Flashback Friday -- will happen on Saturday

I need tonight's games to happen before I can finish my article, so our regularly scheduled Flashback Friday will be rescheduled for Saturday. Hang tight readers (and really, why the heck do you guys even show up? I look over the stats and I can't believe people keep coming back for more) -- this weekend I expect to put in a lot of posts.

Elie Seckback interviews Kyrylo Fesenko

If you don't know who Elie Seckback is then you suck. Really, this is the Internet age and I love his exclusive Fan House video interviews with NBA players. (One of the best is the one with Shaq where O'Neal starts to speak Hebrew) I love Elie's videos and so should you. (And again, if you don't then you suck) Here he is talking (for a good 4 minutes) with Kyrylo Fesenko. It's worth watching twice -- hilarious. There are cameos of Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko and Jarron Collins as well for those of you who are into that. Please watch it . . . it's absolutely hilarious. Thanks to BallHype.com for this info via Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie via AOL Fanhouse.

I've imbedded this video here so it gets more play . . . great work Elie! Love your stuff!

All Euro (Whitey) Team comment and other thoughts on recent blog articles I've enjoyed

I love readings blogs . . . that's actually the main reason why I created one as well -- because I wanted to give back. Unfortunately I don't have all the time in the world to read them anymore, but I try to keep abreast of blog posts via BallHype.com. (They are fantastic, I use BallHype.com more often than I use Google.com) Anyway, here's a selection of blog posts and my take on them --

Rebounding Differential Rankings in the NBA [Nov 6] -- Khandor's Sports Blog talks about something Jazz fans have been very lucky to have over the last few seasons, and actually positive rebounding differential. Utah is a strong rebounding club (currently #6th in the NBA in differential at +5.00 as of November 6th, 2008). Last season the Jazz were tied for 3rd over-all with the Boston Celtics at +3.1 rebound differential; Cleveland was at +4.2, and Houston at +4.0. Two of the clubs above the Jazz (Detroit and Philly) have played the Raptors though, and thus, those rebounding numbers look highly inflated. Khandor shows a nice chart and talks about it a bit. I tend to value rebounding differential more than actual average RPG because it shows how good (or bad) a team is compared to other teams -- as opposed to being an isolated number by itself. I wish the Raptors do get better rebounding, as they are one of the teams that I root for. Thanks Khandor for blogging about this, it's nice to know that I'm not the only crazy person out there who likes stats.

Zach at Gunaxin.com recently blogged about The All Whitey Basketball Team -- Zach describes and details a 12 man roster of purely American white guys. He comes up with Kirk Hinrich, Mike Miller, Mike Dunleavy Jr., David Lee and Chris Kaman as starters. The bench is comprised of Brad Miller, Kyle Korver, Steve Blake, Kevin Love, Wally Szcerbiak, Troy Murphy and Nick Collison. I don't think that team would suck. (It would be a whole lot better than an All-Asian Basketball team, for starters . . . and as a guy who's parents were born in Asia I can say that, I guess in that Russell Peters type of "i'm a minority so I can be racist" type of comedy that Sarah Silverman employs) That's a tangent though . . . I wanted to make an all European Basketball team to counter . . . this is what I came up with (In no order):

1. Tony Parker (PG) -- France/Spurs
2. Hidayet Turkoglu (SF/SG) -- Turkey/Magic
3. Andrei Kirilenko (SF/PF) -- Russia/Jazz
4. Dirk Nowitzki (PF/C) -- Germany/Mavericks
5. Pau Gasol (PF/C) -- Spain/LA Lakers
6. Jose Manuel Calderon (PG) -- Spain/Raptors
7. Sasha Vujacic (SG/PG) -- Slovenia/LA Lakers
8. Rudy Fernandez (SG/SF) -- Spain/Trailblazers
9. Predrag Stojakovic (SF/SG) -- Serbia (Croatia)/Hornets
10. Linas Kleiza (SF/PF) -- Lithuania/Nuggets
11. Mehmet Okur (PF/C) -- Turkey/Jazz
12. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C) -- Lithuania/Cavaliers

If you want only "White Euros" then take out Tony Parker and put in Beno Udrih instead and start Jose instead. I think that team would be pretty comparable to the USA Whitey's team, though probably beat them in a 7 game series handily. The Euro team would surely flop a whole lot as well . . . the toughest guy on the European team would have to be either Kleiza or Okur, which says a whole lot.

