Forward March!

The Utah Jazz finished February with their best record in franchise history: 10-1. It was a spectacular month filled with victories over the likes of the LA Lakers, Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets and playoff teams from both conferences. As good as February was, January was a travesty where the Jazz limped to a 7-8 record. There are only 23 games left in the regular schedule -- and only 23 games left for the Jazz to make any solid moves up in the standings. March sees the Jazz playing in 15 games, and April has the Jazz playing in 8 regular season games. They are on the road 14 times, and at home only 9 times.

The major problem I can see, when looking over the schedule, is that fatigue is really going to set in late. Hopefully this is the case with all of the teams in the running for the playoffs -- but the Jazz have a particularly tough task. First of all, there's another extended Eastern Conference road trip that needs to happen, one that will span 8 days, and have the Jazz playing 5 times. (we already know how poor the Jazz are on the road, and how poor they are against the East . . .) The Jazz will face off against Toronto, Indiana, Atlanta, Miami and Orlando. The games against Atlanta and Orlando are both the 2nd night of back to back sets; furthermore, the game against Atlanta would be the 3rd game in 4 nights. If the Jazz win three out of those five games I'll be bouncing off the walls.

The second, and perhaps larger, problem is the cumulative effect of all of these games. The Jazz play 8 back to back sets still. (15 of our last 23 games are either the first or second game of a back to back set, or 70%) If that was not enough, 9 of these last 23 games will be the 3rd game in 4 nights for the Jazz. (@ Atlanta, vs. Washington, @ Portland, @ Denver, vs. Minnesota, @ New Orleans, vs. Golden State, vs. LA Clippers, @ LA Lakers) Do any of those look like important games to win? I see a few there.

The largest obstacle will be around the end of March and the beginning of April where the Jazz will play Houston at home, then the next night fly to Phoenix to take on the Suns. Two days later the Jazz face the Suns at home. I don't know the exact injury situation with Phoenix, but as far as I can tell, they will either be in full tank mode, or swing for the fences mode. The next week the Jazz will face the Knicks at home, then fly the next night to play the Blazers -- one of the previously mentioned 3rd game in 4 nights sets. This will be the last game of March, and it goes all downhill from there. The Jazz then fly over to Denver to play the first game of a back to back set, which is also the 3rd game in 4 nights, and yes, the 5th game in 6 nights. How often do you get the 5th game in 7 nights? Very rarely, but only when you play a game the very next night, at home against Minnesota, that's the second night of a back to back, and ultimately, the 6th game in 7 nights. Yes, this is how the Jazz start off April -- playing 6 times in a week, with one of our last remaining 'gimmie' games at home against a non-playoff team being scheduled at the worst possible time. [EDIT: This is incorrect, the Jazz game vs. the Timberwolves will be the 5th game in 7 nights, not 6th in 7]

To add insult to injury, the Jazz play again, on the road in New Orleans on that Sunday, a single game that does not look too hard, but will be the 3rd game in 4 nights, and the 4th game in 6 games, 5th game in 7. The Jazz will have a needed two day rest, and then finish the last 5 games of the seasons @ Dallas, @ San Antonio, vs. Golden State (2nd game in a back to back set, 3rd game in 4 nights), vs. the LA Clippers (3rd game in 4 nights), and then on the road to face the LA Lakers (2nd night in a back to back set, 3rd game in 4 nights).

I really pray that this is the case for all teams right now, and that everyone will be equally tired to finish the season. The Jazz play against a Top 10 team in the Western Conference 13 times (out of 15 remaining Western Conference games) to finish the season. The Jazz are shaky on the road . . . hopefully Boozer will be full of energy from that mid-season holiday he took.

Just because I am insane, here it all is in chart form:

	Game	Opponent	Location	Date	Conf.	Playoff Team	Part of B2B Set?	Other:
March	1	Golden State	Road	March 1	West		2nd game
	2	Houston	Home	March 4	West	Yes		Season series 0-2
	3	Denver	Home	March 6	West	Yes		Season series 1-1
	4	Toronto	Road	March 8	East
	5	Indiana	Road	March 10	East		1st game
	6	Atlanta	Road	March 11	East	Yes	2nd game	3rd game in 4
	7	Miami	Road	March 14	East	Yes	1st game
	8	Orlando	Road	March 15	East	Yes	2nd game
	9	Washington	Home	March 17	East			3rd game in 4
	10	Oklahoma City	Road	March 20	West
	11	Houston	Home	March 24	West	Yes	1st game
	12	Phoenix	Road	March 25	West	?	2nd game	Season series 1-1
	13	Phoenix	Home	March 28	West	?
	14	New York	Home	March 30	East		1st game	Last game vs. East until Finals
	15	Portland	Road	March 31	West	Yes	2nd game	3rd game in 4
April	16	Denver	Road	April 2	West	Yes	1st game	3rd game in 4 4th game in 6
	17	Minnesota	Home	April 3	West		2nd game	3rd game in 4 4th game in 5 5th game in 7
	18	New Orleans	Road	April 5	West	Yes		3rd game in 4 4th game in 6 5th game in 7
	19	Dallas	Road	April 8	West	Yes
	20	San Antonio	Road	April 10	West	Yes	1st game
	21	Golden State	Home	April 11	West		2nd game	3rd game in 4
	22	LA Clippers	Home	April 13	West		1st game	3rd game in 4
	23	LA Lakers	Road	April 14	West	Yes	2nd game	3rd game in 4 4th game in 5

