New Poll: Remembering November

Now that the first month of the season is in the history books, how will you remember it?

	Is the fact that the Jazz lost to so many crappy teams how you are going to remember this month? I know I was upset at losing to some of those teams, but you just can't expect to win every game -- especially not when it comes down to a broken play, 2nd shot attempt buzzer beater in transition (Chicago), or playing an unbelievably hot player (Devin Harris). That said, I'm still pissed off at all of these losses to East Teams.
	Or are you optimistic about our future, based on the solid, and somewhat spectacular play of our younger players -- Brewer, Miles and Koufos are all doing better than I thought they would early on!
	Perhaps you're just happy to limp into December, and recognize that once the Jazz are finally healthy, that they'll be fine.
	Ooof . . . too much Turkey
	Depth is a reason to be satisfied with this team early on.
	Hardly any Harpring! Hooray!

I have my own opinions, and decided not to put a 'bench' option because that plays into our depth.

Poll Result: What's the main problem so far this season?

So far the Utah Jazz have been one of the better teams in the conference, though not one of the top 5 teams in the league. There are some serious holes in the way the team has been playing, and as a result, the record Utah has produced reflects this -- as of today, the Utah Jazz are 11-7, which is 3rd best in the Northwest Division. There were 30 votes in this poll, and it's no big surprise to see which category was voted the main problem so far this season. My 'joke' entry ended up being second though, so that was surprising . . .

	Votes	%	Notes
Not defending the perimeter	5	16%	According to 82games.com, the Jazz are 3rd worst in defending the three -- 39.4 3pt%. Just re-watching the Knicks game shows how important this is. That link does support the fact that the Jazz are very solid at defending inside shots (relative to the NBA average, the Jazz are 5th best in the league -- without having any real shot blocking guy in there).
Not making open shots	3	10%	Well, the Jazz are 2nd in the NBA in made dunks (106 so far this season), and shoot 61.4% from inside. Pretty much, most of the time, the Jazz are making their easy shots. However, I've seen countless examples of missed layups, missed post up shots when our guys are posted up against smaller defenders, and way too many missed open threes. We make one of those open threes each game and we have a much better record.
Not healthy enough	12	40%	This is the big reason -- and really, the only one we need. If the Jazz are healthy, they aren't losing 7 games this month. Last game the TV crew showed a graphic of how many games the Jazz players have lost to injury/illness this season. Right now we sit at more than 60. Last season alone the Jazz missed only about 45.
Not running?	0	0%	No one picked this. Without Deron Williams running the half court the only time the back up point guards were useful was in a running game -- this was especially true of Brevin Knight who doesn't even know all the plays yet. (He admitted as such) Our offense (which, btw, isn't even scoring 100 ppg this season) is predicated on point guard play. When our PGs were busy turning the ball over, or taking early shots, the rest of our team can't get it going.
Not playing every game at home	10	33%	I put this up there as a joke, but apparently 10 people felt that it was a real reason. True, the Jazz usually win their games at home, but Utah lost 2 games there in the last week (Chicago Bulls and NJ Nets) -- just because it's a home game doesn't mean that it's a win anymore.

New Poll: What's the main problem so far this season?

Here's a new poll, you have until December to vote on it . . . it appears simple enough. What's the main problem so far for the Jazz this season? The usual suspects of not being healthy, not defending the perimeter, and not being at home are tempting answers -- but perhaps it's a problem with our offense missing 'gimmie' shots more than ever, or the fact that we're not running when we should run? We have some good athletes, but we often prefer to let the other team set their defense up before we attack them. I don't mind getting easy shots now and then, do you? Personally, I voted for not making open shots. I don't expect the Jazz to shoot 60 fg%, but I do expect them to make more than half of their really wide open jumpers / layups. So far (and particularly on the road trip) this was not the case. What do you guys think?

Poll Result: 5 game East road trip

Watching this road trip was like watching the movie Platoon -- eventually, you know that the chaulk is going to get all kinds of messed up because everyone keeps getting killed. The Jazz lost to the Knicks, beat the Sixers, lost to the Wizards (with Deron Williams playing), lost to the Bobcats, and lost to the Cavaliers. It was pretty bad. Only three people were honest enough to pick the Jazz going 1-4 on this trip. The most of us picked the Jazz winning 3 of 2 . . . obviously the Wizards and Knicks games were very winnable, and let's not even talk about the Bobcats game . . .