"I was saying booo-urns . . . !" - Hans Moleman from The Simpsons. "Apparently" the NYC Crowd is not booing Chris Duhon. Or are they? Read it at What would Oakley Do? The Duhon/Fog Light analogy is as hilarious as it is apt -- and reason enough to read this article.

Apparently Jerry Sloan has been coaching the Jazz since the Ronald Reagan years . . . the Salt Lake Tribune brings the funk on that while I ponder just how many years I've been a fanatic fan of the NBA . . . and how much else I could have accomplished in my life if I was not . . .

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!

Game 4 Recap: Utah 103, Portland 96

Game at a Glance:

The young and inexperienced Portland Trailblazers own a number of double digit leads over the Jazz in Salt Lake City, but are unable to close the deal as the Jazz (again without veterans Deron Williams and Matt Harpring) come from behind in the 4th quarter to win it -- the classic battle of experience and poise against youth and enthusiasm. Somehow this game reminded me of a game between the 1998 Jazz and the 1998 Spurs -- the Jazz won the battles back then, but you can see the potential for Portland to eventually win the war (they have a lot of potentially awesome young players), just as the Spurs clearly have. Portland fans don't have much to be upset with here (I fail to see why they are so down -- read their reactions here, here and here); they almost won a huge game against a division rival on the road -- without having their best player play their best game. Brandon Roy had 18 points (6-16 fg, 0-2 3pt), 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal -- if you guys pull off upsets without Roy scoring 20 you should be happy. And that's almost exactly what happened last night.

[ ESPN's Boxscore -- NBA.com's Highlights ]

Jazz Quartet -- Top Four Players of the Game:

Andrei Kirilenko	Brevin Knight	Mehmet Okur	Carlos Boozer
Photographed by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty	Photographed by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty	Photographed by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty	Photographed by Melissa Majchrzak for NBAE/Getty
Like every game this season, in the 4th quarter he's shut down the other team's best offensive player. He also finished with 17 points (5-8 fg), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and countless drawn fouls against Portland early in the 4th to put them in the penalty. AK-47 went 7-8 from the FT line to boot.	Maybe he gets more credit than he deserves, or maybe he gets less -- it doesn't matter, we don't win this game without his steadying influence and ability to be a disruptive force on defense. Brev finished with 6 points (3-4 from the floor), 6 assists, 3 steals and a board. Moreover, he ran the team and helped us get back from being down 11.	If it wasn't for his end of the shot clock magic in the 1st half, the Jazz go down by 20 instead of just 11 in this game. Okur is finally hitting some outside shots, and had a team high 22 points, and was 1 rebound away from a double double. (And a 20-10 game) He drew the defense to him, and allowed the Jazz to get offensive rebounds and post up wings in the 4th.	Like Memo, Boozer was just short of a double double and 20-10 game, he finished with 20 and 8. He was not as aggressive as I wanted him to be, and he took a lot more fading jumpers than he should have -- but with the game hanging in the balance he scored inside on a layup with less than 30 seconds left and made all of his free throws -- he had several key rebounds as well.

Hon. Mention:

Ronnie Brewer -- Brewer had 16 points (6-12 shooting, 1-1 from three, 3-3 from the FT line), 6 rebounds and 2 assists . . . and was instrumental for the win (that three was huge), but when it counted Brandon Roy was scoring on him / getting by him with ease. On the other hand, Brevin was much more active on defense and was big on both ends of the floor. If it was Jazz Quintet then Ronnie Brewer would have been there, but then I would end up feeling bad at some other game down the line where 6 guys for our club did something good, and lament about it not being a Jazz sextet, and that's just dumb, and potentially not work safe. I gotta draw the line somewhere, and Ronnie will have plenty of opportunities to make it down the line. He had a great game, and helped us on offense when we were making our run, and had some nice dunks -- but even more impressive where his confident outside jumpers in the 3th.

