Free Darko is Carlito's Way "Bigtime"

I love reading FreeDarko. They write some really great stuff. (I still read their live-blog of the NBA draft and it's been months since they posted that) They were recently interviewed on ESPN.com. There really isn't much to say, but I do agree that the distinction between print and web is getting increasingly small now. Free Darko is bigtime . . . and have been for a while. If you didn't get the Carlito's Way reference, watch a movie sometime. [Btw, I'm not suggesting the FD is going to get pushed down a stairwell, it's just the best quote I can think of off the top of my head that involves the word "bigtime"]

Where in the world is Tadija Dragicevic and Ante Tomic?

It's very reasonable if you forgot this, but with their last draft pick from last seasons' NBA Draft the Jazz picked Tadija Dragicevic (2nd round, Pick #53 overall). In this All-Star game video he is on the East team and wearing #5. (The white jerseys) First of all this tells us a few things: a) he's not an imaginary player, and b) he's good enough to make an All-Star team somewhere professionally. Both are good signs for certain. [btw, don't show Jerry Sloan this video, there's no defense, especially not when Tadija just watches guys shoot the ball near him without even putting an arm up]

But let's try to dig up a bit more info on this European man of mystery. According to Wikipedia (yeah I know, it's a great source) he's 6'9 and weighs 235 lb. . . . and he wears #20. (Quincy Lewis' old number for you Jazz fans out there) He is 22 years old right now and this Serbian plays power forward. Which is funny because I could have sworn that he was projected as a SF in the NBA according to some web sites like ESPN.com; though DraftExpress.com suggests that he's a PF though. What's interesting is what people say about him . . . ESPN's Chad Ford says:

"Who? Not exactly a household name, and I've never seen this guy. He doesn't look like much of an NBA player, but this late in the draft, you can't ignore the numbers he's putting up in the ULEB." (Chad Ford, ESPN.com)

I don't know what the ULEB is, it sounds like some computer thing, or some acronym used by 'the kids' today with their texting. (sorry, txting) For the record, the ULEB is the Union of European Leagues of Basketball . . . and within the union of these leagues our boy Drazillah the Killah plays in the Adriatic league -- OH CRAP!

He got injured (I'm assuming) this year . . . he's only played in 1 game, and only played 17:30 minutes in it. The only stats that he has is that he made 6 foul shots in that game. That totally sucks because he was the MVP of that league last season. Why? I'll tell you why . . . because he scored 20.5 ppg (52.0 fg%, 45.1 3pt%, 81.0 ft%), 5.9 rpg, 1.4 apg and lead his team to a good record, I guess. I don't know. This website is kinda hard to figure out. And the news (assumed) that he's injured sucks. Let's move around to our other draft pick in the 2nd round -- Ante Tomic . . .

A-Tomic is probably my favorite player ever from Dubrovnik ever. He's Croatian, and that could pose an interesting dynamic with the Serbian Dragicevic. You know, in the off chance that we ever bring either of them over to the NBA. He's one year younger than Tadija, and he's a full blooded 7'1 center. He has no weight worth noting. So far this season he's averaging 17.2 ppg (54.3 fg%, 0.0 3pt%, 77.1 ft%), 10.4 rpg, 1.5 apg, 0.8 spg, 1.7 bpg and as the top value rating of the entire league right now. (I think this is how they figure out who's the MVP, like how Tadijilla D'Razillia was last season -- kind of like the IBM Award they used to have in the NBA)

I think it's pretty clear why the Jazz actually drafted Tadija in the first place -- because they were scouting Ante, and while they were looking in that league they found this other guy who was EVEN MORE under the radar than Ante Tomic -- they just HAD to draft that other guy. Anyway . . . the Orlando / Philly game is really dull. How dull? So dull that I'm surfing around on the NLB Liga ABA website. Damn you NBA schedule makers! You win this round!

A little early but . . . NBADraft.net's 2010 Top 10

This is really premature, but as Jazz fans, we all know why we should be keeping an eye on this . . . Well, here is nbadraft.net's mock draft for 2010:

1. John Wall, 6'4 PG
2. Ricky Rubio, 6'4, PG
3. Xavier Henry, 6'6, SG
4. Jrue Holiday, 6'4, PG/SG
5. Derrick Favors, 6'9, PF
6. Gani Lawal, 6'9, PF
7. Austin Daye, 6'10, SF
8. Donatas Motiejunas, 7'1, PF
9. Davin Ebanks, 6'8, SF
10. Scotty Hopson, 6'6, SG

I'm pretty sure that David Stern would do whatever it takes to make sure that we don't get Ricky Rubio, even though he's a dead ringer for a former Jazz player that we may all know . . . Who knows if any of those 10 guys will be true Lotto picks (i.e. the top 14 picked each year), or even if the Knicks will be in the lotto by then? (Thanks, guys . . . ) Even more surprising would be to guess what the Jazz would need in 2010.

