Why we can contend now w/defense

[D Will> CP3]

If bell starts and AK starts along with Al, Sap and D will we have a pretty good defensive team. Deron plays D when he wants to, Bell can pester the really good guards and provide hard fouls, AK can now fly all around and provide weak side help with now better defenders in Sap,AL and Bell. Al has the willingness to accept his D needs help and has the attitude like he wants to improve, Booz never said that. Even if he doesn't get better he blocks more shots than Booz, is taller,longer and bigger and will provide the effort. I don't know if any1 noticed but Sap blocked a quite a bit of shots for being a bench player, especially on the weak side.

Then on the bench, if they don't get Brown they still have Price who plays pretty good D, CJ is improving, hayward-not sure yet, Fes who can come in and block some and be physical and Memo who will provide size and effort. Overall, the D is vastly improved and if we can just score as close too as much last year, the Jazz will be in great shape.

If the Jazz could get a Shannon brown or Emeka Okafor(or any shot blocking big) it would only improve the D even more and could possibly put the Jazz over the top to beat the Lakers

 

[sportsnut1232]

I really hope your right that our defense will be a little improved, but there are a lot of ifs right now. Will Al commit to the defensive end or will he be boozer 2.0? Can Bell stay healthy after missing almost all of last season? All I know is that I'm as excited as Ive been in a long time for the season to start.

 

[Stifle Tower]

I'm not sure why everyone says..."if we can only get a shotblocking/defensive big it will put us over the top." It's not like you're adding that player to the court along with the rest. Put in a defensive big and you take away one of the offensive weapons (like Millsap or Jefferson). How many titles did Utah win with Mark Eaton? He was one of the best defensive bigs EVER. Ostertag was also no slouch. The problem was you didn't have to guard those guys on offense, so it was always 4 on 5.

Unless you have an elite defender (like a Wallace in his prime), you can't afford to give up too much on offense in exchange for what a player brings defensively, And the reverse is also true (e.g. T-MAC, AI, Boozer).

 

[Mambo]

If Jefferson shows some swagga on D we will be a force.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

I'm as uptimistic as anyone for the coming season but to think we've upgraded big time on defense is silly.

Matthews and Bell is a wash to me. This isn't the Bell of five years ago. This is going to be the 2010-2011 version and Matthews was excellent last year and would have only likely been better this year. Pretty much a wash.
We'd hope Hayward would be better than Korver but heck, who knows, Korver was a vet and Hayseed's a rookie.
Before acquiring him, Jefferson was always roundly criticized for defense that was deemed worse than Boozer's. Now we think he's going to be better because he has better length?
Okur could be a shell of what he use to be once he returns.

Just saying, not a vast difference. If AJ shifted to the 4 and we had a legit presence (not Fes) at the 5, then yeah, maybe I could buy it. But not yet.

 

[gomretat]

I'm as uptimistic as anyone for the coming season but to think we've upgraded big time on defense is silly.

Absolutely correct. Raja is not an upgrade over Wes and one of the knocks on Big Al has been his lack of D. Getting a few blocks does not make up for that. This team as presently constituted is once again a playoff team, not a contender. About the same as last year if GH is able to contribute right away but that is a big if right now. The only thing that makes us better this coming year will be how AK plays for the entire season.

 

[mfree]

I think the point some of you are missing is the change in attitude. We tend to look at the talent level and say its not that much better (although I think it is somewhat better).

The Jazz are a much tougher team this year.... by that I mean there is an attitude of getting better, not one of look how great I am. Some of it is addition by subtraction, and some is the new guys.

I am optimistic.

 

[Hitman]

Absolutely correct. Raja is not an upgrade over Wes and one of the knocks on Big Al has been his lack of D. Getting a few blocks does not make up for that. This team as presently constituted is once again a playoff team, not a contender. About the same as last year if GH is able to contribute right away but that is a big if right now. The only thing that makes us better this coming year will be how AK plays for the entire season.