Digging Deeper:

I'm happy that we got this win, and I felt as though doing so without Deron was a distinct possibility. (Scroll down to week 3) That said, I tend to agree with Hammy over at True Blue Jazz -- this game was a European Rookie's open three point attempt away from being all tied up with 20 seconds to go -- we really could have used Deron's offense tonight. The good news is that we didn't need him, we won the game, and we're a game against the Thunder away from going 3 weeks without Deron Williams -- and haven't lost yet. The better news is that our bench is winning games for us. We've had a good bench for a few seasons now -- last year he did pretty okay (save for the playoffs) with Ronnie Price, Kyle Korver, Matt Harpring and Paul Millsap. (And CJ for emergencies)

This season we have Brevin Knight, Kyle Korver, Andrei Kirilenko and Paul Millsap -- this has been the line up that gets the Jazz on runs where we claw back into games, or go on and distance ourselves from the other team, with. Those four guys average 39.6 ppg (Only Korver is shooting under 46 fg% in that group at 43%), 18.3 rpg, 10.9 apg and 5.25 spg. Oh yeah, and those four guys get to the line an average of 12.9 times per game. Not too shabby for the first 4 guys off your bench.

Portland is a good team, and I'm happy that we beat them. They have a few guys injured right now -- though I think that losing Deron (not to mention a valuable bench guy in Harpring) is worse than losing Oden (who you guys didn't need to beat us 3 times last year) and Webster. I think that Outlaw, Batum and Fernandez gives Portland some of the best young wings out there -- and that's not even counting Brandon Roy. Aldridge has a very effective offensive game (inside and out), but seriously . . . 2 boards? Total? Kyle Korver out-rebounded LaMarcus. This is just something the Blazer fans should not tolerate. Especially when guys like Batum crash the boards and get 6 for their effort (no need to even mention Przybilla who was a one man wrecking crew in the paint with 7 points, 16 boards and a million blocks). Portland harried the Jazz into 16 turn overs (so many in the 1st and 2nd quarter alone) and were on their way to a solid road win. I wouldn't be surprised to see the season series end in a split, or even 3-1 in favor of the Blazers if this first game is any indication. How often are the Jazz going to go 21 for 22 at the free throw line in a game? We needed every one of those to get back into this game and secure the win.

The under-appreciated positive is that Jerry Sloan is making some really good changes to the rotation depending on the situations of the game. And older version of Sloan would keep pounding away at the square peg and try to make it fit in a round hole (which results in a loss) -- but he was confident enough in our roster's make up (props to GM Kevin O'Connor) that he could keep switching people in and out to work for advantages. Need defense? Plug in Knight. Portland bringing the zone? Put in Okur and Korver. Is Przybilla out of the game? Put in Boozer and Millsap to score inside. As Siler points out, it worked out for us in this game. Hopefully Sloan will keep doing this all season long.

Next Game: Friday November 7th, 2008 -- Oklahoma City Thunder @ Utah Jazz [9:00 PM EST]

Cool article / trip down memory lane!

Do you remember the 1990-1991 NBA season? It was the year right before our first Western Conference Championship series, so maybe not. Anyway, this guy does, and writes about (among other games) the Jazz' first two games of the regular season -- which were against the Phoenix Suns and played in Tokyo, Japan! Check it out here! I remember these two games, and the coverage the games got (they even talked about the Utah Jazz on Inside Stuff!!!). If you care, here are the boxscores from the two games: game 1, game 2. For the record in that back-to-back set Karl Malone averaged 31.0 ppg (15 FTA per game!), 12.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 0.5 spg and 0.5 bpg. Which, you may remember, is pretty indicative of by how large the order of magnitude Karl was greater than Carlos actually was/is.

Btw . . . in that picture . . . yes, that's a young Jerry Sloan near Karl's bent knee and a young Phil Johnson (white guy with moustache) in the lower left corner in the image. The third coach could be Gordon Chiesa, but I could be wrong . . . I'm just guessing, as it doesn't look like Gordon at all.