There's just so much up in the air that will "eventually" sort itself out after next off-season. (God willing) So it'll be much easier to forecast a drafting direction for future years after that's all taken care of. I do know that if Price and Knight get short contracts from the Jazz this following off-season that the Jazz may be in need of a PG to help Deron out time to time.

By 2010 if our shooting guard situation still necessitates the drafting of young SGs then our current crop of 3 young guys (CJ, Ronnie B and Mobe) must not have panned out. Even more startling would be if one of our three recent centers all end up as duds (Fesenko, Koufos and Tomic). I'm guessing we'll either be on the look out for a PF -- we can't honestly expect to have Boozer, Okur, Kirilenko and Millsap all on the roster by then, and will need to reload at the 4 for sure.

Though . . . it would be fun to see Ricky as a rookie playing with our 2nd unit throwing oops to Andrei, and making crazy passes to Korver . . .

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: The 1990 NBA Draft

I remember back in the day when stupid kids brought up on Ahmad Rashad's "Inside Stuff" used to tell me that Kenny Anderson and Derrick Coleman were going to be better than John Stockton and Karl Malone. (most likely the same kids who'd tell me that Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp were going to be better than Stockton and Malone a few seasons later...) I still laugh at these types of suggestions. They are entirely preposterous. Anyway, I loath Derrick Coleman so much that I rank him as one of the worse 1st Pick of the Draft's ever. (Not as bad as Kwame Brown, but no where near as good as other 1st round picks) This lead me to looking at the 1990 NBA Draft. There *HAD* to be someone better than Coleman in his very own draft class . . . right? I think that looking at the actual draft class pretty much proves my null hypothesis incorrect . . . this draft was crap in so many ways -- almost a re-do of the Len Bias draft of 1986. Aside from Coleman being picked 1st, what other notable names were there?

• Chris Jackson Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was picked in the lotto and battles Tourette syndrome and his short shooting guard status to make a few key buckets for the Nuggets
• Dennis Scott was 2 seasons away from being the kick out man from Shaq triple teams in Orlando
• Kendall Gill was drafted 5th, and had a pretty good career
• Felton Spencer was drafted 6th by the T-Wolves (crazy...)
• The L train (Lionel Simmons) went to the Kings, but he wasn't an All-Star like Coleman was
• Tyrone Hill was an All-Star one season, but he was just too ugly to ever be better than another player
• Loy Vaught was drafted in this 1st round as well, but did not really come around till a few seasons later, and did not last as long in the league
• Dee Brown (the dunker) was in this draft, but how was he not Nate Robinson before Nate Robinson?
• The end of the first round brought us this trio of bigmen: Dwayne Schintzius, Alaa Abdelnaby and Elden Campbell -- truly a fine way to end the round
• The 2nd round was very hit or miss, giving players like Toni Kukoc, Carl Herrera, Greg Foster, Bimbo Coles, Antonio Davis, Cedric Ceballos and Sean Higgins (probably best known for fighting with players when he became an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors)

Oh yeah, I forgot this guy . . . the guy drafted right after Coleman . . . a guy they called The Glove! Coleman wasn't even the best player in his draft, and guys like Kukoc, or Ceballos did just as much as he did (if not more -- Ceballos did play in the finals). Payton was a multiple All-Star, played in the NBA finals, won a Gold Medal in the Olympics, and picked up a ring in Miami. He's going to the Hall of Fame, and was a better player and had a better career. Coleman shouldn't have been picked 1st, or heck, maybe 3rd at best. So, in closing . . . Coleman sucks.

Things to look for this season: Kosta Koufos

Really, what do you even hope for, as a Rookie playing in Jerry Sloan's system? I can only really name a few guys off the top of my head who actually got significant playing time as a Rookie here . . . Paul Millsap (18.0 mpg) did it when he was a rookie back in 2006-2007, Deron Williams (28.8 mpg) did so as well the season before, and before that some guy named Shandon Anderson (16.4 mpg) got burn on an NBA West Finals team. Usually, though, a rookie either doesn't have the opportunity to play, or the BBALL IQ to deserve playing. I have a chance of being wrong here, but I'm going to go out on a limb and strongly suggest that Koufos isn't going to play in more than 30 games for the Utah Jazz this season, and he's not going to average 10 mpg in those games. [For a point of reference, Fesenko played in only 9 NBA games last season, @ a rate of 7.8 mpg per]

Photograph by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty Images

So right off the bat the Ohio State product is getting put in a bad situation for him. I guess part of that just happens to be the fact that he was drafted lower than he expected, and thus, is going to a better team. I'm pretty sure that he could be a rookie producer for some other teams that are rebuilding, and don't have any good bigmen (you know, like Oklahoma) -- but he's not on such a team. He's on a team where the guys ahead of him on the depth chart are all vastly better than him at this point in time. And also there's another 7'1 prospect already on the team.