5 Game record		# of votes
5 - 0		4
4 - 1		2
3 - 2		13
2 - 3		3
1 - 4		3	<-- What actually happened in real life
0 - 5		2

New Poll: How will the Jazz do on this 5 game Eastern Conference Road trip?

It's not going to be easy, as it's a hellish series of back to back games (x2), three games in four nights (x3), four games in five nights (x1), and five games in seven nights (x1). It's also going to happen without Deron Williams, as he's not yet ready to join the team. There are only a few options . . . we go 5-0, 4-1, 3-2, 2-3, 1-4 or 0-5. What do you think it will be -- vote to the right of this post!

Poll Result: What will happen first?

Wow, when I first put up this poll I had no idea what was going to happen first. Many visitors of the blog also did not know . . . up until 2 days ago when I had about 27 votes in one day. It's no surprise to see what DID happen first mirrored the popular vote in this poll.

		Votes	%	Notes:
	Jerry Sloan will win his 1000th game with the Utah Jazz.	25	56%	Jerry Sloan won his 1000th game with the Utah Jazz on November 7th, 2008.
	Deron will return to the court.	12	27%	Deron was recently told that while he is, indeed, ahead of schedule, only in the most optimistic of cases would he actually have been able to return to play after 2 weeks -- his current schedule aims for him to be on the court after 4-6 weeks from his initial injury.
	C.J. will return to the bench.	4	9%	C.J. Miles has started every game this season for the Utah Jazz, and his play has improved of late -- last game he scored 7 points (2-4 fg, 2-2 3pt, 1-2 ft), had 2 rebounds and 3 assists in 16 minutes of action.
	Ronnie Brewer will make 5 total three pointers.	2	4%	As of November 8th, 2008, Ronnie Brewer has gone 3-6 from three point range.
	Memo will start to hit threes, at the expense of his (current) double double averages.	1	2%	As of November 8th, 2008, Mehmet Okur is averaging 15.2 ppg and 7.2 rpg. He has hit a total of 3 three pointers this season -- when he was not hitting threes, he was averaging a double double. When he started to hit threes (the last two games) he has averaged only 6.5 rpg -- but 19 ppg. So, technically, this is what happened first, though only one person voted for it.

This was fun, because I felt like any number of these possibilities was -- truly -- possible. The sure bet was Jerry Sloan though, and was a mortal lock after the Jazz beat Portland to go up 4-0.

New Poll: What will happen first?

What will happen first?

• Jerry Sloan will win his 1000th game with the Utah Jazz
• Deron Williams will return to the court
• CJ Miles will return to the bench
• Mehmet Okur will stop averaging a double double (11 ppg, 10 rpg) and start hitting threes (zero threes out of 4 tries)
• Ronnie Brewer will make a total of 5 three pointers made (so far 1-2 on the season)

Poll Results: Aside from the Title, what's the most important goal for this season?

Wow, this was our most successful poll yet with a whopping 64 total votes! The original question was posted way back on October 12th, and this poll really cut to the heart of what the Jazz fans thought was most important. Each potential answer could have resulted in a number of additional benefits -- for example more blowout wins would mean that our starters could rest more, while our younger players could get more actual playing time and develop faster. On the other hand, winning more individual player awards could help the Jazz in that the player's would develop a better 'rep' and when the playoffs came they'd end up getting the calls (or non-calls on defense) needed to win close games. The results were mainly divided between three of the seven categories:

Win more Road games -- 20 votes (31%) Play better defense -- 19 votes (29%) Secure home court for first round of the playoffs -- 15 votes (23%) Win more individual player awards -- 4 votes (6%) Win the North West Division again -- 3 votes (4%) Win more blowouts -- 2 votes (3%) Continue to dominate opposing teams at home -- 1 vote (1%)

I think that winning more road games assumes that the Jazz will still be good at home . . . and that playing better defense also would increase the number of road wins. Securing home court in the 1st round is going to be necessary because I don't expect to be winning a lot of road Game 7's in the future -- like we did two seasons ago. Ideally we'd do all of these 7 things, but if we could do only 3, those would be the two do.

New Poll: Aside from the Title, what's the most important goal for this season?

We all want the Jazz to win the title this season -- and it's not out of the question either -- but what secondary goal is the most important to the team?