Looking at the Top five 6th men so far . . .

According to ESPN.com, or at least a poll on their website, the Top 5 sixth men candidates are:

1. the LA Lakers' Lamar Odom,
2. Chicago's Ben Gordon,
3. Philly's Lou Williams,
4. Portland's Rudy Fernandez
5. and Utah's Andrei Kirilenko.

Predictably, as of right now, Odom is number one with 33% of the over 9,000 votes. Coming in second is Portland's rookie Fernandez at 26% of the vote. Next is AK-47 with 21%. Ben Gordon and Lou Williams round out the top 5 with 10% each. I think I've already made myself pretty clear when looking at how dumb some people are, so let's not even bother with the results of this vote. Let's, instead, look at how these guys are actually playing right now.

Player	Lamar Odom	Rudy Fernandez	Andrei Kirilenko	Ben Gordon	Lou Williams
Team	LA Lakers	Portland Trailblazers	Utah Jazz	Chicago Bulls	Philadelphia 76ers
ESPN Vote	33%	26%	21%	10%	10%
MPG	26.0	27.0	32.7	26.8	23.0
Games	3	3	3	4	4
PPG	8.3	14.0	14.0	14.3	12.5
FG%	45.0%	48.3%	53.6%	41.3%	39.6%
3PT%	0.0%	40.0%	50.0%	43.8%	23.1%
FT%	77.9%	88.9%	73.3%	85.7%	69.2%
Shooting Worth *	1.25	1.45	1.50	1.24	1.04
Shooting Frequency **	3.85	2.83	3.50	2.30	1.92
APG	2.33	1.33	3.00	3.00	2.50
A:TO	1.4	2.0	1.5	1.33	1.25
RPG	5.67	2.00	8.67	1.50	1.50
SPG	0.33	1.00	2.33	0.50	0.25
BPG	0.33	0.0	1.67	0.0	0.0
B+S/PF ***	0.33	1.00	1.71	0.29	0.33
PFPG	2.0	1.00	2.33	1.75	0.75
TOPG	1.67	0.67	2.00	2.25	2.0

N.B. These stats may look different than what you see on NBA.com or ESPN.com because these stats are not rounded to the tenth place, but the hundredth place -- they are derived from the total value over the number of games as usual, but to two decimal places. For example, ESPN.com rounds Lou Williams fouls per game to be 0.8, where as he has 3 fouls in 4 games, which is actually 0.75.

* Shooting worth was previous my erroneously named "points per shot" stat. This is derived by dividing the total number of points scored (not just from FGA, but also FTM) by how many total FGA the player has made. This 'worth' inflates the scores of players who get to the line and make their free throws, while penalizing players who need a lot of shots to score. The higher the number the better. For example: Lamar Odom has scored a total of 25 points (10+9+6) and shot the ball  20 (6+5+9) times. This is then 25/20, for a shooting worth of 1.25 points for each shot.

** Shooting frequency is what I used to call "shots per minute", which is wrong; this stat is how many minutes needed to take a shot. Or in plan English, "Player ______ shoots the ball every x number of minutes on the floor". The lower the number the more frequently the player shoots. Again, with Odom being the example he has shot the ball 20 times this season. He has played a total of 77 (29+23+25) minutes this season. Here we divide the total number of minutes played by how many shots were taken. In this case (77/20) we get 3.85. That means that Odom shoots the ball once every 3.85 minutes played. (or every 3:51, if you want to figure out how many seconds 0.85 minutes is). If we compare this to Kobe's shooting frequency (which is calculated out to 1.83 <-- 97 minutes played / 53 FGA) we can see that this is not a very high number at all.