The Jazz are currently sitting at 36-23, and need 14 games to win 50 for the season. ESPN.com predicted that the Jazz would win 51 games -- a number that I thought was ridiculously low back in Pre-Season. I was so bold as to suggest that the Jazz would finish the season (including playoffs) with 65 wins this year. The last two seasons the Jazz won 60 games total (2006-2007: 51 regular season, 9 playoffs; 2007-2008: 54 regular season, 6 playoffs) -- so I felt like a 5 game improvement wouldn't be that far out of the realm of possibility. For my statement to be true (65 wins), and let's assume the Jazz win 6 playoff games (2nd round exit) the Jazz will need to win each of these last 23 games. As much as that would be awesome, I just don't see it happening. (In my defense, though, I could not know that the Jazz would miss over 150 man games to injury this year)

Instead of doing the whole 'poke holes into my ability to gauge how well my team can win games' game, let's move forward . . . into March. The Jazz have momentum right now, having won 7 games straight, 9 in a row at home, and 10 of their last 11. They need to keep it going, or else they may end up facing San Antonio or the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. I'd take the Jazz' chances in the first round against any of the other teams in the West (Denver, Houston, Portland, New Orleans, Dallas, Phoenix), even without home court. The Playoff Push all starts tonight on the road to the Golden State Warriors -- who killed us last time we played them.

"To be honest with you Diane, I'm surprised..."

You may not know where that quote is from, so just to get it over with . . . watch this.

This season has been surprising for a variety of reasons, and there are some things that have surprised me immensely; though, I was probably not as surprised as Erica up above was, the point needs to be said: this run on sentence features the word "surprise" a surprisingly large number of times. In celebration of me murdering the English language, here are the Top 5 surprises of the Utah Jazz season so far:

5. Record against Eastern Conference teams:

Right now the Jazz are sitting at 32-23. Over that span the Jazz have gone 22-11 against the Western Conference, that's not too shabby when you look at how injured they have been. Over a closer inspection, though, this reveals that the Jazz have gone 10-12 against the East so far this season. That's pathetic. Sure, 7 of those 12 losses have been on the road (on brutal road trips); but that means that the Jazz have lost to the East 5 times ON THEIR OWN HOMECOURT! Chicago, New Jersey, Miami, Orlando and Cleveland have all beat the Jazz in Salt Lake City. It's bad enough to lose to contenders on your homer court, but to lose to teams like the Bulls, Heat and Nets is just inexcusable. I remember that Orlando game vividly, the Jazz were pounding Orlando, I felt good about the game and went out to get some "drive thu" at halftime. When I came back the Jazz were getting killed. What happened? For whatever reason, the Jazz have sucked against the east this season . . . it's one thing to have the Cavs sweep you, but the Bulls also? Yeeesh!

4. Kyle Korver's shooting:

Remember the good old days, last season, when Korver shot 47.4 fg%, 38.8 3pt% and 91.7 ft%? Those were good days, weren't they? They were not career highs for Kyle (save for fg%) but he came to the Jazz with shooting percentages that boasted career averages of over 40% from deep and 88% from the stripe. I even felt that he would improve after a Utah Jazz training camp (based on the premise that Hornacek's percentages all went up from his half a season with the Jazz to his first full season). Well, this season he's been fighting through a wrist injury on his shooting hand that has seriously impacted his shot making ability. It hasn't hurt any other parts of his game as he's boarding better, playing remarkably solid defense for stretches . . . and he's still getting the same TYPES of shots that he was making last season (i.e. waaaay open shots within the Jazz offense). That said, here are his numbers this season through the 51 games he has played so far: 40.9 FG% 34.7 3PT% 85.5 FT% Sure, they are not that bad, especially not his FT and 3PT percentages compared to the average guard off the bench in the NBA, but let's not forget that shooting is Kyle's speciality. He's shooting 7% worse from the floor than he did last season. His three point percentage is a CAREER LOW right now (wasn't he supposed to be our three point ace?) and his FT% used to be sky high (90+ %) but has leveled off quite a bit.

3. Kosta Koufos is a lot better than I thought he would be:

I like Kosta, he seems like an amazing person and an amazing team mate. He's very coachable and works very hard. I did not know that he was as good as he has shown, though. I did probably over analyze his games over the Rocky Mountain Review, but I'm happy to say that he's not the same player that we all first saw. Back then he was a guy who almost shot the ball as frequently as once every 2 minutes on the floor, was a dead-eye FT shooter (90.9 ft%) and had a 38.1 fg%. Really, check out the stats. Instead he's a guy who is giving the Jazz almost 5 ppg (51 fg%, 70 ft%), 3 rpg, and nearly 1 bpg -- as a rookie. It's surprising that we aren't seeing more of him. I appraised him and his first season as one of learning, working hard, and being much more offensively gifted than Fesenko was as a rookie. I was correct on all of those counts; though, I thought that he would have at least spent some time down with the NBA-DL . . . but Jerry has hardly used that at all this season.

2. The Boozer/Millsap conundrum:

I think that Boozer is pretty much what anyone would want from a power forward statistically. He scores very efficiently and rebounds like a man possessed. Millsap doesn't have the offensive polish of Boozer, but in times where 'Sap got playing time, he was able to produce some really eye-opening numbers. This is how I felt at the beginning of the season, and still, it's hard to get away from my thoughts which suggest that Boozer is a quality NBA starter (just not on man to man defense), and Paul Millsap is a Top 10 Bench player in the NBA. There's a fine line that should distinguish these two (and no, I don't mean salary), and at times this season Millsap has shown himself to be the equal, better, or in some cases, lesser of Carlos Boozer -- at times blurring this line, and other times justifying it. Arguments can (and have been) made to suggest one is better than the other, but really, shouldn't we be happy to have both -- together!?! (Even if it's just for the short term?) Boozer can do things Millsap can't, and vice versa. Millsap's play this season (mostly as a starter as Boozer has been injured for 43 games) may have pushed his going rate to higher than the Jazz may be willing to pay -- if they intend on keeping both players. This is a surprise to me, because I felt as though Millsap was a great younger player, but not a guy knocking on the door of a $8+ million dollar a year contract. How many of you out there on the Internet thought he would be worth as much?