Mehmet Okur	Carlos Boozer	Andrei Kirilenko	Paul Millsap	Jarron Collins
Starting 5	Starting 4	Starting 3	Backup 4	Backup 5
Photograph by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty Images	Photograph by unknown for NBAE/Getty Images	Photograph by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty Images	Photograph by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty Images	Photograph by unknown for NBAE/Getty Images
Okur was an All-Star back in 2006-2007 and after the All-Star break last season he averaged 17 and 10. Okur was a power forward who was converted into a center when Boozer came back from injury a few seasons back.	Booz was an All-Star in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 and just 'won' a Gold Medal. He's one of the few 20-10 guys out there today. Boozer plays around 35 mpg, and can play either 4 or 5 depending on the team the Jazz are playing.	AK-47 is the starting 3, but at this stage you better believe that Jerry is more ready to give him big minutes at the 4 than Kosta, after all, he too was an All-Star back when he played inside the paint.	Mansap is a beast, and potentially could be good enough to mitigate any potential losses from having Boozer walk. He's short, but strong and tenacious on defense. His offensive game is highly under-rated.	Jarron Collins is a black belt jedi when it comes to flopping. He's so good at getting other people in bad situations that HE was the guy driving the golf cart when his brother got injured this off-season. He's not a very good basketball player, but he has Jerry's trust -- something Kosta does not yet have.

While Konstantine Demetrios Koufos may one day be a legit power forward of center in the league, this season he's going to be getting a lot of quality time with the Utah Flash. Well, what three things should we look out for this season from Kosta?

1. Work hard and learn quickly: Everyone raves about his work ethic. This is really a good thing, because he's on a team where you either work hard, or you don't play. What I've seen of him so far (basically just the RMR), he is talented, and if taught, he can be a solid NBA player for many seasons. He's a very good shooter (especially from the free throw line), but Deron said it best -- what the Jazz need from him is rebounds and defense. Those two things are aspects of his game that are not quite NBA ready -- but hey, if he works hard and learns quickly they will develop quite well. Let's not forget that he's a 19 year old Rookie though, so don't expect him to be the next Moses Malone or anything, but it's not like Jarron is going to last much longer here on the Jazz.
2. Be a better offensive player as a rookie than Fes was: This shouldn't be hard, especially when you compare the fact that Kosta is a 1st round pick who played NCAA ball and was a potential lotto pick, and Fes was some raw hulk playing in obscurity in a minor European league who was drafted in the 2nd round. Kosta has drawn comparisons to Mehmet Okur -- and as far as sweet shooting big men go, it's hard to find a better role model. That said, Fes was not horrible on offense as he did manage to shoot above 50 fg% and scored over 10 ppg for the Flash. You kind of expect Koufos to shoot the ball more (something he seems to have developed a taste for, as he shoots the ball nearly as much as Boozer does), and thus, he has an inside track on scoring more and being a quantitatively better offensive player. Fes was a beast in his departments, averaging 10.8 rpg and 2.7 bpg over 36 mpg in the D-league, and  12.9 rpg and 1.5 bpg over 36 mpg in the NBA. Kosta will, likewise, be a beast in his departments -- mainly ppg, ft% and rebounds.
3. Split time with Fesenko all season long: It only seems plausible that Kosta will be down in the D-league when Fes is sitting on the bench (or behind it) in Salt Lake City, and they'll switch over periods of the season. The deal is that a guy on the D-league affiliate can only be called by three times during the season, and the 3rd time they have to STAY with the NBA team for the rest of the season. So I guess the Jazz brass will keep an eye on this, and the guy who does the best will be called up a 3rd time, and maybe make it on the playoff roster. If I was the coach I'd seriously think about the development of all these young guys . . . but I'm not the coach, so don't expect much from Kosta or Kyrylo this season.

Things to look for this season: C.J. Miles

Ceejay had a newsworthy summer -- like last season, but even more absurd this time around. As a quick recap, C.J. opted not to play in the Rocky Mountain Review Summer League for the Jazz for the 2nd straight year (something which made life hard for him under Jerry Sloan the next season); the Jazz made him a restricted Free Agent anyway by offering him the minimum that they had to; he didn't sign that contract and played the waiting game; eventually Oklahoma City offered him a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract ($15 mill / 4 years); the Jazz then waited a full week; before finally matching the offer sheet, which it was concluded was dirt cheap. I can only hope that his 2008-2009 season will be more eventful than his off-season -- which really was 'much ado about nothing'. (He was a young RFA who was offered a pretty cheap contract for 4 years and was matched)