*** Blocks + Steals / Personal Fouls is another "Amar stat" that is very easy to understand. It's simply the total number of blocks + the total number of steals all divided by the total number of personal fouls. [The equation is: (blocks + steals) / PF ] It's a stat that attempts to gauge how effectively a player gambles on defense by how often they are tagged for fouling. If you just stand there on defense you probably are not going to pick up a lot of fouls. If you try to go for steals, or challenge shots you have a higher chance of getting called for a foul. So in a way, this monitors activity on defense as a product of how well they avoid fouling. I'd love it if the NBA officially recorded deflections though . . . they don't. So this is the best I can do. The higher the number the better. So, using Odom as an example here: so far he has 1 block and 1 steal. He has fouled 6 total times this season (1+2+3). So this becomes 2 / 6, or 0.33. He has more fouls than steals and blocks combined. He may be playing good defense, but he's not recording defensive stats for it.

So yeah, it doesn't take a Rocket Surgeon, or John Hollinger, to figure out which one of these five guys is actually playing the best right now. It's Andrei Kirilenko who is 1st or 2nd in all the categories. But if you like Hollinger's PER stat, here are the breakdowns: Rudy Fernandez 24.66; Andrei Kirilenko 23.97; Ben Gordon 15.90; Lou Williams 15.66; Lamar Odom 12.49. The same size of 3 or 4 games is really small though, but right now it's an easy call. I will be watching this race as the season goes on though . . .

YouTube Tuesdays! Millsap owns Kaman

Here are the highlights from last night's game . . . the last one is of the Millsap dunk on Kaman (including all of the great cheering from Boozer, Fesenko, Koufos, Price and a surprisingly mobile injured Deron Williams). It was a thing of beauty to cap Millsap's 15 points in a row effort against the LA Clippers. I liked how Korver hung in the air and passed it off for the sure thing, but I'm sure Korver would have made the shot anyway . . . still, the dunk is a total "Your Momma" dunk. You can read more of this jam and Millsap's play @ SLCDUNK; or alternatively, ESPN.COM

Game 3 Recap: Utah 89, LA Clippers 73

Game at a Glance:

The LA Clippers return home and return two star players to the active roster (Baron Davis and Marcus Camby) and hang tight for three quarters, only to allow Paul Millsap to outwork guys 4 inches taller than him and dominate the paint (he scored 15 points in a row for the Jazz in the 4th) while Carlos Boozer cheers from the bench. The Clippers went 9-20 from the free throw line while the Jazz made up for going 0-10 from three by going 25-31 from the line (despite Korver and Okur having 0-2 sequences from there early on). Jason Hart had a DNP-CD in Revenge Game #2.

Jazz Quartet -- Top Four Players of the Game:

Andrei Kirilenko	Paul Millsap	Mehmet Okur	Carlos Boozer
Photographed by Andrew D. Bernstein for NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Stephen Dunn for NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Noah Graham NBAE/Getty Images	Photographed by Stephen Dunn for NBAE/Getty Images
He locked down both Thornton & Mobley in the 2nd half *and* got a double double (15 points, 11 boards, 2 assists and 4 steals).	Scored 15 points and grabbed 5 board in a row in the 4th quarter to finish with 24 and 9. Added 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.	He let Andrei get a lot of his rebounds, and still has yet to hit a three; but his outside shot is getting better and scored 16 points (5/10 fg, 9 fta)	Boozer didn't dominate, and did not have to. In less than 30 mins he got 13 points (6/10) and had 8 boards.

Digging Deeper:

The Utah Jazz can finally say that they've beaten a team at full strength -- even if it was the first time Baron Davis and Marcus Camby actually played with each other. [I'm completely avoiding the easy dig at the Clippers and questioning how much of a 'team' they really are if all they do is isolate a wing and have him go one on one all night long.] Through the first three quarters this game was a pain to watch. The first quarter featured an overmatched C.J. Miles being absolutely torched by Al Thornton. The sophomore took it to the 4th year player and scored three times on Ceejay in the first 2 minutes of the game.

I don't want to be a dick here, well, maybe I do a little, but Morris Almond can get scored on just as easily . . . for those keeping score at home, Almond has played a little over 4 minutes this season and is shooting 67 fg%, and scored 5 points. CJ has played 44 minutes and shooting 33 fg% and scored 10 points. CJ also has one steal, 4 assists and 7 rebounds more than Almond . . . but he's played 11 times more minutes . . . I think Almond could pick up a steal and 4 assists in 40 minutes of action with the starters.

