Jazz at Clippers Dec 29--8:30

[zman1527]

22-10 overall and an easy schedule coming up. This is the good times.
I will be happy that Jeff and Hay stepped up and had great games. Are you only gonna be happy with wins over the best teams?

Am I only gonna be happy with wins over the best teams? LMAO. Yes. Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.

You see, my one and only real goal for the Jazz is a championship. To do that, by definition you have to beat the best teams. More specifically, you have to beat them 4 out of 7. I enjoyed the win over the Clips and enjoyed it, but who will remember it 10 years from now?

I do not care if they win over 50 games for the next 800 seasons yet get bounced out of the playoffs every year. And the Jazz seem stuck there with little indication they will rise above that this year. Not none, just little indication.

 

[craig2112]

Am I only gonna be happy with wins over the best teams? LMAO. Yes. Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes.

You see, my one and only real goal for the Jazz is a championship. .

I think you should be a Lakers fan. Not because the Lakers win championships, but because what you wrote is EXACTLY the mentality of lakers fans. They can't enjoy anything. Then when they do win the championship, the fans are all immediately talking about the next one, the dynasty, whatnot. It's never enough.
When do you guys ever sit back and enjoy good basketball?

 

[zman1527]

I think you should be a Lakers fan. Not because the Lakers win championships, but because what you wrote is EXACTLY the mentality of lakers fans. They can't enjoy anything. Then when they do win the championship, the fans are all immediately talking about the next one, the dynasty, whatnot. It's never enough.
When do you guys ever sit back and enjoy good basketball?

We can all have our viewpoints and mine is as valid as yours. In football, I am a 49ers fan. Right now they are a doormat of the league and have been for 10 years. But I will always be satisfied having been a fan due to the glory years of Walsh and Montana and Young and Rice. It is great to have your team win it all. Why should a Jazz fan be satisfied with less? And don't give me small market bs.

 

[craig2112]

We can all have our viewpoints and mine is as valid as yours. In football, I am a 49ers fan. Right now they are a doormat of the league and have been for 10 years. But I will always be satisfied having been a fan due to the glory years of Walsh and Montana and Young and Rice. It is great to have your team win it all. Why should a Jazz fan be satisfied with less? And don't give me small market bs.

I don't remember saying that you couldn't have your viewpoint.

Ok, I'll play along. I am a big BYU fan. I even went to school there. I lived through the 1984 national championship and saw every game. You may not believe this, but after BYU won their first game that year, I told my friend "We could win the National Championship!" He said I was crazy.
It was fantastic. So I know it is great to have your team win it all. But it didn't change my life. I didn't do anything to help the team win. I watched and rooted and enjoyed every game.
Then I had my real life to deal with.

In the many years that have followed, I don't need that 84 championship to fall back on. I enjoy each BYU team for what it is. Each year is great in its own way (except for the last Crowton year). Even this year, I enjoyed getting to see the team come back from being so miserable and improving and playing some great football. There was no championship. BYU even choked it against Utah. But as the season ended, I can say that I enjoyed this year quite a lot. I am also excited for the future...VERY excited.
I don't sit here and say, "I am satisfied that we won the championship in 84, therefore, my being a BYU fan is valid" or whatever.

As for the Jazz right now. THEY CANNOT WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP RIGHT NOW, because that cannot happen until JUNE. The only thing they can do is win as many games as possible right now and keep striving to improve. They are doing that. I am enjoying it. It's too bad that some of you can only mitch and boan about it, but if you want to be a crying pessimist, go ahead, but I am gonna make fun of you for it.

 

[Jeditiger]

Well said, Craig. It's the journey, not the destination.

Like with me and my Saints. Did I need them to win the superbowl to validate me being a fan? No. It was great that after 40 years that they finally pulled it off, but win or lose I'm still going to be a Saints fan and I'm going to enjoy rooting for my team. And when you can do that, it makes it even sweeter when it finally does happen.

The Jazz may not have won it all in '97, but do you know how ****ing great it felt to be one of the 20,000 people who met the team at the airport the night Stockton sank the Rockets? That's what being a fan is. Championships or no.

 

[vslice02]

THE BEST PART ABOUT LAST NIGHT'S GAME:
To me, even more than Hayward's breakout performance and confidence in his jumpshot was Al Jefferson's low-post scoring. Dreadful 1st qtr but in the 2nd-half he scored 19 pts on 8-13 shooting and grabbed all 10 of his rebounds. More importantly, a large portion of our offense became throwing the ball to Al on either the left or right block where he was able to score with his right-hand jump hook. Even better, he got 3 easy and open looks at the basket off our cross-screen action - a staple of Jazz basketball that he hasn't been able to take advantage of thus far.

That's what most expected to be getting from Al. Now he just needs to be consistent - not expecting 30 pts but atleast 50% shooting and 10 rebounds should be the norm. In LA he did most of his damage on DeAndre Jordan and Ike Diagu. A bigger test will be Portland (even if Camby's out) but we know Al can produce - we just need to see that efficiency more consistently. It's awfully encouraging to see the Jazzgenerate offense that doesn't involve running Deron off screens or having Deron attack off the dribble.

 

[Shad]

Good thing we're gunna lose tonight noobs.

 

[Eli]

Man I woulda missed last night's game, as I'm still out fo town for the holidays. I work with DISH though, so I got the hook up for that TV Everywhere with my iphone. I thought DVR would be the last best thing to happen to TV but this is a complete game changer. Doesn't matter where you are, you can watch games, DVR, whatever. It's awesome. Anyone else use TV Everywhere?