1. All the Injuries / The Jazz record despite all the Injuries:

I don't really need to spell this one out, but I'm really surprised at all the injuries -- and even more surprised by being so many games over .500 -- I guess this is why you have to play the games though, right? Just read this for more information.

December Schedule Overview

Just to refresh everyone's memories . . . last season Utah played 16 games in December and managed to go 5-11over that span. The main reasons why the Jazz lost so many games happened to be a mixture of injuries, off-court drama (thanks Giricek!) and the fact that teams learned to just play zone defense against Utah. This season we have a slew of injuries and go into December looking to play 15 games.

The first three games are an away game @ Sacramento on Tuesday, quickly followed by a home game the very next night against the Miami Heat. I've never flown from Sacramento to Salt Lake City before, but that doesn't seem to be too bad -- weather permitting. The Jazz do not play again until Friday, with a game on TV (ESPN) hosting the Toronto Raptors.

After the two game home stand the Jazz face off with a pair of road games -- the first @ Phoenix (the 2nd night of a back-to-back) on Saturday, and then @ Minnesota on Tuesday.

Again, alternating between home games and road games the Jazz return to Salt Lake City for games against Portland (also on TV, this time TNT) and then two days later, against Orlando. Then the fun starts . . .

Fun being our 2nd 5 game Eastern Conference Road trip in two months. Thankfully it appears to be a bit more spaced out than last time. On the 15th the Jazz play @ Boston, on the 17th the Jazz play @ New Jersey, on the 19th the Jazz play @ Detroit. The next night the Jazz play @ Chicago -- this is not only the 2nd night in a back-to-back set but also the 3rd game in 4 nights. The Jazz's last stop is against the Milwaukee Bucks on the 23rd. On paper playing against Boston, Detroit and Chicago should be harder than playing against the Wizards, Bobcats and Knicks -- but the Jazz lost all three of those games too, so who is to say how Utah will fare this time around?

After Christmas the Jazz play Dallas on boxing day, then visit Houston the very next night. Utah finishes the month with a home game against Philadelphia.

For those keeping score at home that's 6 games against the West, and 9 games against the East. (We've only lost once all season against the West so far, and 6 times against Eastern foes) Furthermore, the Jazz play 6 home games and 9 road games.

There are only four back-to-back sets (@ Sac, vs. Mia; vs. Tor., @ Phoe; @ Det, @ Chi; and vs. Dal, @ Hou) this month, so that's one good thing from this mess that we can look forward to.

There are a number of 3rd game in 4 nights: the Toronto game is one, so will be the game @ Phoenix, the game @ Chicago and the game at home vs. Philadelphia.

It's not easy, but December is very rarely easy for the Jazz. Anything less than going 7 - 8 would be horrible.

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!

Flashback Friday: First 20 games of previous seasons

As the trees change colors and all the snotty kids begin to learn their locker combinations at school the seasonal dynamics take another turn -- a turn towards the return of the NBA. Before you know it, it'll be opening night. The NBA schedule makers usually have to give the Jazz the short end of the stick (because our owner doesn't fancy home games on Sunday), and our last month of the season (April) the last few seasons have been absolutely brutal. That said, the Jazz usually start off strong in the first handful of games before taking a mid-season nose dive in December.

In the 2002-2003 season Utah went 12-8 in the first 20 games of the season. Some of the boxscores were just flat out nutty on that team. For example, the first game of the season (a 100-75 loss to the New Orleans Hornets) had Malone lead the team with 20 points, had Mark Jackson lead the team in rebounds with 7, and Malone and Stockton led the team with assists with only 4 each. Malone led the team in scoring 11 times, Kirilenko 3 times, Harpring 4 times, Stockton 2 times and Ostertag 1 time. (The next few games were even crazier, including increasingly less scoring from Malone, and more from Kirilenko and Harpring, who would lead the scoring for the Jazz in 9 of the next 10 games.) Clearly it was a season of transition. By the start of January Malone had broken 30 points in a game once, and Harpring and Kirilenko did it a combined three times. That team finished the season 47 - 35 and was bounced from the playoffs in the first round by Sacramento in 5, Stockton and Malone's last game together.

The next season (2003-2004) was the first season without John Stockton on our team since the early 80's. The Jazz started the season 11-9 and were led by the likes of Arroyo, Kirilenko, Harpring, Stevenson, Bell and Lopez. A mid-season trade for Gordan Giricek proved to be a smart move immediately as he helped the team with his scoring (24 points in a win against Detroit, 21 points in a win against the Lakers, 33 points in a win against Phoenix on the road, 25 in a loss to the Raptors, 19 in a win against New Orleans, 22 in a loss to the Spurs, 25 in a win against Memphis and 23 in a win against Houston -- all in the last two months of the season) on the way to a 42-40 final record. The Jazz barely missed the playoffs and this special shooting guard seemed to be a big part of that. (I wonder what happened to this guy who could go off for 20+ points on any given night?) Andrei was an All-Star this season, if I remember correctly.

