Bell's Comments After Being Benched

[billyshelby]

Bell is Harpring 2.0. Another past his prime, non-effective veteran that the Jazz decided to give welfare payments to against the back drop of "veteran leadership" and "toughness." In return, we get the "30 minutes come hell or high water and a steady diet of curl jumpers." Corbin should get Coach of the Year for euthanizing this horse while it is still laying on the track.

Don't jinx this. Outside the aberration in Minny, he's still averaging 34.2 minutes over his last 5. And Ty still thinks we need whatever he does to close games like last night when we went into the basketball equivalent of the prevent for 7 minutes and nearly gave the game away. When he's down to 20 minutes a night for 3 straight games I'll allow myself to start believing that it's finally happening.

 

[Qman]

Don't jinx this. Outside the aberration in Minny, he's still averaging 34.2 minutes over his last 5. And Ty still thinks we need whatever he does to close games like last night when we went into the basketball equivalent of the prevent for 7 minutes and nearly gave the game away. When he's down to 20 minutes a night for 3 straight games I'll allow myself to start believing that it's finally happening.

The last several game I have seen Raja making lots of little plays. Tipping the ball to the teammate. Running down loose balls. Helping a little bit on defense. His offense has still been terrible. But if he is giving us effort we can still use him on the floor.

 

[billyshelby]

I wish somebody would ask Raja if he even knows how lucky he is.

Of all qualifying NBA 2 guards, his PER ranks 72 of 76 (8.74). The four guys looking up at him are Rasual Butler, Xavier Henry, Keith Bogans, and Joey Graham. The guy he's chasing is Quentin Richardson. Those 5 guys average about 15 minutes and, aside from Henry the rookie, none of their teams would even notice if they stopped coming to work.

The next guy close to Bell's minutes on the crap end of the PER scale is Thabo (10.06, 66.) Of course, he was 2nd Team All NBA Defense last year. And the average minutes from 50 on the list to 76 is about 20. Yet somehow the Jazz, Ty, God, or whoever is responsible to sit down and "chop" this up for him. He can't connect these dots himself apparently.

 

[unluckyseventeen]

Raja Bell is a veteran and should be allowed to say these things...

No, he's a moran because #1 he's wrong, and #2 he's terrible. Being wrong and terrible entitle you to nothing.

 

[Chad Feldheimer]

I wish somebody would ask Raja if he even knows how lucky he is.

Of all qualifying NBA 2 guards, his PER ranks 72 of 76 (8.74). The four guys looking up at him are Rasual Butler, Xavier Henry, Keith Bogans, and Joey Graham. The guy he's chasing is Quentin Richardson. Those 5 guys average about 15 minutes and, aside from Henry the rookie, none of their teams would even notice if they stopped coming to work.

The next guy close to Bell's minutes on the crap end of the PER scale is Thabo (10.06, 66.) Of course, he was 2nd Team All NBA Defense last year. And the average minutes from 50 on the list to 76 is about 20. Yet somehow the Jazz, Ty, God, or whoever is responsible to sit down and "chop" this up for him. He can't connect these dots himself apparently.

Is there a team with worse SGs than the Jazz? Any team at all?

 

[unluckyseventeen]

Is there a team with worse SGs than the Jazz? Any team at all?

No.

 

[homeytennis]

Raja should have kept his Yap shut around reporters.

 

[tatermoog]

I wonder where Raja ranks among starting SGs in PER.

I absolutely loathe CJ Miles, but if this keeps Raja on the bench and getting 20MPG max, the team will be better for it.

 

[vegas]

Raja's biggest selling points were being fiery (the Kobe incident) and his leadership. I have not followed him prior to this year, so, has he always spoken out like this, or is this the first time?

It seems like he has been slowly but surely getting less and less happy as a player, losses aside.

 

[LogGrad98]

I think everyone is unhappy right now. I know I sure am. Everything collapsed when last summer everyone thought things were headed nowwhere but up. AJ, Raja, Hayward, Evans, and our regular guys all saw a new dynamic with AJ and D Will, the top PG and arguable top 5 player in the league as the leader, an estalished coach, everything pointed to at least some modicum of success, then it all falls apart. I am pleasantly surprised that what we have heard along these line has been so tame. Everyone is unhappy and I don't blame them. I do, however, blame them for sub-standard play as a result. I know I have had plenty of times I have been unhappy at work, but I still put in the work I am paid to do. They need to do what they are being paid to do as well.

 

[tatermoog]

Raja's biggest selling points were being fiery (the Kobe incident) and his leadership. I have not followed him prior to this year, so, has he always spoken out like this, or is this the first time?

The entire '03/'04 team still has treadmarks from Raja throwing them under the bus. You can also ask KOC how his last attempt at re-signing Bell went.

 

[northeast]

I agree with the first sentence of Log.
I never thought the team was so good this summer, and was always surprised at how little the success of recent jazz teams was appreciated by the fans, especially last season and the beginning of this season.