The next step, now that he has some level of financial security (unless his financial planner is MC Hammer), is to actually work on getting that next contract after this one that he just signed. He does have his work cut out for him this season has he has to develop from a 'that guy who plays when we have injured starters' to 'that guy who always contributes'. Sure, the Jazz have a legion of swingmen who can give other teams several looks: Ronnie Brewer (6'7) -- starts at the 2, and can play 3 Andrei Kirilenko (6'9) -- starts at the 3, and can play 2 Kyle Korver (6'7) -- can play the 2 or the 3 Matt Harpring (6'7) -- can play the 3 or the 2 Morris Almond (6'6) -- can play the 2 or the 3 Paul Millsap (6'8) -- can play the 3 Ronnie Price (6'2) -- can play the 2 But . . . there is only 96 minutes at the swing spots to give out to those guys -- and one other guy -- C.J. Miles. For him (or anyone) that's a lot of competition.

One thing that C.J. has going for him is that in his 120 game career (+8 in the playoffs), is that he just turned 21, and is the youngest out of that entire crew. Additionally, aside from Harpring and Kirilenko, he's been with the team the longest (this will be his 4th training camp with the Jazz). Essentially, he has the most NBA experience with the Jazz out of that younger shooting guard crew, while being the youngest.

Another 'thing' that C.J. can be happy about is that the Jazz seem to do well in games where he actually starts (9 - 4 last season, 5 - 1 in the last 41 games of the regular season). In those games he has scored 11, 6, 7, 6, 8, 2, 7, 9, 2, 13, 4, 7, 29 -- which averages out to 8.5 ppg in 20 mpg. That's a nice improvement over his season averages of 5 ppg off of 11.5 mpg. He spreads the floor pretty well, and shot the ball at a very acceptable rate for a shooting guard last season: 47.9 fg%, 39.0 3pt%, 78.8 ft%. When extrapolated to playing 36 mpg he (statistically) becomes a 15.5 ppg scorer who also gets you over 4 rpg, nearly 3 apg, and nearly 2 spg. (And yes, for those who wanted to know, that's basically what Hornacek was giving the Jazz in those glory years) Should C.J. be playing 36 mpg next season, or even start for the Utah Jazz? Mostly definitely no, but he does have the tools to be a solid contributor.

What are three things we should look for this season?

1. Just be on the floor more -- Play in 75 games, and averaging greater than 13 mpg for the season should be a good start for Miles. His career has gone from 23 games to 37 games to 60 last season. The Jazz coaching staff should try to get him playing in almost every game by at least, the 2nd quarter -- after all, the Jazz Brass didn't sign him to a $15 million dollar contract just so he could continue collecting splinters on the bench. Kyle Korver can become a free agent, and really, the Jazz should focus on a guy like Miles who can become an okay defensive player instead of giving playing time to the pacifier that is Kyle Korver (he shuts up an immediate need, but may slow down progress in other areas).
2. Be a better shooter -- Again, the main competition for playing time right now appears to be Kyle Korver. I do love seeing Korver knock down threes, but I do believe that the future can be Miles. In order for Miles to be on the floor more one of the things he needs to do is become a better shooter -- particularly from three and from the free throw line (two Korver specialties). For the majority of the season CJ was shooting around 43 % from three, but it tapered off as the season finished. He needs to finish above 40% to be considered a really good three point shooter. Additionally, as a guard he needs to be hitting above 80% from the free throw line. I'm not expecting him to become one of those 88-92 ft% shooters, but he needs to be better than Deron Williams for sure. (If he's not, then there's no point in having him in the game at the end of the game when the other team is fouling) If he's going to get playing time at all, it should be at shooting guard, and if he's going to get playing time at shooting guard, he has to be at least comparable to his competition there. He needs to be a high 40%/40+%/80+% guy. Right now he's a high 40%/high 30%/high 70% guy. Korver's career averages (5 seasons) are 40+%/40+%/high 80%. [With the Jazz last season Kover was a 47.4 fg%/38.8 3pt%/91.7ft% guy] For Ceejay to take some of Kyle's minutes, he's going to have to shoot that efficiently, or near to it.
3. Continue getting better on defense -- One thing that Ceejay can get better at is on defense. He's only going to get increasingly stronger, and right now is miles (if you excuse the pun) ahead of Korver in terms of foot speed, quickness, lateral quickness and athleticism. For example, Korver plays more minutes per game, but gets less steals than Miles. At some point, Jerry Sloan is going to buckle and end up playing whomever can play defense better . . . and Miles has the tools to get better (especially when you factor in that he's only 21 and he's going into his 4th season in the NBA), Korver is going to be 27 by the time the playoffs roll around this season, and he's not getting any younger, or quicker. Eventually C.J. Miles should get better at defense (keep improving at his current rate, he doesn't need to make a quantum leap), and he should eventually start to play more regularly, and more minutes per game.