• Secure home court for first round of the playoffs -- the last few playoffs we've been starting on the road, even though we've won our division. Home court, even if it's for just the first round, can be a huge advantage for the Jazz.
• Win the North West division title -- winning the division title for the 3rd season in a row is the most important of these secondary goals.
• Play better defense -- if the Jazz player better defense winning will take care of itself
• Win more Road Games -- the Jazz lost on the road to a lot of bad teams last season, winning those games means the difference between 5th seed and 1st seed
• Win more games in a blowout -- more blowout wins will mean more rest for our workhorses and more actual game time for our developing prospects
• Continue to Dominate opposing teams at home -- As long as the Jazz keep winning 34+ games at home everything else will not matter
• Individual Player Awards -- Players need to be recognized as All-Stars or All NBA team members, that will allow them better calls from the refs, and that makes all the difference in the playoffs when it comes to fouls (right Kobe?)

Poll Results: Who is going to be 'the talk' of Training camp this season?

A few weeks ago I asked about which young, non-starter is most likely to be 'talk talk' of Training camp this season. The candidates were Paul Millsap, CJ Miles, Kyrylo Fesenko, Kosta Koufos, Morris Almond, and 'other'. The people, and by the people I mean 31 people, have spoken!

Paul Millsap				What did he do in Training Camp?
		3 votes	9%	Millsap managed to do nothing extra-ordinary and started a game because of Carlos Boozer getting injured. No one really talked about him, but apparently he's quicker and using his quickness on offense to his advantage. Which is pretty much one of the things I said to look out for a month ago.
C.J. Miles
		13 votes	41%	CJ won this poll, but hasn't won much when the pre-season games have started. So far he has started two games and produced: 5.5 ppg (36 fg%, 0.0 3pt%, 43 ft%), 2.5 rpg, 0.0 apg, 0.5 spg and 3 fouls per game in 17 mpg. D'Jilla needs to step it up.
Kyrylo Fesenko
		3 votes	9%	If there is a way to somehow do poorer than CJ, Fes has found a way. That said, his height, physical nature in the paint, and youth continue to make him an interesting prospect. He held Shaq to 3 points in the 12 minutes he played against him, he also had 5 rebounds and 2 assists against the Lakers in 8 minutes of action.
Kosta Koufos
		5 votes	16%	Enthusiasm over his work ethic overshadowed by getting injured in his first two minutes of action in his first NBA pre-season game. Still, he managed to shoot the ball with no hesitation, and doesn't get killed (unlike Almond) for it.
Morris Almond
		5 votes	16%	Almond has now shown that he can score at the NBA Pre-Season level . . . but so far fails to demonstrate that he's locked up a spot on the Jazz roster. He has a few more games (and more importantly) and closed door practices to earn his way out of Orem.
"Other"
		2 votes	6%	I guess this probably means "Ronnie Price" as I can't think of any other young guys who are non-starters on the team. Korver, Harpring and Knight are all vets in my mind. Anyway, Price is being used as a 1/2 and has been involved in some crazy lineups so far this pre-season. He's been working in a backcourt with Knight to make the short, quick, scrappy backcourt that fits right into a Disney movie.

So the winner is CJ! Expect a new poll shortly . . .

EDIT: All photos by Melissa Majchrzak (NBAE/Getty) except for the image from the NBA.com store and, of course, the one by Al Hartman of Fesenko and Melissa.

New Poll! Which young, non-starter is most likely to be 'the talk' of Training camp this season?

This is a new poll, and you have until NOV 1st to make your voice heard! Which of these guys is most likely to be the talk of training camp this season? Vote on the right hand side thingy . . .

Paul Millsap, PF/SF	C.J. Miles, SG/SF
Kyrylo Fesenko, C	Kosta Koufos, C/PF
Morris Almond, SG/SF	Other, ???

Which team will win the NW Division Poll Results

You guys voted, and by "you guys" I mean 44 people. That said the results are IN!

• Minnesota did not receive a single vote, and finish with 0%
• Denver came in 2nd last with only 2 votes
• Oklahoma City somehow beat Denver, with a grand total of 3 votes
• Portland had 5 total votes, for 11% of 'the' vote
• Winning the division will be the Jazz with 34 out of a total 44 votes, and 77% of all votes

This was a dumb poll. Sorry guys, next one will be better, I promise . . .

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!