That off season the Jazz front office had a free agent coup by signing Carlos Boozer (FA), and Mehmet Okur (RFA) to big money deals. The results of the first 20 games of 2004-2005 speak for themselves though: the Jazz went 9-11. This was the first time they were below .500 to start the season in quite a long time. The future looked bright for the Jazz as Boozer was scoring quite a bit (27 in the 1st game of the season, and win against the Lakers; quickly followed by games of 30, 34, 27, 25, 27, 36, 29 and so on) and Andrei was doing his all around thing . . . but both went down and did not finish the season. The Jazz finished with a 26-56 record, and a date with the ping-pong balls.

The very next season Carlos Boozer got injured in the pre-season and the 2005-2006 season was beginning to look a lot like Deja Vu for Jazz fans. Utah limped to a 8-12 record to start the season, some wins relying on Matt Harpring scoring 30 points and Jarron Collins getting 10 boards. Utah finished the season 41-41, just baring missing the playoffs again! This season finished with the starting lineup of Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko (at the 2), Matt Harpring, Mehmet Okur (at the 4) and Carlos Boozer (at the 5). For those who forgot, the Jazz won 7 of their last 10 games (2 of those losses were to the Spurs though).

Utah finally makes the playoffs in 2006-2007, winning the Northwest Division title and breaks 50 wins in a season for the first time in what seems like eternity. The Jazz go 51-31 off of some strong performances by Boozer, Okur and Williams, after an amazing 15-5 start! Everyone was finally healthy and a 2nd year Deron Williams powered the team as Memo and Booz were honored to be part of the Western Conference All-Star team.

Last season (2007-2008) the Jazz improved on their win total and end the season with a 54-28 record. How did they start? They started the season 13-7 -- which is less than the previous season, but they ended up winning more games. They ended up trading Gordan Giricek for Kyle Korver and won their 2nd straight Northwest Division title (sorry AI and the rest of the Denver Media Hype Bandwagon).

Here is a recap of the past 6 seasons:

Season	1st 20 games	Season Record	Playoffs?	Won Division?
2002-2003	12-8	47-35	Yes
2003-2004	11-9	42-40
2004-2005	9-11	26-56
2005-2006	8-12	41-41
2006-2007	15-5	51-31	Yes	Yes
2007-2008	13-7	54-28	Yes	Yes

So we can clearly see that starting off well is very important to the Jazz actually making the playoffs. Every season where we've won at least 12 of the first 20 games has us making the playoffs and being close to a 50 win team. It's probably something to watch then as winning games early and making the playoffs seem to share some common factors, if not are correlated to one another.

What do our first 20 games look like this season?

Game	vs.		Game	vs.
1	Denver	1-0	11	Phoenix	8-3
2	LA Clippers	2-0	12	Milwaukee	9-3
3	@ LA Clippers	3-0	13	@ San Antonio	9-4
4	Portland	4-0	14	@ Memphis	10-4
5	Oklahoma City	5-0	15	Chicago	11-4
6	@ NY Knicks	6-0	16	Memphis	12-4
7	@ Philadelphia	6-1	17	Sacramento	13-4
8	@ Washington	7-1	18	New Jersey	14-4
9	@ Charlotte	8-1	19	@ Sacramento	14-5
10	@ Cleveland	8-2	20	Miami	15-5

Sure, that's with the homer hat on, but I think that we will finally beat the Knicks in NY, and drop games against the Cavs on the road, and against the Suns, Spurs and Kings (in Sactown). This may be a conservative estimate, but after the first 20 games we very well should have around 15 wins!

Depth Perception: Power Forwards Poll Results

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I wrote about the state of the Power Forward position in the NBA. From that article I chose six crews (one for each division) who were the best in the NBA at covering the 4 spot. I asked you (the readers) to vote, and this is how it turned out:

Team	Players					% of votes
	Rasheed Wallace	Jason Maxiell	Antonio McDyess	Amir Johnson	Walter Herrmann	10%
	Pau Gasol	Lamar Odom	Vladimir Radmanovic	Luke Walton	Josh Powell	11%
	Shawn Marion	Udonis Haslem	Michael Beasley	Joel Anthony	David Padgett	1%
	Tim Duncan	Kurt Thomas	Matt Bonner	Ian Mahinmi	Anthony Tolliver	0%
	Chris Bosh	Jermaine O'Neal	Andrea Bargnani	Kris Humphries	Nathan Jawai	28%
	Carlos Boozer	Mehmet Okur	Andrei Kirilenko	Paul Millsap	Kosta Koufos	48%

Frankly I'm surprised that Utah got so many votes while Miami and San Antonio got so few. (Isn't Duncan the best PF of all time, according to some? And isn't Beasley supposed to be super awesome?) I think Detroit should have gotten more votes than the Lakers as well. Toronto is very solid, but in the end, I'm happy that Utah won. After all, they are the only squad who has 3 (at some point) All-Stars to throw at the 4 -- and then bring a guy like Millsap in the mix after that.

Also -- if you don't like my low resolution team logo images then make a suggestion on where to get better ones that don't break copywrite laws!

Paying Homage, or plain being a homer?

I was reminded recently when looking over the wiki article listing the NBA players with retired jerseys list that some teams have a greater history than others. For example, the Lakers franchise celebrates (or will after Shaq retires, as his number is currently out of circulation) 15 people, while the cross town Clippers have nothing going on up in their part of the rafters in Staples Center. Additionally, some players are celebrated even in places that they have no affiliation for -- for example Michael Jordan (who is not from Miami, didn't play college in Florida, and has never played for any franchise down there) has his jersey retired by the Heat. The only thing I can think of that links the two is that Jordan used to kill the Heat and Knicks -- both teams when Pat Riley was the coach there. Well, Jordan is so larger than life that he was playing ball for the Bulls with his #45 while his #23 was up in the rafters -- then later unretired his jersey (paid the small fine) and was balling in that to end his Bulls career. Seriously, what a douche-bag. The list is interesting to look over, did you know that Jim Loscutoff, a Celtics player, actually asked for his number to be free to use by others?

