"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

What caused the shift in "best point guard" perception across the league? It seems many more players, coaches, and analysts have chimed in this season saying Williams is king of the point guard hill. Was it because Paul missed so much time last year? Because so far this season Paul has been fantastic again.

Chalk Jennings of Milwaukee up as the latest, after he called Williams "hands down" the best PG in the league.

[MarkGrace]

Chalk Jennings of Milwaukee up as the latest, after he called Williams "hands down" the best PG in the league.

Kobe, too. Though Zen was ahead of the curve on this one -- he said DWilly was the best when the majority were still fawning over Paul.

[Jacob]

What caused the shift in "best point guard" perception across the league? It seems many more players, coaches, and analysts have chimed in this season saying Williams is king of the point guard hill. Was it because Paul missed so much time last year? Because so far this season Paul has been fantastic again.

Chalk Jennings of Milwaukee up as the latest, after he called Williams "hands down" the best PG in the league.

I say it's mostly because Paul was out of sight and out of mind last year. I don't know which one is better. I watch about 82 regular season Jazz games a year, so I only see Chris Paul play 3-4 times per year.

[Blueintheface]

Elson bhas officially replaced Fes in the lineup. Experiment may be coming to an end. This place hbas no energy pright now.

[MarkGrace]

Hot shooting from 3 keeping the Bucks in it.

[MarkGrace]

Dumb move by Deron trying to dunk on Ilyasova. Last thing we need is him breaking his arm on a play like that.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Is it wrong that I am worried the Jazz have peaked too soon?

[MarkGrace]

Is it wrong that I am worried the Jazz have peaked too soon?

Ha.

They are well ahead of where I thought they'd be. Those first two games there was some serious panic around here, but I just figured that given all the new faces and roles it was going to take them 20-25 games to start to come together.

We're 18 games in now and guys like Jefferson, Watson and Elson are starting to find their groove and giving us valuable contributions. It was great to be able to get away with only playing Deron 30 minutes tonight. It will be interesting to see what happens when Memo gets back -- Jazz should have a some decent frontcourt options.

[smokymountainrain]

Interesting. After yesterday's game, I sort of concluded that Griffin is a bit of an entitled bitch. He plays hard, but he cried about ticky-tack bullshit all game long. I love his game, though, and if he continues to improve his jumpshot, he'll be the best big in the league by the time he leaves LAC. Gordon is impressive. I have to admit I was dead wrong about him, as I didn't think he had the game to make it in the NBA.

Fair enough. Either I need to be more observant or I like Griffin's game so much I've simply overlooked that he really might be a whiney, entitled bitch. Most likely the latter.

[Donuthole]

Just finished watching the game. A few thoughts:

AK was the AK of old tonight. It almost seems like he relished the opportunity to go head to head with a fellow Euro. It seemed to inspire the rest of his game, as he was playing weak side D as well as i've seen for a few years. It's amazing how a little confidence in his jumper has impacted almost all other aspects of his game. His health is a huge factor, too. I'm so glad he took the summer off from the world championships.

Deron and Jennings were battling it out playground style on a few possessions tonight. Jennings ended up with a few more points, but his efficiency paled in comparison to Deron (turnovers excepted---Willy got a little sloppy tonight). I like seeing Deron make an effort to rebound. It was noticeable last season, and it has continued into this season. Good things happen when the ball is in his hands early in the possession.

Al is finally hitting a groove. It helped that he was the biggest guy on the floor tonight in Bogut's absence, but he's learning the offense bit by bit. He's light years ahead of where he was 18 games ago.

Elson has been a pleasant surprise. He's more athletic than I ever imagined, has a polished jumper, is a solid FT shooter, and has pretty good instincts on D. I wasn't sold on the signing, but i've come around. He's not a guy you want to see playing big minutes, but in a couple of 8 minute spurts, he's a perfect role player.

