inside Jazz to shoot from outside. (This was particularly difficult for the Jazz to do during December of that 2007-2008 season, which resulted in many losses)

The Zone Defense friendly NBA forced the hand of the Jazz brass and they have endeavored to start playing 5 on 5 basketball on offense for the first time ever (but more on that later). They needed to avoid Zone defenses in order to properly run their offensive sets. Previous versions of the Jazz would run their forward based offensive sets (Malone, Dantley, Bailey) and involve strong guard play all while the center fell asleep at the top of the key.

This has always been the case as the Jazz used to park Mark Eaton up at the top of the circle while he watched the finesse guys do their thing. Then Greg Ostertag came in and was able to use his height to exploit a high-low passing game inside. If you did that now, no one would follow Mark or Greg outside, and the paint would get clogged very quickly. To counter that the Jazz have further evolved by getting one of the few true bigmen (check out his rebounding games in the playoffs if you don't believe me that he's a bigman) who has a very legit three point shot -- Mehmet Okur. While the NBA has made several rule changes since the Stockton-to-Malone era, the evolution of the Jazz sets has been sped along because of smart roster moves.

The signing of Okur allows for the Jazz to move him farther than Jerry Sloan had ever imagine moving Eaton or Ostertag -- out beyond the three point line. Furthermore, Okur needs to be defended out there -- thus necessitating luring out the guy who defends him (a defensive big), or a smaller guard (causing a miss match somewhere else on the floor). The biggest benefit to this roster quirk is that it retains the floor spacing that is needed for the majority of the Jazz sets: pick and roll with the PG and PF, or finding a cutter in the vacuum left by a vacating center for easy dunks for Andrei and Brewer. I'm surprised at how well it works, and encouraged by this -- it shows that the coaches are working with the front office to get players that can do good things on the court, and work within a system. You couldn't get away with this offensive set back in the Stockton-to-Malone days . . .

II. The second thing that the Jazz brass (particularly the coaches) have done well is that they've tried to learn from their mistakes. Often Stockton was the only guy on the floor who could get the job done; and often, he was the best player on the floor. All too often (save for that elimination game 4th quarter vs. the Rockets where it was Stockton vs. Houston); unfortunately John didn't call his own number enough -- and that hurt the team. What have the Jazz done now? They've got a good passer and floor leader at the point guard -- but someone who is ultimately the most confident in his own abilities. We've had Deron for three seasons now, as we know that when it counts he's not afraid to be 'The Man' -- something Stockton always deferred to Karl (who, honestly, was not as clutch) about.

Another example happens to be expanding the game to involve more people on offense. At their most dangerous the Stockton-to-Malone teams were filled with subordinates like Hornacek and Russell, or Bailey and Griffith. Never did they fully get a chance to have 5 good offensive players on the floor at the same time (thanks, Rony Seikaly -- you could have really helped against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls back then). It's hard to win titles playing 4 on 5.

This version of the Jazz has the ability to play 5 on 5 on offense for the first time in franchise history -- and this has not come at the expense of needing to change the entire playbook. Once the Jazz secured a good, smart point guard to tandem with their beast of a power forward (acquired as a free agent) it was going to be the pick and roll show all over again. This play used to kill teams back in the illegal defense era. Now people are allowed to zone, and as a result, relying on the pick and roll is harder to do.

In order to prevent the picker getting immediately double teamed by bigmen the Jazz need to lure out a bigman outside. Chicken and egg thing with Point I and Point II -- but that displays how inter-related things are: in order to learn from your mistakes you have to have a winning game plan. Thus, if the Jazz wanted to keep relying on forward based offensive scoring sets from the paint, some tweaks were going to be needed to be made.

III. The final thing that they have done well is that they've been able to key in, identify and get similar types of players on the roster -- attempting for coax lightning to strike twice. The obvious comparisons exist -- Carlos Boozer plays like an older, jump shooting Malone. Deron Williams is an adept passing lead guard who is clutch at the end of games, like Stockton. As always, it's more than just replacing Stockton and Malone.