"Loscutoff asked that his legacy be honored by allowing other Celtics to wear his number in the future. It was later retired in honor of [Dave] Cowens. Loscutoff is represented by a square with the letters "LOSCY"."(Wikipedia, 2008)

The Celtics keep it pretty simple	Does this mean that the Jazz have to retire a Kobe jersey?

Out of all the numbers retired (and some not retired . . .) there has to be some politics involved. Jazz fans know about the whole Adrian Dantley situation. He was a key player for our teams back when he played in Utah (1979-1986), and was 'The Man' when the Jazz first started winning division titles and going to the playoffs. He was a top 3 scorer in the NBA five different times, and was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He left the Jazz under sour terms and his jersey retirement was passed over for many years while the Jazz franchise took care of these franchise icons first: Frank Layden in 1988, Darrell Griffith in 1993, Mark Eaton in 1996, Jeff Hornacek in 2002, John Stockton in 2004, and Karl Malone in 2006. They finally got around to Dantley (who had been retired since 1991, before every one of those guys but Coach Layden) in April of 2007. So getting your jersey retired involves more than just being a good player for a franchise. Just look at Jazz franchise great Pete Maravich.

Adrian Dantley	All 8 of 'em . . .	"Pistol" Pete

Pistol Pete was born in Pennsylvania and played college at LSU. He was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks back in 1969-1970 NBA Draft. He was traded to the expansion New Orleans Jazz franchise (1974-1975 season) for Dean Meminger, Bob Kauffman, two 1st round draft picks and two 2nd round draft picks. It is interesting to note that his years in New Orleans were relatively poor seasons for the team. If New Orleans was so great, why did they have to leave in the first place? If the fans really cared they never would have left. Yeah. The New Orleans fanbase is terrible. The fans have no heart, and don't really care about supporting their basketball franchise -- or at least they didn't back when Pete played there. (compare that to the wild fanbase that the Jazz franchise now is happy to have, it's a great contrast really)

That said, the Charlotte Hornets franchise decided to retire "Pistol" Pete's jersey when they moved to New Orleans. This is stupid, and their franchise is too. Pete was a great player at LSU (basically owning the entire NCAA), and was one of the most spectacular players in the NBA during his peak. But the New Orleans Hornets have no legitimate claim to Pete at all. The Utah Jazz did not retire Moses Malone's jersey -- even though he played for the Utah Stars back in the day. The New Orleans Hornets did not retire Shaquille O'Neal's jersey -- and he was a great player for LSU who also never played for the Charlotte Hornets franchise either. (Seriously, isn't that the qualification to get your jersey retired in New Orleans now-a-days?)

What I see this as is a cheap ploy to drum up interest in a city that has a history of not caring about their basketball team. If the Bulls team moves from Chicago to, lets say, Madrid (in David Stern's world, how far fetched is this in our lifetimes?), and Milwaukee's franchise gets relocated to the Chicago area does this mean that the Bucks franchise can now put up banners proclaiming Michael Jordan as one of their best players in franchise history? (Not that Jordan would care, the more retirements the merrier for him)

Or if the Sacramento Kings get relocated to Seattle, do they get the right to put up Gary Payton and Nate McMillan jerseys before their first home game? It would be one thing for the Charlotte Hornets to pick up the past of a dead franchise upon moving to a new city. (Like how the Toronto Raptors share some history with the Toronto Huskies) But it is an entirely different thing to steal players and history from an existing (and much better) franchise that previously played all of 4.5 seasons there. (as opposed to the 28.5 seasons in Utah)

Seriously Charlotte/New Orleans -- hang up some Muggsy Bogues jerseys instead -- you know, some players who actually played in your pitiful franchise. Rex Chapman isn't doing much now a days, maybe you can sell some more tickets that way. Not that it matters really . . . 19,907 > 14,181. Maybe we can loan you guys Karl Malone too, he played at Louisiana Tech in college and the Utah Jazz in the NBA as well. So that obviously makes him a franchise cornerstone for the Charlotte Hornets. Go knock yourselves out, New Orleans fans.

Depth Perception: Power Forward

The NBA game is a dynamic game where over time, the nature and necessity of different positions have changed. Conventional ideas suggest that you need one really good ball handler, one really tall guy to prevent teams from getting easy stuff inside, one guy who is really good at shooting, one guy who is really versatile, and one guy to do all the dirty work. It's easy to see this being the ever popular PG, C, SG, SF and PF concept of a team. Some positions are obviously more important than others -- every good team needs a competent PG on offense to runs things. Similarly, teams without someone who can score usually lose a lot (a talented SG or SF is absolutely necessary). Some teams prefer to do things inside out, and thus, a good C is often a road to the title (Shaq, Hakeem, Kareem, Wilt, Mikan, etc). That said, these positions have changed quite a bit over time.

Previously the point guard was just the guy who could beat the press, drive, and dish to the right guy at the right time. Individuals like Bob Cousy and John Stockton clearly displayed this pass first motive. Other, arguably more flashy and talented lead guards took upon the concept of being a complete player, and endeavored to score more frequently -- while still passing the ball and being the primary ball handler. Isiah Thomas was one of the best at this -- but surely not the only one to bring a balanced offensive attack from the PG spot.