After Andrei came in the game Thornton only scored twice more the rest of the night. Mike Taylor got the start tonight for the Clippers while Jason Hart (who is having a hard time with the whole revenge game concept) got a DNP-CD. Baron Davis made an immediate impact in the game by hitting a three and pulling off one of those difficult DR.J flying out of bounds under the basket moves [see the move at 0:25 in this video if you don't know what I'm describing] that resulted in a nice pass to a cutting Camby. The Jazz starting guards were tepid in this game -- and made half of all their made field goals (2) in this quarter. The quarter ended 20-16 in favor of the home team.

Kirilenko is really taking command of this 2nd unit (that features Knight, Korver, Andrei (usually at the 2 on defense), Millsap and tonight Okur), and he is using his quicks to post up smaller guys and execute his patented alley-oop post up 180 layups while being fouled. Speaking of quicks, Millsap was using his face up / floor game to make some crazy layups and shots. You may remember that I suggested that Paul should use his speed and quickness more on offense . . . and he did tonight!

Utah's perimeter game hasn't been clicking (still looking for that first Money shot from Memo), and if the Jazz want to start beating good teams (instead of beating down on bad teams) then the offense needs to pick it up. What really saved us was our foul shooting (and the Clips bad luck there), you may also remember that we only beat the nuggets because of our foul shooting. So -- honestly -- we could be 1-2 right now if it wasn't for our luck at the stripe.

It's easy to fall in love with our defensive stats, but we've played some really bad teams,so there is no big secret WHY we've held teams to 82 ppg. It's because we played the Clippers twice and Denver without 'Melo. If we can keep teams under 90 after our brutal Eastern trip later this month then I'll be happily surprised. Almost as surprised as I was to see Korver miss two free throws in a row like he did right after hitting three in a row early on in this game. Korver did manage to net 7 points, grab 5 boards and steal the ball 3 times . . . had he made a few of this threes he easily would have been part of the Jazz Quartet up there.

Next Game: Wednesday November 5th, 2008 -- Portland @ Utah, 9:00 pm.

Holy Crap part deux!

Not only is Camby playing, but so too will Baron Davis! Going to be a much more interesting test for the Jazz now . . .

Holy Crap! AI to Deeeeetroooooit!

According to a lot of websites out there (including ESPN.COM) It's Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb. Wow. If this happens, I'm buying an Iverson Jersey.

Jason Hart revenge game . . . #2

As I mentioned earlier, things did not go so well for Jason Hart and the LA Clippers last game . . . more than anything else, though, the oft-neglected (by the media) off-season trade orchestrated by Jazz GM Kevin O'Connor to move Hart for Brevin Knight looks even better the day after. Sure, the fans pretty much hated Hart for his play . . . but he was well liked by his team mates. Being well liked doesn't really mean anything in this league though, look at how Dee Brown was dumped after visiting all of those shitty little towns in behalf of the Jazz. What matters is production. Hart did not produce, but Knight has. More impressive is how Knight actually cares about his play and tries really hard on defense. He doesn't like getting beat and takes pride in his play. I remember in the nuggets game he got called for a cheap turn over, instead of complaining to the ref he just sucked it up, and stole the ball on the next play.

Hart has a chance tonight to make the trade seem a little less lopsided . . . and this is probably his best chance to do so. As the season goes on Baron Davis is probably going to be healthy to play in the last game (April 13th, 2009) these two teams play against each other. (Utah and the Clippers only play 3 times this season) The minutes are there, unless Mike Taylor plays the spoiler again . . . which very well could happen.

I don't have anything against Hart, given time he can be a solid NBA player, he just had a really bad season last year. I know that he doesn't suck as bad as he played last season because a few years ago I picked him up for my fantasy team back when he was first on the clippers and getting over a steal a game to go with 5 apg. (I only picked him up because I needed assists and steals and he was playing 5 games that week)

Anyway, this is the Jason Hart revenge game . . . #2! Starting tonight at 10:30 est! Truly a battle for the ages! (Maybe he'll score 3 points this time around?)