Then:	Now:	Difference:
John Stockton	Deron Williams	Not better: but more willing to step up in crunch time
		Stockton was the consummate professional and floor leader. Possessing not just physical tools (like good health and excellent stamina), he also had vast amounts of Basketball IQ -- essentially being another coach on the floor. There would be no success without John. Similarly, Deron Williams is the heart of this version of the Jazz. He is adept at passing (had over 10 apg in his 2nd NBA season, John didn't break that barrier until his 4th). He's not the coach on the floor though, but the Quarterback who calls his own plays -- and is much more willing to do it himself. Sadly, the Jazz could have used a more selfish version of John Stockton. They may have the next best thing in Deron Williams.
Jeff Hornacek	Kyle Korver	Gives up floor game and passing for a more min/maxed player
		Jeff Hornacek, some people forget, was an All-Star for the West. He was the principle piece that the Sixers got back for trading Barkley -- and all he did was put up 19 ppg (.47/.39/.87), 7 apg, and 2 spg in return. Not too shabby. Hornacek had every shot, and was a much more skilled NBA player. His age and lingering injuries prevented him from being a great defender for the Jazz. Kyle Korver, also acquired in a mid-season trade from the Sixers, is more of a specialist. He is statistically a better three point shooter and free throw shooter. Over this last season Kover received shooting training with Hornacek -- and Jeff admits in his 'aw shucks' type of way that Kyle is a really great shooter, maybe better than Jeff. Jeff brought more to the table though and started.
Bryon Russell	Andrei Kirilenko	Better: much more creative and a great shot blocker
		Before being emasculated by Jordan in the finals Russell was a confident and competent forward who was the best defensive stopper on the Jazz who could run, dunk, do whatever was asked of him, and unassumingly hit threes just when the Jazz needed them. Sound like anyone we know? Andrei is more versatile -- playing everything but center in the playoffs for us between 2006-2007 and 2007-2008; though, let's not forget that in 1998-1999 Russell had to guard Chris Webber in the playoffs due to foul trouble. Like Russell, AK-47 always has to guard to other teams' best offensive player and as often as he gets beat, he comes up with a timely deflection, steal, or block at a more critical juncture in the game. His offensive ability is truncated in his role with the Jazz, but is the most talented player on the team.
Karl Malone	Carlos Boozer	Worse: but possibly owns more left-handed post moves though
		Carlos Boozer is a beast by today's standards. (at least in the regular season) If you put Karl Malone at his peak in today's game he would own all of these passive, physical play avoiding bigmen. (Seriously, Amare Stoudemire never step on the same court against Charles Oakley.) Both have (at least in the eyes of jaded Jazz fans) built a reputation for not being able to equal their production in the playoffs. Unfortunately for Boozer, his drop off is so severe that it's pure folly to even talk about these two forwards in the same breath. If you want to really get a picture of how ridiculous the comparison is then read this.
Antoine Carr	Paul Millsap	The same: the only difference is age and experience vs. youth
		The "Big Dawg" was taller and at that stage, a very savvy veteran who had all the sneaky, esoteric knowledge on how to get away with fouls. Millsap gets called for a ton of fouls -- though they are essentially the same player. Millsap is younger, has some upside, and has a lot more energy and vigor. Both had surprisingly developed offensive games -- but mostly scored close to the basket, often on put backs / tip ins. Carr was a great bench guy for any playoff team, who defended the paint, got boards and blocked some shots. He even had a 20 point game in the NBA finals once. It's not impossible to see Millsap do that well.
Howard Eisley	Brevin Knight	Better: Knight + Price > Eisley + Vaughn