Another spot on the floor that has changed over time was the power forward spot. For the longest time it was dominated by beefy characters who could bang, play defense, get boards, and get out of the way on offense. Individual talents like Bob Pettit and others tried to bring scoring into the fold; though guys like Maurice Lucas / Kermit Washington always seemed to find a home in the NBA being lunch-pail types at the 4. The evolution of the power forward took a quantum leap forward with Elgin Baylor -- a superb scorer par excellence. Elvin Hayes brought the toughness, but the examples of these individuals and Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Chris Webber pointed out that it was really difficult to win the NBA title by focusing on a power forward.

Kevin Garnett won a title with the Boston Celtics as a top level power forward; however he was far from the primary offensive force for his club. Tim Duncan has won quite a few titles as a power forward; though one gets the feeling that had he been drafted by a club that was bereft of a David Robinson type that he would never have played there.

Today most teams look to the 4 spot to contribute on the glass and with defense -- like always; but now expectations for power forwards to score a bit more have been raised. Not many power forwards are known for being great shot blockers, though some exceptions to the rule exist. Most surprisingly the evolution of the power forward has branched out into seemingly different species as the needs of teams have changed.

Jason Maxiell is a power forward and so is Vladimir Radmanovic. The only similarities that these two guys seem to have is their heights, and that their talents are so focused that they are not capable of playing the three or the five. In some respects, the four spot is the utility spot. If you need extra athleticism, start Josh Smith there. If you need shot blocking, you've got Elton Brand. Shooting skills are easily found with Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki. Lamar Odom is a fantastic passer who has a great handle for a power forward. That said, which team is the best equipped (as far as the current make up of teams exist today) at Power Forward?

Atlantic Division:

Boston Celtics	New Jersey Nets	New York Knicks	Philadelphia 76ers	Toronto Raptors
Kevin Garnett	Yi Jianlian	Zach Randolph	Elton Brand	Chris Bosh
Glen Davis	Eduardo Najera	David Lee	Reggie Evans	Jermaine O'Neal
Kendrick Perkins	Stromile Swift	Wilson Chandler	Marreese Speights	Andrea Bargnani
Brian Scalabrine	Sean Williams	Malik Rose	Jason Smith	Kris Humphries
	Josh Boone	Jared Jeffries		Nathan Jawai

Boston is anchored by KG and it quickly goes downhill from there. Big Baby, Perk (shifting over from the 5)and Scal are all bangers, and there is no real versatility here. New Jersey sports average talent in a number of bodies, Yi has the upside, Najera is a scrappy player, Stromile can sky in for dunks, Boone is a disappointment and Sean Williams (more of a true center) blocks shots. The Knicks manage to have both talent and depth -- Zach is a 20-10 guy when he wants to be, David Lee never gets tired, Jeffries is very versatile and Rose and Chandler are on opposite sides of the age/experience spectrum. Philly is interesting because they have Brand, who is a top level PF, and is backed by other bangers who can be rotation guys on almost every team. Evans and Evans Jr. (Speights) may seem a bit redundant, however Smith can shoot it well enough to give Philly an edge over the Knicks or the Nets. Toronto, though, is the class of the Atlantic when it comes to their power forwards. Chris Bosh is very underrated, he can do everything from hit game winning threes, to running up and down the court to block shots, and he makes all of his free throws. Behind him there is Bargnani (who will bounce back) and has unlimited range for a 4, Humphries hustles and bangs and rookie Jawai can play the 5 or the 4. Then there is Jermaine O'Neal who is a heck of a talent who does many things well. The Raptors have good defenders in Bosh and O'Neal, scrappy energy types like Humphries and Jawai and a very deadly outside shooter in Bargnani. All of these guys are tall, Jawai is the shortest, and he's only 6'10.

Winners:	Toronto	Raptors
Chris Bosh	Jermaine O'Neal	Andrea Bargnani	Kris Humphries	Nathan Jawai

Central Division:

Chicago Bulls	Cleveland Cavaliers	Detroit Pistons	Indiana Pacers	Milwaukee Bucks
Drew Gooden	Ben Wallace	Antonio McDyess	Troy Murphy	Charlie Villanueva
Tyrus Thomas	Anderson Varejao	Jason Maxiell	Josh McRoberts	Joe Alexander
Andres Nocioni	LeBron James	Rasheed Wallace	Shawne Williams	Malik Allen
Joakim Noah	JJ Hickson	Amir Johnson	Maceo Baston	Luc Mbah a Moute
Cedric Simmons		Walter Herrmann	Jeff Foster	Dan Gadzuric

Chicago has quite a bit of talent here. Gooden is gooden enough to be a 15/10 guy with enough playing time, Tyrus has prime time athleticism, Nocioni is a heady player who can rebound, pass and shoot the ball, Noah (a center) can slide over and be a Tyrus clone, and Simmons shows a lot of potential as well. Cleveland is a special case, as they start Ben Wallace there, who while a shell of his former self, can still be counted on to at least intimidate. I don't know anything about JJ Hickson (or Lance Allred), but I know that Anderson Varejao can slide over from the 5 to play some 4. Cleveland really sucks at the 4, save for the fact that if they needed (or wanted) to, they could plop LeBron down here, and they'd be quite okay. Detroit has a good mix of veteran savvy (McDyess), tenacity (Maxiell), shot blocking and outside shooting (Wallace), a utility man (Herrmann) and potential (Johnson). Depending on the situation, Detroit has a variety of guys they can go to at the 4. Chicago (save for Nocioni) only has guys with limited ability outside of the paint. I am giving the edge to Detroit here. Indiana is the opposite of Chicago. they are all guys who are better outside of the paint than inside. Milwaukee is like the Nets, in that they have the ability to show a lot of different things at the 4, but they are all pretty average to poor. Detroit wins!