Game 2 Recap: Utah 101, LA Clippers 79; Game 3 Preview: Utah @ LA Clippers

Game at a Glance:

Things did not go so well for Jason Hart and the LA Clippers last game . . . they were really tired, having played in an overtime game the night before, and while they held it together for one solid half of basketball (tied at halftime 48 all), they got rolled in the 2nd half by a Jazz team that ended up setting a franchise record for fewest turn overs -- ever.

Jazz Quartet -- Top Four Players of the Game:

Andrei Kirilenko	Ronnie Brewer	Brevin Knight	Carlos Boozer
11 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals off the bench in 31 minutes of action.	16 points (6-10 shooting, 5 FTA), added 3 rebounds, 2 steals and a block in 26 mins.	8 points (4-6), 6 assists and 1 steal with zero turn overs and keyed the 3rd quarter run.	Another 25 and 10 game, shot 12-18 from the field and added 3 assists in 31 minutes.

Digging Deeper:

Obviously the game would have been much more different had Baron Davis and Deron Williams actually played . . . but instead we had the Cuttino Mobley (20 points, 3 rebounds) and Tim Thomas (16 points, 7 rebounds) express vs. the Ronnie Brewer (16 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals) and Carlos Boozer (25 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists) show. It was not too hard to figure out which side won based on those stats. Even the Jason Hart/Brevin Knight under card was very one-sided: Hart started the game but did not finish, and had a grand total of 2 points (1-4 fg), 2 assists, and 1 rebound. Knight came off the bench and had 8 points (4-6 fg), 6 assists and a steal.

The big surprise was Mike Taylor, a rookie PG for the Clippers who ended up playing 33 minutes and finished with 13 points and 4 assists. On TV it looked like he was a giant compared to Brevin Knight, and his long arms and quick first step were a major component of his success against the Jazz on Saturday night. A second, smaller surprise was that in garbage time Jazz fans got to see Morris Almond, Kyrylo Fesenko and Kosta Koufos all play at the same time in an NBA game -- which may be an event that may never happen again... Almond looked good with his shooting stroke; Koufos looked like a rookie who was immediately attacked on offense and defense by Kaman, who scored on him and blocked his shot; Fesenko did much more in less time than Koufos, getting a steal, a rebound and a nice dunk.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for winning another game without Deron Williams (and Jerry Sloan, Matt Harpring and Jarron Collins) let's point to the fact that this was a Clippers team that doesn't know each other, whose best players are injured and played an overtime game the night before. Also we were at home . . . where we seem to play pretty well at.

Game 3 Preview:

We get the other end of the home and home series tonight with a game in LA this time around. I do not know the status of Davis and Camby, aside from that they are listed as Day-to-Day. Having one of those two back, in addition to playing at home, may be just enough to push the Clippers over the top. The close proximity of these two games only compounds the problems the Clippers displayed on Saturday -- they may go absolutely nuts on defense trying to pressure the ball tonight. Heck, even their coach hinted at it:

"We let them be too relaxed with the basketball and they made some easy plays," (LA Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy, 2008 via ESPN.COM)

On the flipside, Brevin Knight sites the running game as the primary reason why a) it was easy for him to play well, and b) the lack of defensive pressure. (If you run, then the other team can't dig in on defense)

"If we can stay up-tempo it makes it a lot easier for me, and in the half-court the Coaches are doing a great job keeping me in plays that I know pretty well, and the guys are really working with me and hanging in with me." (Brevin Knight, 2008 via 1320 KFAN.COM)

If you combine the two you pretty much spell disaster a game that should have a lot more turn overs in it than 24 total. These are the types of road games that good teams win though . . . and with Boozer averaging 25 and 10, Memo averaging a double double, Ronnie Brewer scoring 16 ppg off of 58 fg% and Andrei coming off the bench to average 14 ppg, 8 rpg, 4 apg, 3 bpg and 2 spg the Jazz should win -- regardless of where the game is being played.