I never need to see Raja run the low to high curl moving right to left ever again. He's really not good enough to run that play for period, but he's completely incapable of squaring his shoulders when he's moving away from his shooting hand. Let's just scratch that play from the book until we bring Kal-El back.

Every time Hayward takes the court he looks like a kid who lost his mom in the mall. It's too early to write him off altogether, but I'm starting to doubt he'll ever be a solid contributor. I thought at least he'd be able to hit a jump shot, but he's just terrible.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

I'm still fighting having Deron play off the ball for any extended period of time (consecutive possessions), and I will continue to do so no matter what isolated results might argue to the contrary.

If Jerry is going to jackpot around with the best point guard in the league, he better ensure that Deron isn't guarding a shooting guard that is running him off 2-3 picks each possession, while Watson stands at the top of the key and watches Jennings pound the ball.

[UteStar]

A couple of surprises for me so far this year:

The Jazz have come together as a team much much quicker than expected. I think that there will be some little issues as the season progresses, but they are playing well together right now.

Elson is playing much better than expected. Before the season, I wanted Fess to get all of the backup time...now, I have no problems with Elson seeing time because he is playing well. Fess hasn't been terrible, but not as good as Elson.

Watson and Price are more than filling in adequately for Deron. I expected a bit out of Watson and not much out of Price and both have been very capable so far.

Intensely curious to see how Okur fits in all of this when he gets back.

CJ has been much better at times than I expected. But, he has been much worse at other times than I expected.

Milsap and Al have played together better than I expected. They still bump into each other occasionally but so far so good.

Pleased with the team...should be a fun rest of the year.

[Sizzle]

I'm still fighting having Deron play off the ball for any extended period of time (consecutive possessions), and I will continue to do so no matter what isolated results might argue to the contrary.

If Jerry is going to jackpot around with the best point guard in the league, he better ensure that Deron isn't guarding a shooting guard that is running him off 2-3 picks each possession, while Watson stands at the top of the key and watches Jennings pound the ball.

I would tend to agree with this, the biggest issue is the Jazz lack of depth at the 2 (or the wing in general).

Raja is who he thought he was, and is going to be good for 20-25 minutes a night. I think the Jazz would rather that stay closer to 20 than 25 to keep him from wearing down. AK is more of a 3 than a 2, but can play 30 minutes a night. CJ can play either spot, and while I think the coaches would love for him to play 30 minutes a night, he can't stay out of foul trouble or play consistently to warrant it. So say he's at 24. With AK at 30, CJ at 24 and Raja at 20, that is 74 of the 96 total wing minutes available. Gordy isn't ready to play 5 minutes a night, let alone 20. Evans is a good energy guy in spurts, but he is more of a 4 than a 3. So you get the combo of Ronnie Price and Earl Watson, and inevitably you still get times where Deron is going to run the 2 next to either Ronnie or Earl. Let's face it, neither of those guys can guard the 2 position as well as Deron, and Deron is a better shooter than either of them.

I have been disappointed at how not ready to play Hayward has been this year. He has no confidence. He rebounds decently for a guard, but his passing, shooting and defense have all been below what I had expected, which is saying a lot, because my expectations were not super high.

I wouldn't be shocked/disappointed if the Jazz looked to make a move at the deadline to acquire another 2, preferably one with a good outside shot to help stretch the d.

[Hot Lunch]

Not sure if this has been posted but it looks like Greg Miller's mother-in-law was murdered today.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13469839

The mother-in-law of Utah Jazz owner Greg Miller was found dead with "obvious" stab wounds at a South Salt Lake business she owns with her husband Tuesday afternoon.

Maybe this is the wrong forum to post this.

[Sizzle]

Not sure if this has been posted but it looks like Greg Miller's mother-in-law was murdered today.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13469839



Maybe this is the wrong forum to post this.

Yeah I saw that. Pretty sad. Rough to lose a family member and I imagine even moreso when it is in a violent crime like this appears to be.

I also read it was apparent that she was stabbed to death. In the same story it mentions her husband makes custom billiard tables and knives. I found that slightly odd.