Winners:	Detroit	Pistons
Rasheed Wallace	Jason Maxiell	Antonio McDyess	Amir Johnson	Walter Herrmann

Southeast Division:

Atlanta Hawks	Charlotte Bobcats	Miami Heat	Orlando Magic	Washington Wizards
Josh Smith	Emeka Okafor	Udonis Haslem	Rashard Lewis	Antawn Jamison
Al Horford	Gerald Wallace	Michael Beasley	Hidayet Turkoglu	Oleksiy Pecherov
Solomon Jones	Jared Dudley	Shawn Marion	Brian Cook	Darius Songaila
Randolph Morris	Sean May	Joel Anthony	Tony Battie
	Alexis Ajinca	David Padgett	Marcin Gortat

Atlanta is exciting with younger players like the hyper athletic Josh Smith and center worthy Al Horford. Aside from those two guys it's pretty much useless. Horford should play more center anyway, so it's pretty much just Josh Smith. He's a good player, but his limitations are obvious. The Bobcats are much more deep and versatile. Okafor is a defensive stalwart who is getting better offensively. Gerald Wallace is no slouch on defense, and he has the occasional ability to hit the three. He's mainly a slasher. Outside of these two are a few individuals playing out of position -- Jared Dudley is more of a 3 in the way Melo is, he can shoot and posts up, but isn't a full time 4. Sean May is a 5, but he can play a slow, but thick, 4 for a bit. The skinny but quick Ajinca is a 7'0 French player who can't possibly be thinking of playing the 5 over here in America. The Bobcats are pretty good here. Miami has three solid guys that could start: Haslem is one of the last Oakley types in the NBA, Beasley has all the potential in the world and Shawn Marion is very capable to do many different things well. It doesn't really matter after that. Marion cancels out whatever Gerald Wallace can do, Okafor is better than Haslem though. Is Beasley better than Dudley, May and Ajinca? Most definitely, so Miami is in the lead so far. Orlando is troubling. They basically play two small forwards (who are 6'10 and 6'11) here, and both of them are perimeter oriented offensive players who leave all the dirty work to Dwight Howard. That said, they won quite a few games for Orlando this season -- their clutch shooting was a great help to their team. Cook can also shoot it from the outside, and everyman Tony Battie can still get up there to block some shots (but he's mostly a 5). Marcin Grotat is probably a solid pick and pop guy as well. If you are looking at pure scoring, it's hard to say no to Orlando. Washington has Antawn Jamison, who is (statistically) one of the best PFs in the Eastern Conference, even if no one talks about him. Oleksiy Pecherov will one day pan out to be a poor man's Detlef. Darius Songaila is a poor man's Jamison. All three are capable outside shooters, and all three are solid rebounders. They don't have much depth and versatility -- all are basically differing talent levels of the same type of power forward archetype. Miami's lack of depth is a worse problem than Orlando's lack of inside muscle, or Washington's lack of versatility.

Winners:	Miami	Heat
Shawn Marion	Udonis Haslem	Michael Beasley	Joel Anthony	David Padgett

Southwest Division:

Dallas Mavericks	Houston Rockets	Memphis Grizzlies	New Orleans Hornets	San Antonio Spurs
Dirk Nowitzki	Luis Scola	Hakim Warrick	David West	Tim Duncan
Brandon Bass	Carl Landry	Antoine Walker	Melvin Ely	Kurt Thomas
James Singleton	Chuck Hayes	Darrell Arthur	Julian Wright	Matt Bonner
	Ron Artest	Darko Milicic	Ryan Bowen	Ian Mahinmi
	Mike Harris		Hilton Armstrong	Anthony Tolliver

Dallas begins and ends with Dirk. He is one of the Top 5 power forwards in the league. Behind him is the inside brute Brandon Bass. Singleton almost has to bring nothing, and the Dallas power forwards are one of the better ones in the league. Singleton is apparently very athletic, so he only makes Dallas stronger. Houston has a legion of guys 6'9 and under to throw at teams. Scola is the best of the bunch, and guys like Landry, Hayes and Harris are all inside players. Landry is quite a good defender. Speaking of crazy defenders, the Rockets may elect to play Ron Artest at the 4 in spurts. He is capable of playing good off the ball and man to man defense against taller players. In the absence of Ron Artest, Dallas is much better than Houston, even though Houston has many more fouls to go around. (Keep in mind that some of these guys on the Rockets are also their back-up centers) Memphis has Warrick, who is an exciting young player; alas, he's not good enough to elevate this rag-tag group of power forwards over any of the other groups in his division. Walker is crazy talented, but he's not playing in many games. Darko can slide over, but I doubt that he would -- unless Marc Gasol is really good. The Hornets have one of the best mid-range jump shooting bigmen in David West. Their back-up is really Ryan Bowen (think Harpring, but taller, and less capable), but I've include the ability for them to shift people around a bit (like centers Ely and Armstrong). The Hornets are good -- but not because of their fear inducing power forwards for certain. The Spurs have Tim Duncan, Kurt Thomas (like McDyess but better), Bonner (a guy for threes), Mahinmi (one of the better NBA-DL players out there) and this Tolliver guy. I know next to nothing about this guy, but I know he was drafted by the Spurs, and they rarely make mistakes. Dallas vs. San Antonio for this one . . . and . . . well, Duncan is way more clutch than Dirk in the playoffs.

