Upper Bowl Jazz Fan

Jazz fall (again) to the lowly Kings – 2/26/10

// February 27th, 2010 // No Comments » // Game Summary

Dear Deron Williams,

We needed you for this game.  You went 4 for 16 from the field.  You took more shots than anyone else on the Jazz and came up short many many times.  You had a pretty wide open 3 point look to make it a close game when we needed it badly and it wasn’t close.  You are the kind of player who wants the ball at the end of games and wants to make the big plays but you have been shooting well south of 40% for over a month now.  That’s not going to win us games.

You tallied 12 assists against the Kings…which is great!  5 turnovers takes away from those assists because it shows that while you were passing a lot you also were just a little careless with the ball.

The Kings had only won 3 out of the last 20ish games.  With some careful play and good Jazz basketball we should have been able to come away with a win here.  We were favored by 7 points.

Beno Udrih went 11 for 16 from the field and finished with 25 points!  This from a guy who averages 12 points per game.  Wasn’t he your man most of the time?  It was sad to see Kirilenko on him down the stretch because surely he was needed elsewhere.

Dude, is your wrist bothering you?  That’s the only thing I can think of that has happened over the last 6 or 8 weeks that has happened to you that could be affecting you so much.  Do you need some more time off?  Whatever it is let’s get you what you need so we can get our leader back.  If you do decide to take some time off or something just make sure you tell Jerry Sloan that Sundiata Gaines needs some more playing time. ..

2010 All Star Game – Deron Williams did pretty all right…

// February 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // All Star Game

Deron Williams…2010 All-Star.  That has a nice ring to it.  After Kobe Bryant backed out of the All Star Game Williams didn’t get the start which was too bad…especially since Dirk Nowitzki got the start instead.  He’s a 2-guard….right?  Arguably, Williams had the most to play for since it was his first All-Star Game and he was home in Dallas.  Some of the other first timers looked a little lost or indifferent, but some had good games.  Kevin Durant had a solid game as a first timer.  Kaman look as out of place as a wienermobile would have been on the court.  Al Horford fit in nicely chipping in 8 points and 4 boards.  David Lee (who was more deserving than some other All Stars…ahem, Kaman & Horford) only played 12 minutes and somehow managed to turn the ball over 3 times in a game where those who play defense need not apply.  Rondo chipped in 5 assists while Rose rounded out the stat sheet nicely with 8 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals.  Gerald Wallace was as impressive as his dunks in the dunk contest.  Wait…what?  He was terrible in the dunk contest?  Oh, well…there’s that.

With about 5 minutes left in the game, Bill Simmons tweeted that Deron Williams finished in his top 3 of All Star performances and I agreed at that point.  Williams had some nice assists, some awesome dunks, and played the best defense (apparently, he didn’t get the memo Amar’e has been reading his whole career: defense is optional) of anyone on-court.  Then Williams turned the ball over twice (once with only 18 seconds left) and then committed a no-brainer foul on DWade with only a few seconds left in the game w/ the score tied.  It was hard to say he had a top 3 performance after that point.  But hey, it was the All Star Game!  He got to be one of the PGs who finished the game on the court and was a fan favorite.  Overall, it was a great performance.  Next year, when there won’t be so much pressure as his first All Star Game he’ll be a little more reserved.

Deron Williams: a 2010 All Star? What’s happened in previous years?

// January 10th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // All Star Game

First and foremost, I am the biggest Deron Williams fan around.  I’m glad the Jazz picked him in ’05.  I’m pleased when Williams wins the matchup between him and Chris Paul.  I’ll also be the first one to say that this year, especially, Williams deserves to be an All Star.  Check out these stats: just under 50% from the field, 39% 3 point % (could be better, but is still solid), 4RPG, 1ST, 9.7AST.  Those are All Star numbers for sure.  (continued…)

Before this year, the All Star game represented who was contributing at a high level to his team’s success up to this point this year. What should not be taken into effect is how any particular player performed in seasons past.  Granted, this year has taken a completely different form but we’ll save that for another day.

People are calling it an outrage that he hasn’t been selected to the All Star Game yet and it some ways it is an outrage.  He’s undeniably one of the top 3 point guards in the league and if he had been in the Eastern Conference he likely would have made the ASG every year starting in 2007.  The West is stacked with almost superhuman guards, Kobe Bryant, Brandon Roy, Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups, the list goes on.  This makes entry into the ASG difficult as a guard.

Looking at Deron Williams year by year especially within any particular year there is an interesting trend.  He has started out almost every single year on the slower side and then picked things up significantly around the All Star Break.  (continued…)

The most obvious case of that was during the ’08-09 season when Williams suffered a severe high ankle sprain that caused him to miss 15 games or so.  Even after he returned you could tell that he still wasn’t completely healed.  But the Jazz had also sustained injuries to Carlos Boozer, Matt Harpring, and a few other players and DWill decided that for better or worse, he needed to get back into the game.  It’s interesting to note how a point guard’s game changes when he isn’t confident about his wheels.  Williams turnover rate went up and his FG% went down.  He simply wasn’t confident about things that were second nature to him (running, jumping, and passing) because his ankle wasn’t 100%.  Last year, he clearly didn’t deserve to go to the All Star Game since the first part of the season was noticeably shaky.  Interestingly, right around the All Star Break DWill began to turn it on and played incredible basketball for the rest of the year.