I think Raja is a slight upgrade - Raja might get the benefit of veteran calls from the refs - but given Wes was already one of our better defenders, I concede this change is not a difference-maker. But AJ is replacing Boozer, and I have to say that is a noticeable upgrade, if only because the bar was set so low.

I do agree AJ's blocks aren't too much to get excited about, but again here is a big upgrade over Boozer's efforts. AJ blocks shots at about the same rate as Memo did last year, and last year was a career year for swats for Memo. OTOH, Boozer blocks like a guard. Here's some /40min block rates from last season for comparison:

Millsap: 1.74
AK: 1.69
AJ: 1.59
Memo: 1.51 (his career BLK/40 is 1.00)
Price: 0.65
Boozer: 0.54
Korver: 0.50

 

[Dr. Jones]

i'm not sure why everyone says..."if we can only get a shotblocking/defensive big it will put us over the top." it's not like you're adding that player to the court along with the rest. Put in a defensive big and you take away one of the offensive weapons (like millsap or jefferson). How many titles did utah win with mark eaton? He was one of the best defensive bigs ever. Ostertag was also no slouch. The problem was you didn't have to guard those guys on offense, so it was always 4 on 5.

Unless you have an elite defender (like a wallace in his prime), you can't afford to give up too much on offense in exchange for what a player brings defensively, and the reverse is also true (e.g. T-mac, ai, boozer).

this. This. This.

 

[NotDeadYet]

Defense STARTS with attitude. All the size and physical skills in the world won't help if all 5 guys aren't mentally focused on WANTING to play defense. Boozer was no doubt the "weakest link".
Their defense to me was what made the old Detroit Pistons (both Bill Laimbeer's team and later Ben Wallace's team) such great teams. How willing Jefferson and CJ are to play consistant defense is a huge key to our success. No mental lapses!! We know DWill, Millsap, Raja, AK, Price, and I think Hayward will answer the bell. Evans could even become a contributor this year too. No doubt Evans and Hayward will make mistakes along the way, but developing that MINDSET is priority #1 when it comes to defense...

 

[mfree]

Defense STARTS with attitude. All the size and physical skills in the world won't help if all 5 guys aren't mentally focused on WANTING to play defense. Boozer was no doubt the "weakest link".
Their defense to me was what made the old Detroit Pistons (both Bill Laimbeer's team and later Ben Wallace's team) such great teams. How willing Jefferson and CJ are to play consistant defense is a huge key to our success. No mental lapses!! We know DWill, Millsap, Raja, AK, Price, and I think Hayward will answer the bell. Evans could even become a contributor this year too. No doubt Evans and Hayward will make mistakes along the way, but developing that MINDSET is priority #1 when it comes to defense...

Yes!!!!! This where the Jazz will be better this year.

No Boozer jumping over his team-mates backs to add one more rebound to his stats, or watching someone go to the hoop for an uncontested slam so he wouldn't pick up a foul and have to go to the bench.

I see some team attitude coming that will make this team much better, even if you can't declare Bell to be much better than Matthews, or AJ and Hayward than Boozer and Korver.

 

[mfree]

Defense STARTS with attitude. All the size and physical skills in the world won't help if all 5 guys aren't mentally focused on WANTING to play defense. Boozer was no doubt the "weakest link".
Their defense to me was what made the old Detroit Pistons (both Bill Laimbeer's team and later Ben Wallace's team) such great teams. How willing Jefferson and CJ are to play consistant defense is a huge key to our success. No mental lapses!! We know DWill, Millsap, Raja, AK, Price, and I think Hayward will answer the bell. Evans could even become a contributor this year too. No doubt Evans and Hayward will make mistakes along the way, but developing that MINDSET is priority #1 when it comes to defense...

Yes!!!!! This where the Jazz will be better this year.

No Boozer jumping over his team-mates backs to add one more rebound to his stats, or watching someone go to the hoop for an uncontested slam so he wouldn't pick up a foul and have to go to the bench.

I see some team attitude coming that will make this team much better, even if you can't declare Bell to be much better than Matthews, or AJ and Hayward than Boozer and Korver.