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Why are the Jazz predicted to finish 3rd in the division??

D

D Will> CP3

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OKC- Have no bigs at all. Their team is Durant and Westbrook (All he can do is drive), They have decent role players in Green, Ibaka, Harden and Thabo. But honestly, if you stop Durant this team will not go far at all, but thats a big if.

Portland- Really, their bigs are either old or injured. They just traded Bayless and still have a very crowded back court and their will be players that will be displeased EX: Rudy Fernandez already.

Lets look at the match ups
D Will>Westbrook; D Will>Miller
Bell and Thabo toss up; Roy>Bell
Durant>AK; AK>Batum
Milsap>Green; Lamarcus>Milsap
Jefferson>Nenad; Jefferson>Camby
So Utah wins 3/4 match ups against OKC and one is a tie. With Portland, Utah wins 3/5. Utah's bench also seems better than both teams.

So why are the Jazz so low? Hey, if it gets the Jazz motivation I'm all for the Jazz being low and proving the haterz wrong
 
OKC finished 8th last year, with virtually no injuries and extremely favorable officiating. What they've done to jump over 3 divisional foes, I don't know.

Portland should be better...unless their injuries last season weren't just bad luck.

Denver should be down, with what seemed like a demoralizing first round exit (Yee-Haw!), Melo issues and injuries to start the season. They may still be in the mix with Utah, Denver and Portland (they were the top seed from the division a year ago, after all).

Minnesota should finish last in the NBA.

Utah is the biggest unknown of the group, with 3 new starters.

It's a hard division to predict 1 through 4. 3 or 4 teams should make the playoffs (although the Clips, Grizz and Kings are improving....the Suns blow), and all 4 belong in the second tier of Western Conference teams (with Dallas, San Antonio and maybe Houston). Regardless, it should be an exciting year in the Western Conference. The battle for playoff seeding (2 through 8) at the end of the season should be intense. There's a small chance I may actually be watching some games.
 
It's all about stats, and by that I mean OFFENSIVE stats with 99% of "experts/analysts."

1. Carlos averaged 20/11 and has been an all-star. Jefferson only averaged 17/9 last year and has never been an all-star. Therefore, Boozer >>> Jefferson.
2. Korver shot 50% on his 3's last season. Therefore he must have been a fantastic 6th man. Reality: he averaged 1.2 MADE 3's. He just didn't shoot that much.
3. How can the Jazz possibly replace Matthews? Reality: Raja is a better defender. CJ can also start.
4. Starting Center (Okur) is out. Therefore Jazz are much worse. Reality: Jefferson/Millsap is a MUCH better tandem than Boozer/Okur, especially on the defensive end.
 
Also, is Roy healthy? Bell/AK will cause fits for Roy and Jefferson will man handle LaMarcus if they are matched up against each other.

As for OKC, who in hell can stop Jefferson? AK can at least disrupt Durant, but Kristic can't do crap against Jefferson
 
Krstic is a placeholder for either Ibaka or Aldrich to take over. Their big situation isn't sexy, but it looks like it should take care of business (good defense, good shooting, good athleticism even if there's no offensive presence inside).

It's also worth noting that OKC made it into the playoff in an insanely competitive conference even though they got off to a slow start. That's notable, but we'll see.

Also, to me, Durant looks like he's doomed to have a serious injury and has been lucky. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm amazed that such an unathletic, stretched out lank playing a perimeter position has been as healthy as he has. If he goes down, that team is completely ****ed.
 
3 Points:
1. On paper, this year's OKC team looks to be vastly improved from the team that won 50-games and finished 3 games behind Utah last year with Durant cementing himself as one of the top-3 players in the NBA and the expected improvement of under-25 core of Jeff Green, Serge Ibaka, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Eric Maynor. Then again, Portland with Oden and all their long, athletic wings looked to be a future powerhouse and things didn't work out. We'll see if OKC can build chemistry and avoid injuries but on paper they look impressive.

2. Portland had about as many injuries as any team could ever have last year, and still won 50 games. Their bigs are still recovering but hard to see them having the same injury bug throughout the entire season again. (Personally, I don't think they'll improve that win total but I can understand why the "experts" do.)

3. And you know what? I'm perfectly fine with Utah flying under-the-radar, as they have for the past 18 years.
 
All these 'expert' 'experts' look at is what teams have players filling up the most stat sheets, as has been noted earlier. The Jazz lost their top stat-sheet players (except Deron), and with Okur's injury and 5 new players (2 of whom missed much of last year with injuries), are an unknown commodity in this year's NBA market. That, plus the 'experts' apparently haven't been watching these guys grow from game to game this pre-season; they're still entranced with the Miami Heat...
 
D Will> CP3 said:
OKC- Have no bigs at all. Their team is Durant and Westbrook (All he can do is drive), They have decent role players in Green, Ibaka, Harden and Thabo. But honestly, if you stop Durant this team will not go far at all, but thats a big if.

Portland- Really, their bigs are either old or injured. They just traded Bayless and still have a very crowded back court and their will be players that will be displeased EX: Rudy Fernandez already.