Basically, what we need to look for this season is the continued improvement of CJ, he's a young player still, but he's not a rookie, or someone who doesn't understand the game. He's going into his 4th season, and as such, his expectations should be higher than that of someone like Morris Almond. Look for improvement, and if he is able to display said improvement, he should get more playing time. Deron Williams is a huge CJ fan and suggests that we should expect as much. [They were both picked by the Jazz in the 2005 NBA Draft, and both were raised and went to high school in Dallas, Texas]

News Headlines - The calm before the storm

Can you believe that it's almost October? Really? We're less than half a month away and more and more NBA news will be coming in the near future. [point of reference: us bloggers have lamented how boring the Month of August was, imagine how bereft of information it will be in those non-Olympic years!] Anyway, here is a quick rundown of some Jazz related stories:

* The Dominator is ubiquitous -- Deron Williams is "The Man" of this team, and lives in SLC full time, and as a result, he's been busy there full time giving back to the community, read about in the Desert Morning News! "When Williams first appeared in Utah, he was confident but guarded. Charles Barkley he wasn't. But as time passed, he became increasingly willing to show his humor. Sometimes it's simply a glint in his eye or a short one-liner. For those he trusts, he's engaging and cooperative, the proverbial good guy. Which raises the obvious question: What's in it for him? Is this some kind of radical publicity blitz? Probably not, since he had already signed his contract extension before most of this happened. "We didn't just sit down and say, 'Deron, we've got to come up with a major media crash course,' like we're promoting a movie," said Wright. "It's not like that. People were calling and saying, 'Can you go here?' And a lot of it, if it fit into his schedule, we did." Wright says Williams also did it because he understands he's the Jazz's guy. His team, his town, his responsibility. Which is quite unusual. The team has three players who have been All-Stars (Boozer, Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur), yet the most popular, and the unchallenged leader, is Williams." (Brad Rock, 2008, Deseret News)

 

* Steve Luhm (of the Salt Lake Tribune) talks about the 2010 Draft pick that we own, and how the improvement of the New York Knicks may reduce what looked like a for sure lock at a Top 5 pick in that draft. "The Knicks weren't going anywhere under Isiah Thomas and the Jazz's chances of being in the top five or top 10 of the 2010 draft with the pick previously acquired from New York would have improved had he stayed in charge. The hiring of Donnie Walsh as team president and Mike D'Antoni as coach is first step toward respectability for the Knicks, which is not good news for the Jazz. Walsh's track record and reputation are impeccable. He's one of the best in the business and was the perfect choice to direct the reconstruction in New York. D'Antoni? I've known him since he was hired as Denver's director of player personnel in 1997. During the lockout-shortened 1999 season, D'Antoni inherited the impossible job of head coach and guided the Nuggets to a 14-36 record. He was not retained, but got a second chance to be an NBA head coach in Phoenix, starting early in the 2003-04 season. Everybody who follows the NBA knows what kind of job D'Antoni did with the Suns." (Luhm, 2008, Salt Lake Tribune)

 

* AK back to Russia, for reals this time, people! -- People love to jump to unreasonable conclusions, as a story grows exponentially with each blog that links to it, and gives their take -- I read this blog post from "The Hoop" from a variety of sources (ballhype and dimemag) today, and Dime even goes the distance to suggest that solving the financial burden in Utah is as easy as shipping AK off to CSKA Moscow (reading jazzfanz much?)-- because of their "reported" interest in him. Didn't they have 'reported' interest in Ben Gordon too? How did that work out? The Hoop reports from somewhere else (krepsinis.net?) that this can be a done deal, and that it may have some weight because Andrei hasn't renewed his contract with the Utah Jazz yet. First of all, it's good to check your sources.

There are a few places on the net that show these financial facts quite easily . . . Andrei is under contract for three more seasons @ $15 million, $16.5 million and $17.8 million. So not only is AK not able to renew his contract (as it's not expiring), but this means that CSKA would have to buy out his contract from the Jazz (much like how when NBA teams have to buy out contracts from big dogs across the pond, it works both ways guys). This guy (Anthony) said it best:

"I mean, CSKA's got money, but I don't know if they have 3 years/50 mil of buyout money to go along with a similar sized contract. His wife has a shop in Salt Lake, he's good friends with the other Eastern European dudes on the team, and he has one of the best point guards in the league (and if Boozer bolts he'd become his preferred target). Something tells me that this won't happen.

Scratch that, everything tells me that this won't happen."  (comment from The Hoop article, 2008)

 

* Training camp Tid-bits -- It basically starts on September 29th with media day (yes, we'll get to find out what hair color Fesenko currently has, or if Kover finally got that 'Thugg Life' tattoo he kept suggesting that he'd get over the summer), then they're off to Boise from September 30th to October 3rd. (Mark your calendar, Masha!)