		Eisley's career before the Jazz was nothing to write home about, and his NBA career after the Jazz was almost as pathetic as Shandon's was. Because of this many people fail to realize that he was the best back-up point guard the Jazz have ever had since John Stockton was coming off the bench. He could push the ball up the floor, knew all of the sets, was active defensively and was able to shoot the three with deadly accuracy and even hit game winners. That game winner that Deron had vs. the Cavs last season? Well, Eisley used to do that type of thing back for the Jazz in 1998. While there is little chance for Knight to be as good all-around as Howard was for the Jazz, Knight is a very solid veteran who can run a club, never turns the ball over, and is a good steals guy. This looks like another downgrade; however I'd take Knight and Price (basically a younger, more exciting Howard Eisley with less playmaking and more highlight making skills) over Eisley and Jaques Vaughn any day of the week.
Shandon Anderson	Ronnie Brewer	Better: by sheer virtue of Brewer being taller and able to play the 1, 2 or 3
		Shandon Anderson was a young, athletic, defensive minded player who played within his limitations. He never tried to become an outside bomber. His bread and butter was to sneak around and find an open spot on the floor as the other team was concentrating on the other guys (Stockton, Hornacek and Malone) more than they were on him. He turned hard cuts into layups and dunks. Ronnie Brewer is much the same, being an offensive opportunist using his speed, size and athleticism to get easy dunks as the defense pays him no attention. Both benefited from playing with eager passers (Stockton, Hornacek and Malone for Shandon; Williams, Kirilenko and Boozer for Ronnie). Both are the 2nd member of their families to be part of the NBA (Shandon's older brother, and Ronnie's dad both played). Ronnie is longer, faster and has top 5% NBA athleticism (as seen in the pre-draft combine). His shot is broken, but appears to give more to the Jazz than Shandon did -- for one thing, Ronnie starts.
Greg Foster	Mehmet Okur	Better: and it's not even close
		Foster was an occasional starter during the two finals seasons, managing to do so in over 50 games. Okur is our full-time starting center. Both were outside shooting bigmen who were not regarded as big-time rebounders. Memo is a much better rebounder, defender, outside shooter, inside player, and is a serious playoff perform who does all the clutch things you need to win (game winners, or offensive rebounds). Foster was a better dunker -- and both guys are some crappy fight in them. Foster getting into it with the Lakers' Rick Fox, and Memo coming close to throwing down on Juwan Howard among others. Foster was an okay player, but was very annoying in that Sasha Vujacic type of way. Memo has been an All-Star and is a serious upgrade for the Jazz.
Adam Keefe	Matt Harpring	Better: and also a better fitting role for this type of player
		I guess we need a frame of reference when bad mouthing our own players. Adam Keefe used to start on one of our NBA Finals teams. (and play 25.6 mpg!!!) How insane is that? Keefe, who may be a better beach volleyball player than basketball player, couldn't shoot, and hardly ever caught passes. At least those are two things that Matt Harpring does (sometimes). They both were solid rebounders from the small forward spot, and both did not have three point range. Both used to get torched on defense -- but at least Harpring occasionally has one of those games where he gets 14 points, 1 steal and 5 rebounds. Keefe didn't even give us that as a starter. Harpring is a good bench guy.
Chris Morris	C.J. Miles	Not Better, Not Worse: Anything we do get will be better though
		By the time Chris Morris made his way the Utah, he was a serious NBA performer who could put the ball in the basket. After three NBA seasons C.J. Miles is a guy who can't get off the bench, but who could one day be a serious NBA player. Both are taking lesser roles to play here -- Morris was a starter in New Jersey; and C.J. Miles could start for some teams (or at least, get more playing time). Both have legit three point range and can bust out for some nasty jams. Both have had clashes with Jerry Sloan -- especially over their roles. Right now we can only hope that C.J. can one day become the player that Chris Morris was before coming to the Jazz. If not, then whatever, we still have Morris Almond . . .

