Anyone catch Colin Cowherd

[homeytennis]

lmao this is a dumb comment.

Whites can go anywhere and at least have a significant population within the community. There are very few places in America where Blacks make up near the numbers whites do. Even in Los Angeles, whites make up nearly half the population. Blacks? 8.8%.

So, it's not wild to see why some Black athletes may feel more comfortable playing in a city where there's a bit more of them than Salt Lake, which isn't even 2% Black.

It's the same reason a significant amount of Mormons go to BYU as opposed to going and being Mormon in a community where Mormonism isn't remotely significant. Nothing wrong with that.

And there are players/students/people who are perfectly fine stepping outside their bubble and going to a college or city where they'll be a significant minority.

But even a Black person in LA is going to be a minority. Even in Houston, where their Black population is 22.8%, whites still make up 51.5% of the population.

Only a very tiny amount of NBA markets have populations where Blacks are the plurality or the majority: Atlanta (49.8% compared to whites at 40%), Philadelphia (41.4% to 39% for whites), Memphis (64% Black, 28% white) and New Orleans (59% Black, 33% white).

That's it. And even in those communities, as you can see, you still have a fairly significant white population. The Blackest NBA city isn't remotely close to being as one-sided as the whitest NBA city (Portland, which is 75% white - Salt Lake is right behind 'em at 73%, Portland, tho, has double the Black population as Salt Lake).

One of the Stars better players this year was Yoeli Childs. He could step into that role.

 

[cowhide]

The margin of error for the Jazz is smaller than other franchises. Missing in the draft or free agency can set the franchise back for years. It is time to move on from Conley and Royce. Perhaps they could bring back a solid contributor. They need to kill the draft picks to be a contender. These are all things the Jazz can control. They cannot control if people like SLC or not. Running their franchise professionally helps with getting guys to come here so they can control that too. I think luck has a part to do with it. Look at Phoenix they dominate the regular season and then lose their best scorrer and are now tied with NO at 2-2.

 

[LoPo]

The margin of error for the Jazz is smaller than other franchises. Missing in the draft or free agency can set the franchise back for years. It is time to move on from Conley and Royce. Perhaps they could bring back a solid contributor. They need to kill the draft picks to be a contender. These are all things the Jazz can control. They cannot control if people like SLC or not. Running their franchise professionally helps with getting guys to come here so they can control that too. I think luck has a part to do with it. Look at Phoenix they dominate the regular season and then lose their best scorrer and are now tied with NO at 2-2.

Yep. Add in that we can't continue to reside in the luxury.

I'm looking at the Lakers as a prime location for Conley. Not many other teams would be clamoring for a guy like him at his price, but maybe we could find a way to get value and savings in a 3 team deal where Russ goes and we get something back.

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[Sean]

The margin of error for the Jazz is smaller than other franchises. Missing in the draft or free agency can set the franchise back for years. It is time to move on from Conley and Royce. Perhaps they could bring back a solid contributor. They need to kill the draft picks to be a contender. These are all things the Jazz can control. They cannot control if people like SLC or not. Running their franchise professionally helps with getting guys to come here so they can control that too. I think luck has a part to do with it. Look at Phoenix they dominate the regular season and then lose their best scorrer and are now tied with NO at 2-2.

Agreed. The Jazz have to work a bit harder and smarter to overcome some of the disadvantages of being located in Utah. Is it possible? I'm not sure.

Only twice in the franchise's history have they ever really been positioned to win a NBA Title: 1997 and 1998. 1996 could also be considered but I'd say that no team that year was going to beat the Bulls.

Outside those years, though? Utah certainly contended a few years but really never got close enough to winning it all that you took note - they either bowed out in a semi-competitive WCF, though still could only muster two wins at the most so not really a threat (1992, 1994, 2007) or had a promising chance upended early (1995, 1999).

That's a lot closer than some franchises have gotten to a title (Minnesota, Denver, Sacramento, LAC, Atlanta, Charlotte, just to name a few) but still disappointingly short.

The real interesting thing is just how consistent Utah has been as a franchise. That consistency means they've produced the fourth-best regular season win percentage all-time in NBA history (behind the Spurs, Lakers and Celtics) and yet their playoff record is pretty bad overall (16th).

Utah wins - just rarely enough to actually nab a decent playoff seed.

So, you've got franchises like Houston, who won two titles around the same time Utah witnessed its best opportunity to do so, which clearly bolsters the franchise all-time and yet, since that 1995 season where they won their second-straight championship, Houston hasn't really done anything better than the Jazz have done over that same span.

But they do have that title...

Sigh.