Larry H. Miller talks about AK off the bench

1320 KFan's David Locke talked with team owner, and Utah Icon, Larry H. Miller back on October 16th; and among the things they talked about they discussed the whole Andrei off the bench deal. Particularly interesting (to me) was the point that David Locke believes that Andrei really does need to be involved on offense in order to stay hungry on defense -- and that Sloan should probably put Andrei in a situation where that can happen. Perhaps being 'The Man' of the bench unit will afford Kirilenko more ball handling and creating opportunities. Larry H. Miller adds that Jerry Sloan is still learning, and feels like he needs to learn to put players where their talents are instead of trying to shoe horn players to fit a specific mold.

Photographed by Jason Olson for Deseret News	Photographed by Unknown for NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Tim DeFrisco for unknown

Both appear to be cautiously optimistic about this possibility, as are most of the Utah Jazz fans out there on message boards, and on blogs all over the Internet. Miller gets a chance to show off some of his knowledge of NBA History and suggests that it would greatly help the Jazz if they had a guy who can produce right off the bench like The Microwave (Vinnie Johnson). AK isn't going to be that type of guy who'll just start jacking shots, but he can bring energy right off the bench and make plays. Miller says that AK just really wants to win, and as a result, he'll do what is needed to win. (You know, as long as he's playing 30 minutes a game)

Click here for the podcast, and the Jazz talk really starts from 3:41 and goes onwards till around 8:54.

ESPN's Chad Ford likes him some Utah Jazz

In a recent ESPN Podcast (click on that if you want to listen to it) Ford talks for about 2 minutes about how gosh darn awesome the Jazz are. He starts by suggesting (what a lot of people thought, including himself) that the Jazz success in the 80's and 90's were primarily due to John Stockton and Karl Malone; however, he now sees that the influence of the system and Jerry Sloan had a lot to do with it. Case in point: this version of the Jazz who are pretty strong -- partly due to the system, and partly because of shrewd roster moves by GM Kevin O'Connor.

Furthermore, success in the Jazz system is predicated upon strong point guard play -- and none of this recent success would be possible without Deron Williams. Who Ford "thinks is one of the top 3 point guards in the NBA" (Chad Ford, 2008, via ESPN Podcast). He goes on about how dominant he is.

Next Ford talks about Boozer being an anchor in the paint; mentions AK-47 as a talented role player whose true contributions do not always show up on the box score; and that Mehmet Okur stretches the defense and had an amazing second half of the season for us. Surprisingly he gets himself a good seat on the Ronnie Brewer bandwagon and talks about his athleticism, his ability to play the passing lanes, he's potentially a ball hawk, and really is what the Jazz team are missing. Basically he's suggesting that he's going to be that athletic perimeter defender that we haven't had since, well, uh, Blue Edwards? (Jazz history isn't rife with great athletic shooting guard lore) Over-all the Utah Jazz's depth, head coach and system are hard to ignore. Such that:

	"I think that if anybody is going to be able to stop the Lakers this year it's the Utah Jazz -- they're great at home, they are getting [increasingly] confident, they have a great mixture of youth and veterans, and I think at the end of the day, if there's a team that is going to surprise us in the West, it's going to be the Utah Jazz." (Chad Ford, 2008, via ESPN Podcast)
Chad Ford, ESPN

I haven't heard any of his other team podcasts, but I doubt he's going to be really critical (well, maybe the Pacers and Bobcats...) in any of them. If you want, you can listen to them all here. Over all, I agree with him -- our bench is under rated, our system works, and we have some athletic young talent for once. NBA Finals here we come!

Morris Almond talks with David Locke

David Locke [1320 KFan] talked with Morris Almond last evening. You can check out the interview here, it starts 32 mins into the 'podcast'. This is just my opinion, but . . . I think that Mobe is very calculating. Sure, he does say 'uhh' before he answers a question -- but probably in order to give him time to think, and not because he is nervous. One only has to go back to his diplomatic pre-draft interviews with local Phoenix media and his glowing responses, of how playing for the Suns would be a dream come true, etc to see this in action. He's a smart guy, and knows what to say to the media. This is not a bad thing, per se; and I am truly in Morris Almond camp. (Regardless of how many of my posts so far are about C.J. Miles) That said, when he talks with Locke you can tell that he is both ingenious, but also genuine. He's also a pretty good player. Last season I would watch some Utah Flash games last season and admire his game, and say out loud that "Man . . . this guy would just *kill* if he was playing with star quality NBA talent".

Last season was basically his 5th season at Rice -- and he had to do it all. If he ever gets to play with our core he would be great running off of that Harpring curl for the open jumper 15 ft. out, and so forth. That defense issue . . . that's something else. The Podcast is informative in that Mr. Locke asks Almond what he was asked to improve on. Almond freely admits that he must improve the consistency of his play, speaking particularly about intensity on "both ends of the floor," (Almond, via Locke, 2008). Morris also makes reference towards getting that "dog in him", and to "punk or be punked". He wants to be a killer out there. I can see Morris being that type of guy, you know the type, the opposite of Ceejay. What's wrong with Miles? He's just as likely to be laughing and clapping on the bench as he is during the actual games when he is on the floor.

Photo credit Getty Images/NBAE

Almond, on the other hand, appears to be the kind of guy who will approach this as a job. He sounds intelligent, and is older than the other young guards on the roster. This should serve him well down the line -- he appears to have that maturity in his game that develops from his many years of playing ball.

Locke also asks Mobe about the whole Fess/Maturity issue, and what's happening between Fesenko and Koufos in their practices against each other. The podcast also reveals that that Ronnie Price is getting married next week. So, congrats Ronnie! I enjoy these podcasts, and always love hearing about the Jazz off the court.