The Jazz brass has done a more than adequate job of emulating the roster of those Finals teams. Those finals teams sported a good mix of talent -- two Olympians, who were also All-Stars mixed in with another former All-Star and a variety of (mostly older) veteran role players. There were no specialists off the bench save for Foster who could hit an outside jumper better than most centers in that era. This team currently has three Olympians, an All-Star mixed in with two other former All-Stars (and one to be in Deron Williams). The bench is almost exclusively comprised of specialists -- Korver is the shooter, Harpring is the hustle guy, Millsap is the paint terror. There have been improvements on all major archetypes save for the fact that Morris/Miles, Carr/Millsap and Hornacek/Korver are all pretty much washes. Okur is clearly better than Foster and while Stockton is ahead of Williams in career ability, Deron Williams is far from a bad player on any given playoff game. Malone destroys Boozer, but the overall talent is upgraded. Kudos to the Jazz for being able to (at least on paper) recreate their championship contending team. Is that all? Is this team NBA Finals worthy?

One large piece is missing . . . you know, a big (7 feet tall at least), rebounding and shot blocking guy. It's a roughly Greg Ostertag sized hole. A Mark Eaton or Ostertag -- something the Jazz has always had the advantage of having, is just not an archetype that the Jazz Brass has been able to duplicate on this version of the team. Three potential prospects exist though -- one is an American born, 7'0, 19 year old Greek who can block shots, but is more likely to make them; another is a 7'1, skinny Croatian who is far removed from playing in the NBA; and the last is a 7'1 Ukrainian who has a questionable work ethic. The previous Jazz teams had to fight against the passage of time. The limiting reagent in this equation happens to be the salary cap.

Compared to those glory year teams, our current roster is better -- but we are behind in the big defensive galoot department. Does that mean that the one guy who is hated for his play, but loved for his goofiness (Ostertag) is the dividing line between serious championship contender and what the Jazz currently have? Essentially, this appears to be more truth than fiction -- as the only major weakness exists as a lack of a shot blocking presence stationed in the paint. Ideally internal improvement of our young centers will satisfy this component -- we do not need a quantum leap in center ability, we just need to get Kosta or Kyrylo to channel their inner-Ostertag. And then we'll be back in the promised land.

Point for Point

The Utah Jazz have been lucky in some ways, and unlucky in others. One of the greatest examples of this is how they have had some pretty good point guard play over the years. Perhaps luck has nothing to do with it, and it's rather the scouting department and player development that has much to do with the apparent success of Ricky Green, John Stockton and now, Deron Williams. Of course there were some lean years along the way, specifically the capable though unspectacular trio of Carlos "Pride of Puerto Rico" Arroyo; Raul "The Hispanic Heartthrob"Lopez; and Maurice "Mo" Williams -- but those days are now gone.

Recently, as recent as last week, the Utah Jazz front office was able to trade Jason Hart for Brevin Knight. This type of trade may have no overt impact in the short term -- though this trade may resonate within the consciousness of fans for generations to come -- like the trade that brought Ostertag back to Utah. Or maybe not. That said, this position for the Jazz has not been this secure since the days of Stockton, Eisley and Vaughn.

Point for point -- Brevin Knight is the superior player out of the two traded. Through this measure, Kevin O'Connor won the trade. It doesn't hurt that Knight makes less money and is pretty talented for a 3rd stringer. It's also good to know that Knight is just too damn short, and not a good enough shooter for Jerry Sloan to go crazy, and contemplate starting -- like he did with that Deron Williams / Derek Fisher starting lineup in the 2006-2007 season. Neither are perfect . . . Hart was to bring defense and veteran leadership, but ended the season deep on the bench while Ronnie Price made fans and the media go wow! Brevin is good at taking care of the ball, but has made only 16 career three pointers. That is a ridiculously low number which makes me cringe at the thought of him being in the game, and the other team immediately clogging the paint and passing lanes with a super-duper zone defense.

Photo by NBAE / Getty Images	Photo by NBAE / Getty Images

At the risk of repeating myself, Knight is a solid 3rd stringer because he is frequently unable to stay healthy for any long period of time, is very short, and can't shoot. All of our sets that we run rely on the point guard being able to, at the very least, keep the defense honest. Outside shooting is a key component of the NBA today -- when Portland found out that the Jazz had spotty shooting from deep (before the Korver trade) they just zoned us and laughed. I don't want a repeat of that horrible December, 2007.

Knight is also great insurance. Sometimes players get tired. And tired players who play long minutes are at risk of getting injured. John Stockton played in the Olympics in the summer of '92 and again in '96. Each season after the Olympics he had relatively 'down' seasons in the NBA (scoring and assists went down from 1991-1992 to 1992-1993, and again in 1995-1996 to 1996-1997). [For those keeping track at home, the Jazz went to the Western Conference Finals in 1991-1992, then the next season were bounced from the 1st round of the Playoffs. In 1995-1996 the Jazz were again defeated in the Western Conference Finals, and in the next season lost in the NBA Finals.] The Jazz Brass want to make sure that if Deron needs more time during the regular season to rest that they can afford to let him have it.

"I'm happy to be coming to a winning team with very good players and a Hall of Fame coach . . . How can I be upset with that? I'm also looking forward to hearing the cheers and not the boos from Jazz fans. I see my role as being a veteran guy there to do whatever is necessary to help the team win. I'll more know about that when I get to down." (Knight, 2008, via. The Salt Lake Tribune)

It's a solid deal for the Jazz, may have had some influence on the C.J. Miles re-signing and could be good for us down the road. Great move Kevin O'Connor!