The game is tonight @ 10:30 pm EST time in LA -- for those that care. Go Jazz Go!

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.

October 2008 Monthly Recap

Wow, 65 total posts . . . I must have no life . . . or alternatively, the NBA season must have finally started! Hooray! I wasn't always on time, but a major point of October was the season preview. (check it out, it's the best season preview on the net at over 20 pages!) Anyway, on to the links:

Regular Features:

YouTube Tuesdays: [4]

1. Utah Jazz mix from NBA 2k8;
2. Mehmet Okur Interview drinking game;
3. Mark Eaton throws it down;
4. AllThatJazz is #3!

Flashback Fridays: [4]

1. Ranking the Rookie Seasons of CJ Miles, Ronnie Brewer and Morris Almond;
2. The 1990 NBA Draft (or how Derrick Coleman sucks);
3. Andrei back when he was AK-47;
4. Taking a look at how the Jazz have handled rookies, and how long the brass has taken to evaluate them (Morris Almond related)

Original Articles:

• A pictorial review of Mehmet Okur's evolution
• Things to look for this season from: Kosta Koufos; Kyrylo Fesenko; Brevin Knight; Morris Almond; Ronnie Price; Matt Harpring; Mehmet Okur; Andrei Kirilenko; Carlos Boozer; and Deron Williams
• Apparently we were the most clutch offensive team last season . . . if stats don't lie
• Poll Results: C.J. Miles is going to be the 'talk' of training camp this season
• New Poll: Aside from the Title, what's the most important goal for this season?
• The Five Epic qualities of Jerry Eugene Sloan (compliment to the negative article from the previous month)
• Very early look at the Top 10 prospects in the 2010 NBA Draft
• An attempt at finding a solution for the playing time / rotation problem
• The Utah Jazz 2008-2009 Season Preview
• The Best homecourt advantage in the NBA just got better

News Inspired:

• The Pre-Season Schedule was released, and here are the player stats from those games
• A game recap for Pre-Season Game 1 vs. the LA Lakers
• A review of Kyrylo Fesenko's game against Shaquille O'Neal
• Jerry Sloan charged with murder aka calling out Morris Almond, Sloan also rips Kosta Koufos a new one while Fesenko has his only good game of the season so far.
• Preview of the Preseason game vs. the Nuggets, and the post game recap as well!
• Some reporters can't stop writing about Andrei off the bench
• ESPN's Chad Ford likes the Utah Jazz
• Deron Williams' Injury isn't going to hurt the Utah Jazz
• Brevin Knight had a really good 4th quarter, against the Portland Trailblazers (2 points, 7 assists, 4 steals)
• I was right on the money for what to expect in the Nugget's game

Amar's October Recommendations:

1. Obviously, I think the season preview is worth a gander
2. I was surprised and pleased by my placing in LA Ball Talk's Team Blog contest (AllThatJazz is #3!)
3. The whole Deron injury could have made things iffy for the Jazz, but the schedule isn't so bad when you look at it.
4. Andrei is a pretty good player when he gets All-Star minutes, I looked at over 200 games worth of data and figured it out: he's the same guy he was in 2003-2004, look at my findings and see for yourself!
5. The Morris Almond saga: A tale of two cities, limited returns, how he compares to other NBA SG's (objective statistical analysis by The Wages of Wins), the recent news of how the Jazz are not going attempt to find playing time for him -- or pay him $1.15 million dollars to keep him next season.

Jason Hart revenge game . . . #1

Jazz host the Clips tonight at the Delta Center. There's a virtual all-star team of talent that may (or may not) miss this game in the names of Deron, Baron, Marcus, Kyle, and so on. We may get to see an Epic battle between Jason Hart and Brevin Knight tonight . . . unfortunately, I'm not going to be around to watch the game live . . . so I'll have to catch it when I go home. ESPN has us at overwhelming favorites tonight, so we have that going for us.
	Jason Hart -- "scoring" machine	Brevin Knight -- actually knows how to play point guard, unlike Hart.

In Soviet Russia, Hallo weens you!

Yeah . . . have a safe and fun Halloween everyone!