Lets look at the match ups
D Will>Westbrook; D Will>Miller
Bell and Thabo toss up; Roy>Bell
Durant>AK; AK>Batum
Milsap>Green; Lamarcus>Milsap
Jefferson>Nenad; Jefferson>Camby
So Utah wins 3/4 match ups against OKC and one is a tie. With Portland, Utah wins 3/5. Utah's bench also seems better than both teams.

So why are the Jazz so low? Hey, if it gets the Jazz motivation I'm all for the Jazz being low and proving the haterz wrong
Click to expand...

If you stop Durant? That says it all doesn't it. Who do the Jazz have to stop Durant? The Thunder have a decent group of big men(Krstic is solid, Aldrich could be a factor on defense, and Collison is ok). They have two olympians, Maynor (one of the best back up PGs in the West), and good role players. Decent? Those guys all add something.
Harden good all around game(could turn into a star), Thabo defense, Ibaka athletism, Green offense, and Morris Peterson. The thing that scares me about the Thunder is
how well rounded they are. The have a superstar and possible MVP of the league, along with quality role players, and youth. They all are on the same page, and bought into their system.

Portland doesn't scare me at all anymore. The last two offseasons I thought Portlant would be neck and neck with us, and we'd have a hard time passing them.
Their offensive system, and injuries have made them a lot less scary than I thought. I don't look for the them to compete for the NW crown let alone pass us.

Denver is going to be a mess this year. It's going to be fun watching them crumble.

It's us vs. OKC. We are neck and neck. Both us and the Thunder have well rounded teams that play together. We are going to have some wars with them this year, and many years to come. Should be a lot of fun.
 
One quick point

I registered just to post this, but the one mistake that I believe the experts make is assuming that OKC will be much better this year simply because the players are older. They have basically the same roster as last year, still the same weaknesses, and every team will be more familiar with their gameplan.

Sure, some of their young players will probably develop a bit more, but realistically how much more can you expect Durant to do?
 
"Experts" are just people paid to give their opinion.
I have noticed they will often practice "Groupthink". One of them says something that sounds kindof good, and they all agree and say the same thing because they have nothing better, or dont want to be different and have it pointed out.

They dont want to take a chance on the Jazz because other people are high on OKC. OKC has the same team, and they were good last year. The Jazz team has had some pretty big changes to the roster, and they really dont know what is going to happen.

I think we should call them "generalists" instead of experts because they are using basic basketball and surface level team information to draw conclusions. Most of the so-called experts have no idea what the Jazz can do, or any other team for that matter..... but they know the Durantula sells tickets so they are willing to jump on the bandwagon. He is good, and OKC is a good team, so to them it is a safe bet.

Just my 2 cents
 
A couple of things to consider Bell maybe as suggested a toss up with Thabo, but he is older (lost a step?) and has been hurt for much of the past two years. Also Thabo may start but Harden will play lots of minutes. Can anyone argue that Thabo/Harden or Roy/Mathews is not better than Bell/(Miles or Hayward)?

SG is the one position that worries me going into the season, the Jazz are thin there. When CJ went down with an ankle injury in the final pre-season game it showed the Jazz roster weakness. Hayward will have to improve quickly or the jazz will struggle at the 2 all year.
 
....here's what your NBA experts actually think of just about any Utah Jazz team: they have too many miedeocre role players, most of them unathletic and most of them white. They run a "system" as old as there coach that is so predictable that failure is assured. They lack speed, quickness and can't jump very high. PREDICTION: Will be hard pressed to play .500 ball. REALITY: Will probably win 50 plus games and upset at least 1 team in the playoffs, before bowing out in a tough 7 game series to the eventual champs!
 
I think its because we have had so many changes in our players. Basically four of our starting players have been switched out and its a complete crapshoot was to how they play together when all these ranking were being written.
 
NUMBERICA said:
Krstic is a placeholder for either Ibaka or Aldrich to take over. Their big situation isn't sexy, but it looks like it should take care of business (good defense, good shooting, good athleticism even if there's no offensive presence inside).

It's also worth noting that OKC made it into the playoff in an insanely competitive conference even though they got off to a slow start. That's notable, but we'll see.

Also, to me, Durant looks like he's doomed to have a serious injury and has been lucky. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm amazed that such an unathletic, stretched out lank playing a perimeter position has been as healthy as he has. If he goes down, that team is completely ****ed.
Click to expand...

Durant is a decent athlete, if not a good one. He does not drive in a lot anyway, just plain shoot over people guarding him who are generally 2 to 3 inches shorter. That is why people were complaining he's getting a lot of FTs.
 
JoelHodgeJr said:
I think its because we have had so many changes in our players. Basically four of our starting players have been switched out and its a complete crapshoot was to how they play together when all these ranking were being written.
Click to expand...

...it's never a "crap shoot" with the Jazz.....you know exactly what your going to get. It's only a crap shoot when you throw 3 or 4 hoppers out there....running around like chickens with there heads cut off.....all wanting to "create" and get there own shot!
 
What most people seem to overlook: OKC was freakishly healthy last year and overlooked by just about everyone. Can't replicate that this year. Looking forward to watching them crash and burn, although Durant is an admirably humble superstar.
 
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