Is Deron Williams the floor general who can lead the Mavs to the playoffs? (article)

[Hotdog]

He quit. I can't believe how Sloan doesnt get any of the blame. He ****ing quit. One of the greatest coaches of all time, but he quit. The funny thing is that Jazzfanz probably shared the same frustrations D-Will had. Modernize the offense, don't play the same outdated defense from the 90's, why the **** do we have Al Jefferson, why did we let Matthews go, why did we let Korver go?

I love Sloan, but the guy needed to go and we needed a coach who could change with the new era.

That's easy to say, but the deal seemed ludicrous at the time to anyone that wasn't writing the check. Had they not dumped close to $30 million onto AK (who they refused to do anything serious about his bull ****/insane salary) and Memo (who they simply did not have to extend and simply should not have and that was obvious to at least me on the outset), maybe they match. Maybe they keep Boozer instead of go after Big Al (say what you want about his character, but he was twice the player Slow Al was).

AK and Memo are the reasons the Jazz HAD to re-tool suddenly. You're right, the organization created the foundation for all of the problems that followed.

They still should have matched Mathews. I think it was an easy decision. He was great for us. It wasnt that expensive. Using the idea that he would be paid too much for where he wasnt drafted and how soon was dumb logic. Nothing should have mattered except he was great at defense, was a team guy, could shoot great etc..

The biggest problem I had with it is, they were only one year away from AK coming off the books, and they went out and signed stupid *** Raja Bell for 3 mil a year. So for only 3 more per year they would have a had a lot younger and a lot better player. It was just bad business. They tried to save a few dollars, and it bit them in the ***.

 

[Hotdog]

I think a Deron and Jazz reunion this year would be fun. I'd welcome him back. He can't be worse than Trey Burke. He'd probably be a lot more humble than Burke too. I could see Burke becoming a Kanter like problem at some point. He wants to make some money.

 

[JFFR]

He's ****ing mortal, dude. Sorry if that ruins your narrative of someone else's life.

I guess my post sounded like I was accusing him. I'm not. I completely understand why he did it. It's just sad because it changed the way he played.

Just look at Derrick Rose. He was amazing to watch because he played recklessly. In the end he paid the price for it. And if he if he doesn't change his game, he won't last very long. Hopefully he finds a happy balance because he is an incredible athlete, but I doubt he'll ever be MVP again.


You know, I used to defend Boozer because he was slow to come back from injuries. Jazz fans would tear me apart because of it (even though the first time Boozer rushed back from an injury he ended up getting injured again and had to sit out several months.) I'm all for athletes taking care of their bodies. Their bodies are worth tens of millions of dollars, they'd be fools not to do it. Memo played through an injury and blew out his achilles. The Jazz thanked him by trading him away as soon as he was healthy enough to play.

Anyway, my final point is DWill doesn't play with the same desperation/passion/fire that he used to. Additionally, he's a few years slower and recovering from a number of different injuries.

 

[JFFR]

All of this.

A lot of people need to stop looking at Jazz stuff with blinders on.

Not everything the front office does is great. Sloan was not a perfect coach.

Can we blame it all on Greg Miller? I think the demise of the Jazz started with Miller. Let's review a couple of his moves... (I think my timeline is correct)

1. Matches Millsap but claims the Jazz can no longer televise on KJZZ in order to afford the Millsap contract.
2. Gives some weird speech where he threatens Jazz fans on opening night. Anyone else remember this? He said something like "Utah will continue to have a basketball team as long as the fans deserve it."
3. Trades Ronnie Brewer to avoid the cap.
4. Doesn't resign Matthews.
5. Doesn't resign Korver.
6. Doesn't resign Boozer (which makes sense, Chicago offered way to much $$$.)
7. Brings in Raja to replace Korver and Matthews...

That's all within the first year and a half, and things got worse after that.

 

[gomretat]

They still should have matched Mathews. I think it was an easy decision. He was great for us. It wasnt that expensive. Using the idea that he would be paid too much for where he wasnt drafted and how soon was dumb logic. Nothing should have mattered except he was great at defense, was a team guy, could shoot great etc..

The biggest problem I had with it is, they were only one year away from AK coming off the books, and they went out and signed stupid *** Raja Bell for 3 mil a year. So for only 3 more per year they would have a had a lot younger and a lot better player. It was just bad business. They tried to save a few dollars, and it bit them in the ***.

Resigning Mathews would have been great but it was very expensive. I am quite sure it would have put us into the luxury tax and made his salary very high comparatively. And I am sure they would have gone after Korver had they known Portland was going to make that kind of offer but KK was gone by the time we knew were loosing Mathews. Loosing both clearly hurt us but not sure I would have spent that kind of money on Mathews at the time even though he was one of my favs.

 

[Hotdog]

Resigning Mathews would have been great but it was very expensive. I am quite sure it would have put us into the luxury tax and made his salary very high comparatively. And I am sure they would have gone after Korver had they known Portland was going to make that kind of offer but KK was gone by the time we knew were loosing Mathews. Loosing both clearly hurt us but not sure I would have spent that kind of money on Mathews at the time even though he was one of my favs.

His salary was very high comparatively? He would have been under paid comparatively. That was a deal for Mathews. They chose not to believe what he could do would continue.l or get better. Which was dumb.

Ya, it would have barely puts us into the tax, and for only 1 year. They could have also explored dumping AK on someone before the trade deadline. I think that was a possibility. He was still thought of as a good player. A little overpaid, but still good, and with only one year left, I don't see why that would have been so hard to do. Then they just let AK walk too.

I could see if it projected to keep them in the tax for a while, but it didn't. It was a move to save a few pennies in terms of NBA money for 1 year. It was dumb.

 

[Miggs]

I think a Deron and Jazz reunion this year would be fun. I'd welcome him back. He can't be worse than Trey Burke. He'd probably be a lot more humble than Burke too. I could see Burke becoming a Kanter like problem at some point. He wants to make some money.

There's no way I bring Deron back. This is Hayward's team and there is history there (not a good one either) and as much as it pains me to say this, I get the sense that Hayward's ego is semi-fragile. I know many (most?) will think I'm grabbing at straws here but I almost wonder if Hayward excelled last year since Burks was out. I think Hayward knows this is his team but I wonder if he just doesn't know how to share the ball with Burks when he's on the court, and he overthinks ****. I'm probably way off here and overthinking things myself but it's something about which I've wondered.

 

[Hekate]

**** Deron.

 

[Game6Conley]

Even though I've only been a Jazz fan for a few years, I thoroughly enjoy reading thru the Deron threads. That trade was an epic rip off.