Winners:	San Antonio	Spurs
Tim Duncan	Kurt Thomas	Matt Bonner	Ian Mahinmi	Anthony Tolliver

Northwest Division:

Denver Nuggets	Minnesota Timberwolves	Oklahoma City Thunder	Portland Trailblazers	Utah Jazz
Kenyon Martin	Al Jefferson	Chris Wilcox	LaMarcus Aldridge	Carlos Boozer
Nene	Ryan Gomes	Donyell Marshall	Channing Frye	Mehmet Okur
Renaldo Balkman	Craig Smith	Jeff Green	Ike Diogu	Andrei Kirilenko
Linas Kleiza	Brian Cardinal	Nick Collison	Travis Outlaw	Paul Millsap
Chris Anderson		Joe Smith	Raef LaFrentz	Kosta Koufos

Denver is talented here, K-Mart can run, jump and dunk. I'm not a fan of his, but on paper is he good enough to start on most teams. Nene -- probably the starting center -- can fit in well here as well. Balkman escapes from New York to bring his all around hustle to the Mile High city. Kleiza is a very accomplished shooter and international player who even put up something like 42 points against the Utah Jazz last season. The Birdman returns to the NBA as part of the Nuggets. All in all, they are very talented, have a solid outside spot up shooter in Kleiza and a couple of inside only guys. The T-Wolves are no slouches either. If Chris Bosh is one of the most under rated 4's in the league, Al Jefferson is not even mention at all. He is a beast on the inside. Gomes is very talented as well, and can do almost anything on the floor from hitting threes to blocking shots. Craig Smith is in that Maxiel/Millsap mold, but plays in relative obscurity. Brian Cardinal is Ryan Bowen with an outside shot. A solid group, but Gomes is not quite good enough to be a running four (like what Kleiza would be great at). Oklahoma is actually pretty good. Wilcox is the starter who can score in the paint. Donyell is a three point specialist to the point that he doesn't bring anything else to the table anymore. Jeff Green can slide over from the three to rebound and play well. Nick Collison is a rugged interior defender and Joe Smith is a very capable inside scorer. Portland just has LaMarcus -- and while he is a good young player, I'd rather have any other group of power forwards from the Northwest division than what Portland puts out there. Lastly, we have the Utah Jazz and, well, let's put it this way: three of these guys have been All-Stars. Carlos Boozer, for his defensive faults, is one of the best power forwards in the game -- he is a monster on the boards and is able to shoot from 18 feet or work inside with solid post moves. (Does David West have any post moves?) Mehmet Okur was a power forward up until Carlos Boozer finally got healthy two seasons ago. In Detroit he was a power forward and he was in Utah as well. He has great range, can block shots (like his game winning block), is an under rated man to man defender (like how he locked down Yao in games 5, 6 and 7 in 2006-2007) and can even drive. Andrei Kirilenko is very versatile, can guard guards and block the shot of centers. He shot 38% from deep last season and was European player of the year in 2007. He's also a very good shot blocker. Paul Millsap is the back-up of Boozer (because Ak is at the 3, and Memo at the 5), but in a true test of ability, he is farther down the depth charts. He is a tough defender who hustles for loose balls and is an energy player like Tyrus Thomas and others. Koufos is really a center, but his college game seems to translate better to the four. He's over 7' feet tall and can block shots and hit jumpers. I like what Oklahoma City has, I'm surprised at how good they are as a group. Denver is always tough, and they got much better by adding Balkman and Anderson -- though I can't vote against the Jazz. Not when three of their five guys at power forward have been All-Stars, and that any of their top three guys would start for almost every other team in the league.

Winners:	Utah	Jazz
Carlos Boozer	Mehmet Okur	Andrei Kirilenko	Paul Millsap	Kosta Koufos

Pacific Division:

Golden State Warriors	Los Angeles Clippers	Los Angeles Lakers	Phoenix Suns	Sacramento Kings
Al Harrington	Al Thornton	Pau Gasol	Amare Stoudemire	Mikki Moore
Brandan Wright	Tim Thomas	Lamar Odom	Boris Diaw	Kenny Thomas
Rony Turiaf	Brian Skinner	Vladimir Radmanovic	Louis Admunson	Shelden Williams
Anthony Randolph	Steve Novak	Luke Walton	Robin Lopez	Shareef Abdur-Rahim
Richard Hendrix	Marcus Camby	Josh Powell	Matt Barnes	Jason Thompson

Golden State is interesting, they have a Jamison type with Al Harrington, and occasional center Rony Turiaf is quite good as a backup. They've channeled the Department of Redundancy Department with Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph. Unfortunately for this group, I think the whole is less than the sum of their parts. The Clippers will probably have to use either Kaman or Camby here -- I guess Camby as he used to be a PF back in the olden days. Novak and Thomas can shoot it, and Thornton has potential to be something. The Lakers, on the other hand, have guys who are something. Gasol will have to move to the 4 to make room for Bynum. This makes Odom one of the most talented back-up power forwards of all time. He is great when he is on. Vlad Rad is all about shooting, and Luke struggles at time, but over all, he's not that bad. Phoenix has Amare, the ultra versatile Diaw, the monumental punk Matt Barnes (but he can sometimes hit a three), Mr. Hustle Louis Admunson and if they really need him, Robin Lopez. Over all, it's a solid group, but Gasol and Odom are greater than Amare and Diaw. Sacramento is were somewhat talented power forwards go to die. Easily the Lakers win this one.

Winners:	Los Angeles	Lakers
Pau Gasol	Lamar Odom	Valdimir Radmanovic	Luke Walton	Josh Powell

The question remains though . . . which of these six groups is the best? (remember to think about strengths, depth, versatility, offensive diversity, defense, star power, awards, and chemistry)