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Just got back from my mission, left Jul 3, 2017!

colton

colton

All Around Nice Guy
Contributor
Dear Jazzfanz,

Hi all! I just got back from my LDS church mission to Germany.* Left Jul 3, 2017, and got back this morning! Had essentially no NBA news at all while I was there--mission rules and all that. So, tell me what's gone on in the time I've left?

Here was the team I remember from the 2016-2017 season. https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/UTA/2017.html
Joel Bolomboy
Alec Burks
Boris Diaw
Dante Exum
Derrick Favors
Rudy Gobert
Gordon Hayward
George Hill
Rodney Hood
Joe Ingles
Joe Johnson
Trey Lyles
Shelvin Mack
Raul Neto
Jeff Withey

Too bad George Hill decided he could get more money elsewhere a few weeks before I left, that was disappointing (and a wasted first round pick!) but I was tentatively excited about the Rubio signing that happened just before I left. I also remember hoping that would get Hayward to re-sign... annoying that he hadn't actually re-signed before I left on Jul 3, though. How did that play out?

Love Jingles! But his contract seemed excessive... $14 million for 2017-2018? At least it's a descending contract, not an ascending one. Also, probably worth a few extra million to keep Hayward happy.
Gobert was certainly a monster back then, hope that continued.

That Mitchell kid we drafted back in 2017 two weeks before I left seemed sort of promising. Of course, we had to give up Trey Lyles for him but I was never a huge Lyles fan anyway.

Anyway, how did things work out with all of those and the rest of the guys, and what's going on with the curent team? What do I need to know to be caught up to date? Thanks for your help.


*obviously I didn't just return from my mission. But this is basically what happened to me in 1991--left in the offseason of 1989, returned in the offseason in 1991 with absolutely no NBA news in the meantime except I remember someone mentioning to me that Michael Jordan had broken out. (I wasn't as big of fan then as I am now, or perhaps my family would have written me about stuff.) So it was fun to think about what things would be like for someone in that situation today, who left the day before the Hayward Fourth of July Fiasco (FJF), and what people would tell him to get him up to date.
 
umm........... !#*? .

Yeah you have like a million things to catch up on.

I'll give you ten of them. :)

1. 1st year Mitchell (future NBA star) was better than Hayward ever was .
2. Hayward had season ending injury minutes into 1st game after leaving and hasn't gotten back to where he was yet. Also caused chemistry problems with Celtics last year.
3. I too thought Ingles contract did seem to high when he signed it but turned out is was a great deal. Headband Joe is a thing now - do your research!
4. Gobert won back to back DPOY.
5. Having Crowder and Korver on the team had a real feel goodness to it.
6. Loved Rubio he just was too inconsistant on his shot and had too many turnovers.
7. Favors, Neto, and Hood also are deeply missed. They were so great to be on the team.
8. Beating the 4th seeded Thunder 1st round of the playoffs with Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony 2 years ago was so awesome if you can ever watch those games it would still be worth it.
9. Playoffs this year ran up against 4th seed Rockets (Harden, Paul, and Capella) and lost in 5.
10. Wholesale personell changes (added Conley, Green, Mudiay, Davis, and Bogdanovic) this offseason which looks very smart and exciting. Experts are saying we are challangers now.

:)
 
There's a kid in my ward coming back in the next few weeks. He's a huge Jazz fan and I feel bad that he missed two great years.

I learned Karl Malone signed with the Lakers when I was in the MTC. I didn't get to see the scrappy 03-04 season and 04-05. I've heard people liked those years, but all in all... not a bad time for a Jazz fan to be serving a mission. Within a month of me returning home (July 05), I saw a headline in the Reno Gazette Journal that the Jazz signed Ostertag. It was pretty disheartening, I almost decided then and there to stop following the Jazz.

P.S. It is not like serving a mission back in 89-91. Missionaries around the world go to internet cafes for email on a weekly basis. While they are only supposed to check email... it's hard not to glace at ESPN or NBA.com :)
 
JFFR said:
There's a kid in my ward coming back in the next few weeks. He's a huge Jazz fan and I feel bad that he missed two great years.