When this happens each year I think of Jerry Sloan telling all the players that for that point in time that he's going to be their daddies, and that he forces integration by having unlikely pals to room mate together -- like, a few seasons ago we may have had Greg Ostertag sharing a room with DeShawn Stevenson. Okay, sure, my entire concept of Jazz training camp is like that sequence from "Remember the Titans".

Just fast-forward to the 3:30 mark if you don't want to watch all of this, the best part (the part I'm talking about) starts at 6:30 . . .anyway . . . the first pre-season game is against the Lakers on October 7th in Anaheim. Woo!

 

* Trickle down economics means that during an energy crisis air travel is more expensive . . . duh. Thanks for showing up Jasen Lee.

10 Things other Point Guards do better than Deron Williams, and why.

Utah, as Kenny Smith tells me every game I play as the Jazz in NBA 2k8, took a lot of heat for picking Deron Williams back when Chris Paul was on the board still -- waaay back in the 2005 NBA Draft. It looked like a poor choice after their rookie seasons ended. However, Deron seems to doing just fine for himself. That said, let's look at the other point guards in the league, and try to figure out why they do things better than Deron -- is it a talent issue, or something else entirely? [All statistics are from the 2007-2008 regular season, unless noted otherwise.] Each category displays what a leader in that category achieves, and how Deron fares in comparison. Furthermore an examination of how the other top Point guards fared in direct comparison to one another in the playoffs follows. You may just be surprised to see who came out on top over-all. Probably if you are among the same people who were surprised at Deron Williams' record result during the NBA All-Star Skills Competition . . . presented by Playstation.

Photographed by: Getty Images/NBAE

1. Points --

Baron Davis: 21.8 ppg (.426, 7.9-17.9 FGM-FGA) Deron Williams: 18.8 ppg (.505, 6.9-13.6 FGM-FGA) (#3 pg) Baron scored the most out of any point guard in the NBA last season -- though he was far from the most efficient scorer. He shoots the ball 18 times to score 22 points. That's basically Nellie ball at it's best (worst?). Deron Williams doesn't shoot as much, but shoots much smarter shots, he's one of the few Point Guards to have a fg% greater than 50%. Deron can score just as much as Baron, as the box scores of their 2nd round match-up in 2006-2007 clearly show. In this playoffs Deron upped his scoring per game to 21.0 ppg . . . while Baron Davis was unable to get his team there. A guy like Davis would have trouble in Sloan system. Deron can score with the best of them in any system.

Photographed by: Rocky Widner, NBAE/Getty Images

2. Field-Goal shooting --

Jose Manuel Calderon: 51.9% Deron Williams: 50.7% (#2 pg, #1 pg who has taken 1000+ shots in the 2007-2008 season) Jose came off the bench last season to be a highly effective point guard, and ended up splitting time with T.J. Ford. This season Jose will be the starter as T.J. was shipped off to Indiana. You don't shoot the ball at a 52% clip if you take bad shots. Nothing in Jose's game is really forced as he is very unselfish and easily a Top 10 point guard in the league. It doesn't hurt when you don't shoot a lot of shots -- but perhaps this will change as he gets more playing time this season. Deron is no slouch when it comes to playing a control game and taking good shots. He did have to change his role during the playoffs from a primary distributor to a primary scoring weapon . . . and that affected his FG%. He's still pretty awesome for scoring so efficiently while taking over 1100+ shots.

3. Three point shooting --

Steve Nash: 47.0 3PT%, 2.2 3PTM/Game Deron Williams: 39.5 3PT%, 1.0 3PTM/Game (#12 pg, #3 in PGs who score 15+ ppg) How good is Steve Nash from deep? Just a point of reference here . . . Nash shoots better from three than Baron Davis (the top PG in terms of PPG) does over-all. Deron Williams has been a pretty good three point shooter in his career (usually around 40%), but Nash shot nearly 50% last season. That is truly spectacular. Nash takes a lot of quick shots during transition and the early stages of an aborted half court attack. This is partly due to the Phoenix Suns' offensive attack, and partly due to Nash (he knows his talents, and he used to play this way back in Dallas as well). Deron Williams is strong from deep, and is quite clutch from three as well. He's a smart player, but his true potential for bombing is slightly curtailed by Jerry Sloan's penchant for avoiding shooting the three almost as much as Vampires avoid having wooden stakes in their hearts. When you limit the field to only point guards who score 15+ ppg, Deron goes from being the 12th best to the 3rd best at three point shooting. This is a huge jump that removes a lot of specialists. Deron's complete game includes the three. As a top level PG you have to score at least that much, and keep defenses honest with a three point shot.

