Recent content by jazznik

The 2003-04 team. The guys were so locked in and played well above their individual abilities. AK, Harpring, Arroyo, Bell, Collins. They were unselfish, working extremely hard and not backing away from any challenge - a complete opposite to the Jazz teams from the last couple of years. We...

I don't care how much he can or will improve on offense or in his decision-making. If George does not level up on defense he should not be in the Jazz long-term plans.

It's interesting that nobody asks "If the Jazz are worse than expected it's because...?" Like, is it even humanly possible for the Jazz to be worse than expected? I think we plopped on the ocean floor, folks. There is nothing below us.

Of course the answer would be Ace and WCJ. We al know other players well enough to be rightfully skeptical about the chances of their sudden blossoming. But Ace and WCJ are blank canvasses , and it is so easy and tempting to project our fervent hopes on them.

That's actually quite likely. It kinda fits the well-established timeline for the American-born players drafted by the Jazz: they lost Mitchell after 5 years, Deron Williams - after 6, Hayward - after 7. Kirilenko and Gobert lasted longer but they were foreigners.

I would have thought the same a year and a half ago. But, realistically, Lauri's value has been going down rapidly. Now he is 1.5 years older, on a max contract and after an injury-plagued low-production season. And if, God forbid, his upcoming season is closer to the 2024/25 (and, realistically...

I just can't see the scenario where the Jazz do not start Ace. They invested too much in keeping him happy and he would definitely consider it to be a slight starting his NBA career in SLC, on a tanking team, and on the bench. Also, trying to sell Ace as the main draw could be the best strategy...

I always wondered what was the deal with Keyonte and his horrible defense. If he simply improved his defense from being one of the worst in the NBA to "below average" he would immediately become a guaranteed starter on many teams. Is he capable but just hates playing defense with passion? Did he...

Would you call it hating if someone called Anthony Davis being injury-prone? Since Lauri came into the league he missed more games than Davis! You can count on him missing 20-30 games like clockwork. And that happened when Lauri was young. You can pretty reliably expect 7-footers to get...

You know what else is likely? Lauri is a 7-footer getting close to being 30. His playing style is athletic and taxing on the body and he has been having persistent health issues for the last several years. Actually, Lauri said that he was dealing with an injury during this Eurobasket- after the...

You are being a bit unnecessarily dramatic here, don't you? Average performers don't get fired or pushed out: they are typically praised and rewarded for being good employees, team players etc. The world runs on average people. I am one of them. Also, I don't exactly understand the classism of...

Well, at least Finland has a very doable path to qualifying for the 2027 World Cup. The future looks pretty promising, especially considering that almost all their neighbors (Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) are going through slumps.

Oh, I know. But when you get to the semi-finals and end up being the 4th there is always that weird sad feeling. So I was curious about the vibes in Finland.

So, how is the performance of Team Finland is perceived in Finland? Do people think that it was a success or a disappointment? And who is getting the credit or the blame?

It's a fluff, click-bait article. All of these rookie player options are cheap and will be picked up. Duh, the Jazz have a lot of young players who are still developing and that is by design. This is exactly what the Jazz have been doing as a team in the last several seasons: trying to get many...