 

[Marty McFly]

Man I woulda missed last night's game, as I'm still out fo town for the holidays. I work with DISH though, so I got the hook up for that TV Everywhere with my iphone. I thought DVR would be the last best thing to happen to TV but this is a complete game changer. Doesn't matter where you are, you can watch games, DVR, whatever. It's awesome. Anyone else use TV Everywhere?

Wow. DISH should be ashamed for this type of advertising.

 

[Jeditiger]

Wow. DISH should be ashamed for this type of advertising.

Yep, shameful. To quote the late, great Bill Hicks:

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that, you ****ing evil scumbags."

 

[InGameStrategy]

In other words, if Sloan took your coaching 101 classes, we would be on pace to win 70+games and be No.1 in the WEstern conference. Never mind the talent we have. It is all matchups and rotations.

No, it's not all matchups and rotations; it's personnel, too. And development, too. But this roster is one of the better that Utah has had, and the repeated first-quarter slumps have been remediable and Sloan has done little about them except when injuries and fouls have required him to.

BTW, if the Jazz had 5 losses, they wouldn't be on pace for 70 wins. (However, San Antonio--also a relatively small-market team that has a deep but aging roster and is coached by someone who understands and implements player development, play-for-performance, managing minutes, and in-game adjustments--is theoretically on pace for a 70-win season right now.)

I don't understand the penchant that you and certain other JazzHacks have for taking arguments to a ridiculous extreme that the originator wasn't claiming. That being said, with better coaching (and better preparation by players, but that's always a given anyway), at least this squad would be a solid top 2 or 3 in the West.

Give any roster to Armchairstrategy and he'll make them contend with just good in-game substitutions.
We all know that already. You dont have to end every argument or dicussion on this reminder.

The offer stands.

(Damn! I ended it again that way! Yet I maintain that I wouldn't have if VJ (Very Jealous?) hadn't brought it up.)

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

Can we get a game thread going for tonight? I won't pretend like I'd make a good one but someone else needs to get on the ball.

 

[YB85]

...(However, San Antonio--also a relatively small-market team that has a deep but aging roster and is coached by someone who understands and implements player development, play-for-performance, managing minutes, and in-game adjustments--is theoretically on pace for a 70-win season right now.)

Popovich implements player development? Examples, please.

 

[zman1527]

Popovich implements player development? Examples, please.

To me what sets Pop apart from the Jazz is his respect for shooting and the 3-ball. They are always loaded with guys who can fill it up. While the Jazz pick up (or keep) Hart, and Palacio, and Brewer, and Jeffers, and Price, and AK.

 

[YB85]

To me what sets Pop apart from the Jazz is his respect for shooting and the 3-ball. They are always loaded with guys who can fill it up. While the Jazz pick up (or keep) Hart, and Palacio, and Brewer, and Jeffers, and Price, and AK.

Maybe that happens because they have Tim Duncan, who still tends to command inside attention and leaves the outside open.

 

[InGameStrategy]

Popovich implements player development? Examples, please.

That's a fair challenge. Pops is especially good at player selection, given that he been in the GM role also for part of his time in San Antone. DeJuan Blair was a bargain late in the 1st round. Ginobili and Splitter were obscure overseas finds. And yes, it helps to anchor a team around TD for so many years. Gary Neal was plucked from the Euroleague, so some of his development was already there.

You could look at someone like George Hill, who was a finalist for the Most Improved Player award, but some of the credit would go to his assistants, and much of it--surprise--goes to Hill's work ethic in the off-season. I would only be speculating as to how much influence Pops had on Hill.

The real strengths of Popovich are building relationships and in-game management. So far, Pops has been able to keep Duncan's PT below 30 per game. He has more players who have played at least 200 minutes (just a random number) than Utah does; by contrast, Sloan has boosted some of the minutes of the starters, which is not good because it can wear down players and stems the motivation and development of the backups.

Sloan probably gets along with players (except the ones that he disenfranchises), but I am not aware of any examples from Sloan close to the extent of rapport that Pop has invested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c98DECN6QI&feature=player_embedded#!

 

[YB85]

I'll give you Hill, but other than him being a first round pick with all of the contractual ties, is he any different than Wesley Matthews?

As for Manu and Splitter, they were not obscure European finds. They were both well known European players with well known bad European contracts that San Antonio had the luxury of waiting for. And if you are giving Pop the credit for being in control of finding these guys, how about ripping him for giving Luis Scola to Houston? Don't get me wrong, I think Pop is a Hall of Fame coach, but I'd like to see how he does without the luxury of having Tim Duncan.

 

[honz]

Yeah, I love how all the Pop and Spurs lovers ignore his blunders. He played Jacque Vaughn over Beno Udrih and they gave away an above average starting PF for nothing.

 

[zman1527]

Yeah, I love how all the Pop and Spurs lovers ignore his blunders. He played Jacque Vaughn over Beno Udrih and they gave away an above average starting PF for nothing.

Well, he "blundered" his way into how many rings? Nuff said.

 

[LifeOnaPlate]

Even better, he got 3 easy and open looks at the basket off our cross-screen action - a staple of Jazz basketball that he hasn't been able to take advantage of thus far.

Is there a video of said action you can show me so as to better inform me of this play?