Photographed by: Roy Dabner/AP Photo

4. Free Throw Attempts / Game --

Chauncey Billups: 5.6 FTA / Game Deron Williams: 5.0 FTA / Game (#3 pg) Getting to the free throw line is an art form for some. It is a true product of veteran savvy and skill. It doesn't hurt if you are a star player who has a ring and a finals MVP trophy to show off time to time. (Those who don't usually resort to flopping, or their sense of entitlement) Deron Williams doesn't have the credentials of a Billups, the flopping of a San Antonio, or the world on a platter that Chris Paul does -- but what he does have is an ability to drive to the basket, be a physical point guard, absorb contact and go to the line 0.6 times less than the top man in the league at his position. While I never expect Deron to get those 'Chris Paul calls', I do expect that as he gains more playoff experience and exposure that his FTA/game will only go up as well.

Photographed by: Roy Dabner/AP Photo

5. Assists --

Steve Nash: 11.1 Deron Williams: 10.5 (#3 pg) Steve Nash may not be the apg king of the NBA any longer, but he's still one of the best. For the second straight season Deron Williams finishes right below Nash when it comes to dropping dimes. Nash plays only 34 mpg, but the style of play of his club is one where they push the pace of the game and there are more assists to be had. I know Nash is a great point guard, but how many assists per game would he get in a ball control, slow tempo offense? (Not unlike what the Jazz used to run when John Stockton was getting older) Deron Williams leads a very efficient Utah attack as well, but Nash has better offensive weapons to pass to. (Amare, Shaq, Raja Bell and Barbosa are better scorers than Boozer, Memo, Andrei and Ronnie Brewer) That said, 0.6 less apg isn't that big of a deal in the big picture. In the 2008 Playoffs Nash and Deron's rankings were flipped, with Deron being #2, & Nash #3. Nash will always remain a much flashier passer though.

6. Assist to Turn Over Ratio --

Jose Manuel Calderon: 5.38 Ast/TO Deron Williams: 3.09 Ast/TO (#13 pg, #6 in PGs who play 30+ mpg) I'm sorry, but Jose's Ast:To ratio is just insanely high. He just takes care of the ball very well. Deron isn't even in the Top 10 of this for the regular season . . . but when you eliminate all the point guards who play less than 30+ mpg then he's 6th best in the league. That's not that bad, the magic number for point guards has always been that 3:1 ratio, and Deron satisfies that requirement. Jose rarely makes a mistake on offense as he's the NBA leader among point guards in FG% and Ast:TO ratio. So he gets major props from me. It's that much more impressive when you factor in that Jose has to sometimes pass the ball to guys like Kris Humphries. On the same wavelength, Deron's turn overs would be severely reduced if Jerry Sloan cut Matt Harpring's playing time.

7. Rebounds --

Jason Kidd: 7.5 rpg Deron Williams: 3.0 rpg (#12 pg) Jason Kidd, at 6'5, is a great rebounding point guard. He has a nose for the ball, he seems to always be in the right place, and more than anything else that we can attribute to Jason himself, he's played with some of the worst rebounding bigmen ever in his career. Who is the best he's played with, Kenyon Martin? Has he ever been in the Top 10 this millennium? Deron Williams, on the other hand, has had to take whatever he can get when it comes to boards has he has Boozer (11+ rpg), Okur (9+ rpg), Kirilenko (8+ rpg), Harpring (8 rpg), Millsap (6 rpg) on his team to do all of that for him. [N.B. these are career highs showing rebound potentials] I'm certain that if asked to, Deron could board more -- especially if he was on a different team. Look at Chris Paul -- his power forward (David West) gets 8 rpg. Boozer gets over 10 rpg. Paul has to make up some of the difference.

Photographed by: Rick Havner/AP Photo

8. Steals --

Chris Paul: 2.71 spg Deron Williams: 1.10 spg (#14 pg) Flat out, Chris Paul is an amazing steals guy. He is very quick and is an absolute terror in the passing lanes. You don't luck into getting nearly 3 spg -- it's a talent that you have. Some guys have it, others do not. Still, others could be okay steals guys, but don't have the green light on defense to roam around getting them. I don't think that John Stockton was the best man-to-man defender ever, but he has the league record for Steals. Why? Because for a large part of his career, Stockton basically played free safety for the Jazz on defense while the paint was anchored by Mark Eaton and Greg Ostertag. That allowed him the liberty to go for steals and play aggressively like that. If he was burned, Big Mark would send the shot back. Chris Paul benefits from having Tyson Chandler around. That doesn't mean that Paul only gets steals because he has a big man watching the paint -- it means that Paul can cheat a bit more than guys on other teams could have. For a point of reference, Deron Williams scored higher during the pre-draft combine on some agility drills than Paul did -- but he has Mehmet Okur watching the paint -- so he can't go for steals, he has to stay on the ball handler at all times. If Deron had a better defensive bigman protecting the basket I'm sure he could cheat for more steals -- but surely nothing like 2.7+ spg.