I learned Karl Malone signed with the Lakers when I was in the MTC. I didn't get to see the scrappy 03-04 season and 04-05. I've heard people liked those years, but all in all... not a bad time for a Jazz fan to be serving a mission. Within a month of me returning home (July 05), I saw a headline in the Reno Gazette Journal that the Jazz signed Ostertag. It was pretty disheartening, I almost decided then and there to stop following the Jazz.

P.S. It is not like serving a mission back in 89-91. Missionaries around the world go to internet cafes for email on a weekly basis. While they are only supposed to check email... it's hard not to glace at ESPN or NBA.com :)
Click to expand...
Ps. They don't even go to cafes anymore. They get iPads and can call their families once a week now
 
#UJ4ever said:
umm........... !#*? .

Yeah you have like a million things to catch up on.

I'll give you ten of them. :)

1. 1st year Mitchell (future NBA star) was better than Hayward ever was .
2. Hayward had season ending injury minutes into 1st game after leaving and hasn't gotten back to where he was yet. Also caused chemistry problems with Celtics last year.
3. I too thought Ingles contract did seem to high when he signed it but turned out is was a great deal. Headband Joe is a thing now - do your research!
4. Gobert won back to back DPOY.
5. Having Crowder and Korver on the team had a real feel goodness to it.
6. Loved Rubio he just was too inconsistant on his shot and had too many turnovers.
7. Favors, Neto, and Hood also are deeply missed. They were so great to be on the team.
8. Beating the 4th seeded Thunder 1st round of the playoffs with Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony 2 years ago was so awesome if you can ever watch those games it would still be worth it.
9. Playoffs this year ran up against 4th seed Rockets (Harden, Paul, and Capella) and lost in 5.
10. Wholesale personell changes (added Conley, Green, Mudiay, Davis, and Bogdanovic) this offseason which looks very smart and exciting. Experts are saying we are challangers now.

:)
Click to expand...

Would rep. This is the type of thing I was hoping for.
 
JFFR said:
P.S. It is not like serving a mission back in 89-91. Missionaries around the world go to internet cafes for email on a weekly basis. While they are only supposed to check email... it's hard not to glace at ESPN or NBA.com :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's true. Plus weekly phone calls home instead of physical letters. :)
 
Colton probably doesn't remember this but we entered the MTC on the same day, both going to Germany, but he was a big shot and I was just a plebe. Anyway I was a huge jazz fan back then and I kept up through letters from my dad. Plus in Coburg I believe I met a guy who had served his mission in the states and was a huge jazz fan so we kept up that way too. Still it was weird coming back with only spotty info. Tough to follow.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Colton probably doesn't remember this but we entered the MTC on the same day, both going to Germany, but he was a big shot and I was just a plebe. Anyway I was a huge jazz fan back then and I kept up through letters from my dad. Plus in Coburg I believe I met a guy who had served his mission in the states and was a huge jazz fan so we kept up that way too. Still it was weird coming back with only spotty info. Tough to follow.
Click to expand...
My dad emailed me paper clippings of box scores every week during the season while I was on my mission.

I've changed completely as a person since then, but my love for basketball and the Jazz has only grown.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Colton probably doesn't remember this but we entered the MTC on the same day, both going to Germany, but he was a big shot and I was just a plebe. Anyway I was a huge jazz fan back then and I kept up through letters from my dad. Plus in Coburg I believe I met a guy who had served his mission in the states and was a huge jazz fan so we kept up that way too. Still it was weird coming back with only spotty info. Tough to follow.
Click to expand...

LOL, Like any new missionaries are "big shots". :)

Anyway, I didn't become a Jazz fan until right after getting home, so start of the 1991-1992 season--though looking at the roster here, https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/UTA/1992.html, I only remember about 10 of the guys.

At the time I was much more of an NFL and BYU college football fan. So the sports things that killed me most at the time were (a) missing the Superbowls (although a member family showed us clips on VHS of the 1990 Superbowl, LOL) and (b) missing Ty Detmer's Heisman season. But got to enjoy his senior year, thankfully, which was just about as good as the Heisman year.
 
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