"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[Donuthole]

Next year is the next year to tank. Too bad we missed the boat this past season.

The past two seasons, really. That said, next year's draft is looking much, much deeper than this one.

[MarkGrace]

The past two seasons, really. That said, next year's draft is looking much, much deeper than this one.

Next year is supposedly really good. According to some, they believe there's up to five franchise-changing players. If there's a year to suck, it's definitely next year over the last two.

And I think that's what Lindsay's thinking. If some of the Core 4 don't work, best to find out this year and be well positioned in the '14 draft if they do in fact suck.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Next year is supposedly really good. According to some, they believe there's up to five franchise-changing players. If there's a year to suck, it's definitely next year over the last two.

And I think that's what Lindsay's thinking. If some of the Core 4 don't work, best to find out this year and be well positioned in the '14 draft if they do in fact suck.

Something the 1 and done rule has done for NBA prospects is expose a lot of weaknesses and reduce the draft profiles of previously elite players. It seems like the more we see certian guys the less we like them, whether it be trying to project a guy that comes from high school, or a very successful college freshman who stays another year. Right now it does look like next year's draft will have more star potential at the top, but here is what people were saying about a few of this year's draft prospects last spring, taken from ESPN's player profiles:

Zeller: Anthony Davis and MK-G might've been the two best freshmen but Zeller wasn't far behind. Scouts think he is better right now than his brother Tyler. He has the chance to be special. If he comes back, he'll certainly be a top 5 pick.

Shabazz: Super-athletic scoring guard, above average on defense, sure fire Top 3 pick in the 2013 draft who will have a shot at going #1.

Tony Mitchell: If he were at UNC or Kentucky he would be in consideration for the #1 pick.

CJ Leslie: If drafted on potential he could be a top 3 pick, or teams could be afraid he hasn't capitalized on his abilities and he could slide to the end of the 1st round. If he comes out, he'll likely go in the late lottery.

Archie Goodwin - best pure scorer on Kentucky. Comparable to a young Russell Westbrook. A top 10 pick in next year's draft.

I know there are also cases of guys getting into college and proving themselves against better competition and improving their draft stock, but my guess is that at this time next yaer, 1-2 of the guys being pegged as can't miss in the 2014 draft will be going back to school, and another 1-2 of them will be outside the top 10 on draft night. It does appear that Wiggins, Randle, Gordon, Smart, and Parker are very good prospects with bright futures. But taking Smart as an example, if he plays as a sophomore and still shoots it really poorly and his team gets bounced early from the NCAAs again, nobody will be saying he should be the #1 pick in the draft like the love he was getting this year. (Of course, Smart wasn't getting #1 pick love coming out of high school, so maybe I should shut up).

[MarkGrace]

Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey just told us on 1320 that we could potentially see a different system from Ty Corbin as the roster may change a lot.

KYLE F GUNTHER @GuntherKFAN 7m

Dennis Lindsey seemed to indicate that Ty Corbin has been receptive to some of his ideas for slight changes to his system.

Hmm. Would be interested to know what that entails.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

I thought this was interesting. I haven't loved what I've seen of Carter- Williams.

Michigan point guard Trey Burke rode a strong season in the Big Ten and a run to the NCAA championship game all the way up our draft board. While his play in the tournament was a bit uneven, his reputation as a winner who could carry his team blossomed in March and pushed him into the top 5 of our Big Board.

But over the past few weeks, Burke has been getting major competition from Syracuse's Michael Carter-Williams for the title of best point guard in the draft. Carter-Williams has risen to No. 7 in our rankings, just one spot below Burke.

Why? Sources say a number of teams that rely heavily on analytics have Carter-Williams rated higher than Burke. While both players look good in the various analytical approaches teams employ, Carter-Williams is coming up at No. 1 and No. 2 overall on several teams' reports. For teams that value analytics, that's a big deal.

Second, the more old-school scouts and GMs are looking at Carter-Williams' performance against Indiana. Carter-Williams sliced through the Indiana defense -- anchored by Victor Oladipo -- in that game like it was warm butter. Carter-Williams' ability to get to the basket and finish (31 percent of his shots were at the rim, and he shot 62 percent from the field) is impressive.

Finally, teams are always looking for upside in the lottery. Carter-Williams has extraordinary size for his position. He is a terrific athlete. He sees the floor as well as any point guard in the draft. His weaknesses -- primarily his shaky jumper -- are the only thing holding him back from being a top-5 pick right now.

And this on Schroeder. He's working out with Siva today, so he'll have to work hard or he'll look bad.

I'm hearing that German point guard Dennis Schroeder struggled in his workouts in Milwaukee and Houston. Schroeder, according to team sources, struggled with to keep up with the defensive intensity in workouts. He works out again in Utah on Friday. Schroeder rode a dominant performance at the Hoop Summit into the top 30, but if he doesn't start playing better, he could be in for an equally significant decline.

[Shaka]

Why don't we just take Jabari after he walks away with POY and a national championship?

[MarkGrace]

Schroder looking all of 168 lbs.
https://twitter.com/Utah_JazzNation/...65831468572672

Is that the lightest weight ever recorded at the combine?

[SandYFan]

Schroder looking all of 168 lbs.
https://twitter.com/Utah_JazzNation/...65831468572672

Is that the lightest weight ever recorded at the combine?

HA! I use a Chrome add-on called Number Dictionary (xkcd readers may remember it) and this is what it shows after 168 lbs. so I can better understand how much weight that is:

Schroder looking all of 168 lbs [≈ Large dog].

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Favors doing work at P3.

BMQbLsyCEAAQbF2.jpg

[The_Douger]

Geez, that's unreal.

[MarkGrace]

Shabazz Muhammad is working out at P3 right now. Ford had a pretty interesting article on him.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog/...abazz-muhammad

[MarkGrace]

Favors doing work at P3.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2302[/ATTACH]

He's touching 12' in that picture.

[MarkGrace]

Looks like Favors recorded a max of 12'2.5". He got 12'1.5" at the combine a few years ago which was the highest of all players tested that year.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Isrealian player Gal Mekel is going to work out for some teams. Marc Stein says Utah has been interested in him in the past, but he only cited Milwaukee by name as one of the teams he'll visit. He is a 6'4", 190 lb PG that is 25 years old. He played at Wichita St and had an invite from the Jazz to attend training camp. Here is the Stein write-up from October of last year:

A new name has emerged in the race to become Israel's second-ever NBA player alongside Cleveland's Omri Casspi.

Point guard Gal Mekel impressed the Utah Jazz in a recent audition to such a degree that the Jazz, according to sources close to the situation, have extended an unexpected invitation to training camp to Mekel, who played two seasons at Wichita State from 2006-08.

But sources told ESPN.com that visa complications have made it unlikely that Mekel could be ready to join the Jazz before the end of the coming week at the earliest, by which point he'd have already missed several practices, thus setting him back and complicating any attempt to try to make Utah's roster.

So the most likely scenario now, sources say, is that Mekel, 24, will play in Europe for one more season before coming back to the States to play summer league ball next July.

During last week's visit to Utah's practice facility, sources say Mekel impressed Jazz officials in pickup games with his ballhandling, size, ability to read the game and, most of all, his effectiveness in pick and rolls.

The suggestion is that the 6-foot-4, 190-pounder might actually be more effective in the NBA game than he is internationally, particularly in pick-and-roll situations, because the lane tends to be so much more clogged overseas.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...-israels-mekel

[Blueintheface]

Favors doing work at P3.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2302[/ATTACH]

He's touching 12' in that picture.

Nipple hardening stuff.