9. Blocks --

	Marko Jaric: 0.43 bpg Deron Williams: 0.28 bpg (#5 pg) Okay, Marko is 6'7 and Deron is 6'3 . . . I'm okay that Deron isn't the best shot blocking point guard in the NBA -- Top 5 isn't bad at all. My question is: does Marko get extra points for being the most hated cock-blocker on the Internet? Seriously? Adriana Lima? WTF?
Photographed by: Danny Moloshok / Reuters

10. Double Doubles --

Chris Paul: 56 Deron Williams: 52 (#2 pg) CP just edges out Deron for this one . . . and it's really no surprise. Chris Paul had an amazing 2007-2008 season, and nothing can take that away from him. Deron, on the other hand, had a ton of 8 or 9 assist games (13 actually), that resulted in Jerry Sloan sitting him without him getting the requires stats to be self-satisfied. (Similar to how he'd continually sit John Stockton when Stock would have 20+ assists, but not let him try for the single game record -- it was about the win, and not about the stats for good ol' Jer.) CP, no doubt, had a ton of those games as well, so for all things considered, these two point guards are quite similar in their double-double abilities -- with Chris Paul getting the job done a whopping 4 more times than Deron in a season. In the playoffs Chris had 8 double doubles and 1 game of 9 assists while Deron had 7 double doubles and three games of 9 assists -- basically the same.

Ordinal Ranks?

Regular Season:	PPG	FG%	3pts	FTA	APG	A:TO	RPG	SPG	BPG	Double Doubles	Average
Actual	3	3	12	3	3	13	12	14	5	2	6.9
Adjusted	3	1	3	3	3	6	12	14	5	2	5.2

So if you adjust the rankings to include only those point guards who score 15+ ppg, have taken over 1000+ shots in the season and play at least 30+ mpg . . . Deron Williams is clearly a Top 5 Point Guard in the NBA. Keep in mind that his statistics went up during the playoffs, and that's when he really shines. (21.6 ppg, 50.0 3PT%, 10.0 apg, etc.)

2008 Playoffs:	PPG	FG%	3pts	FTA	APG	A:TO	RPG	SPG	BPG	Double Doubles	Average
Actual	3	4	1	3	2	9	6	10	2	2	4.2

Over-all, he's one of the top Point guards in the league, and his average of 4.2 is nothing to laugh at; especially when compared to the other Top Guards in the league.

2008 Playoffs:	PPG	FG%	3pts	FTA	APG	A:TO	RPG	SPG	BPG	Double Doubles	Average
C. Billups	6	10	11	2	8	5	10	9	16	6	8.3
C. Paul	1	2	23	1	1	1	2	1	11	1	4.4
D. Fisher	12	9	6	9	15	11	15	2	15	8	10.2
D. Williams	3	4	1	3	2	9	6	10	2	2	4.2
J. Calderon	10	6	3	23	4	2	6	21	21	6	10.2
J. Kidd	15	16	4	17	5	6	1	4	1	8	7.7
J. Nelson	4	1	2	7	10	13	4	18	7	8	7.4
R. Rondo	13	9	20	13	6	7	3	3	4	4	8.2
S. Nash	4	5	13	14	3	8	11	14	7	4	8.3
T. Parker	2	3	16	4	7	14	5	7	17	3	7.8

* Some point guards did not qualify for some categories (like Chris Paul for threes), so their total rank was used for point guards (not just the qualifying rank, as they failed to qualify).

Yeah, let's take a look at this, now shall we? Billups, who has attained Sainthood for his playoff performances here in Detroit gets an average ordinal rank of 8.3, which is good enough for a tie for 7th best over-all. Jameer Nelson, on the other hand, had a very strong playoffs statistically (#3 over all), but he's far from the 3rd best point guard who played in the playoffs last season. Chris Paul is clearly one of the top point guards, especially with this metric where his individual ordinal rankings for each of the 10 categories is rarely out of the top 2. That said, his failings do put him below Deron Williams over all by the smallest of margins (4.2 vs. 4.4).

This is fitting, I believe, because it shows something important. Deron is hardly going to be the absolute best at one thing, but he'll be among the best in many things -- perhaps making him the best over-all. When you have a point guard who averages 21 and 10 in the playoffs while shooting 50% from deep you have a pretty good point guard. He may not get as much publicity as someone who appears to be head and shoulders over everyone else (i.e. Chris Paul) -- but in the over-all scheme (hence, the ordinal rankings), Deron Williams seems to be just as good (if not a little bit better). I like to call him The Dominator, but perhaps a more fitting name would be the Gestalt Point Guard, or Voltron, or something like that . . . he's strong in just so many ways that he can beat you -- eventually -- by finding your weakness and exploiting it.