Every other year is the same story though: a good-not-great start to the season and then continually better play after Christmas time.  During the ’07-08 year was the closest Williams came to being an All-Star.  This ideology is all based on my previous statement that All Stars are named by how they perform in the first half of a given year and how their team has been playing.  DWill was putting up solid numbers in the beginning of the season.  The Jazz were playing decently until December when they lost a significant number of games and were hovering just better than .500.  When you throw in a number of other extenuating circumstances it’s easier to see why Williams didn’t get his All Star bid: Allen Iverson was in the beginning of his first full year as  Denver Nugget and people were gushing about how AI was the missing piece Denver needed.  Tracy McGrady was still playing solidly for the Rockets and was a virtual lock.  Steve Nash was coming off a season in which he was named MVP.  (Can you think of a time when an MVP is NOT named to the ASG the following season if they weren’t injured?  I can’t either.)  Kobe Bryant was an automatic shoo-in which is what happens when you play for the Lakers and your name is Kobe Bryant.  Chris Paul was having a breakout season single-handedly carrying the Hornets on his back.  Brandon Roy was emerging as a superstar and led his team to 13 wins in a row in December which put the Trailblazers on the map.

You can see now how it was difficult to select All Stars that year (’08) from a conference stacked with guards.  Williams didn’t get the nod and that brings us up to now.  Deron Williams is having a great season and is playing as well as other guards from the West.  However, his standings in the All Star Voting don’t look promising.  Tracy McGrady, despite only playing about 40 minutes this season, has a good chance at starting in the ASG.  However, if Steve Nash (who’s next in votes) can surpass Tmac in votes then McGrady will not go and Deron Williams will most likely be chosen by the coaches as one of the reserves.  It’s sad that this will be the only way to get DWill to go but it needs to happen.  You can vote for Williams/Nash here.  Do so often!

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Jerry Sloan’s style of basketball

// January 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Coaching Staff

My friends and I have coined a phrase we call “Sloan Ball.”  Jerry Sloan is a “My Way or the Highway” type coach…and, I suspect, person too.  He doesn’t put up with the players’ crap.  The Jazz play his style of basketball and if you don’t play it then you’re in his doghouse.  As a Jazzman, you don’t necessarily have to play well to stay in Sloan’s rotation, you just have to do it his way. His way involves running the plays he calls, making your screens, helping your teammates get open shots, not taking contested jumpers, making the right cuts on offense, making the right rotations on defense, playing physical without fouling, staying on top of defensive assignments, etc. (continued…)

Take a look at Matt Harpring, as much as I love Harp it has been a couple years since he was truly effective.  Yet, he brought the one thing that Sloan wants: hustle.  Sloan continued to give Harpring minutes well into last season even after all of his numbers declined.  Another example is Jarron Collins.  We like to call him Cash Money Collins because his elbow jumper was the Cash Money.  Actually not really, he was pretty terrible all around and continually ranked in the bottom 5 of all NBA centers.  Yet, Sloan loved him.  Had the Jazz been financially able they would have kept him around as long as possible because, apparently, he hustled a lot in practice.  As a fan, we don’t get to see those kinds of practices so we can only imagine how much the Cash Money really hustled.  Personally, I doubt he did much.  However, what can’t be denied is the amount of playing time Collins got when he was healthy, much to the anger of Jazz fans.

Take a look at the other end of the spectrum: Sloan’s doghouse. Remember how we got the 3rd pick of the ’05 draft and drafted a talented young PG out of Illinois?  The Jazz were seriously lacking at that position and felt that they had the perfect guard to turn into a franchise player.  Then the season started and Sloan was starting, none other than, Keith Macleod (who was awful and is now out of the league).  Deron Williams recently talked about how tough it was his rookie year.  He talked about playing only a minute or two in some games, getting 30 in others, and starting a couple of other games.  He was in the dreaded Sloan doghouse.  DWill probably thought he was pretty hot stuff and came into the team thinking he would be the king and Sloan put him in his place.  Williams figured things out and now Sloan trusts him enough to have him call the plays on many possessions.  That’s quite the swing.

Kyrylo Fesenko got into that position for much of last season.  He showed up to camp having put on more weight, dyed the tips of his hair blond, and apparently not taking basketball seriously.  When Boozer got injured last season, Kosta Koufos became a rotation player behind Millsap and Okur (Collins was injured too…those golf cart accidents can be rough) and made a few starts even though Fesenko had more time as a Jazzman.  However, as the season progressed, Boozer and the Cash Money came back from injury which took away Koufos’ minutes.  Interestingly, when spare minutes turned up towards the end of the ’08 -09 season, Fesenko started getting the nod.  What happened?  Koufos landed in the doghouse.  Why?  Koufos stopped playing Sloan ball.

Fast forward to this season.  Fesenko showed up to camp in better shape, had dropped 5% body fat, and was working hard.  It certainly seems like Sloan doesn’t hold a long-term grudge as Fesenko worked himself back into the rotation.  Where does that leave Koufos?  He’s the odd man out.  As this season progresses he’s only getting the scrap minutes.  His future is grim too.  He has a team option after next season and I have a feeling the Jazz will exercise it and cut Koufos just as they did to Morris Almond (another recent occupant of Sloan’s doghouse).

CJ Miles is the most at risk to end up in Sloan’s doghouse as his play this season (and let’s be honest, EVERY season) has been shotty.  Wesley Matthews is the team bargain right now and he has received quite a lot of praise from Sloan and the Jazz by his surprising defensive play.  Matthews might take back his minutes from Miles and if that happens, I don’t see CJ getting the nod very often.  I hope that day comes soon.

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