The Downbeat - 13 October 2009 - #77 - The Abbey Road Edition

by Basketball John on Oct 13, 2009 8:24 AM MDT in The Downbeat

1_medium Open scrimmage tonight set to start at 6:45 at the ESA. Doors open at 6:30.

I don't know why the Jazz never work around my schedule, but I won't be able to make it. I, and I'm sure others, would like to see some FanShots with pics/video as well as a FanShot with a recap.

2_medium A sign that you might be spending a little too much time on UtahJazz.com is when you notice that with the player rotations on the page, the only one in a blue uni is the KOOF. Are the Jazz trying to tell us something? Is the KOOF really dead? Wait, I guess for the Beatles/Abbey Road comparison, that would mean that the rest of the team is dead. Or is this another clue to the LOST world?

Too many Downbeats.

8_medium I forgot to mention this last week from the Jazz/Madrid game, but does this clip of Millsap remind you of someone? The video is small so I was kind of surprised to see that it was Millsap. I guess most of his dunks that I've seen have come in the half-court game off a putback or dish on the inside.

Hammer dunk much?

4_medium Deron Williams is #11 on SLAM's top 50 players for 2009-10. That's right about where he should be. We all know who's going to be number one. But the KOOF won't let that go to his head. He'll still go out and give 150%, literally. He'll play another 24 minutes after the game is over.

And here’s a few things he hasn’t done yet

:• Gotten a triple-double
• Won the Nobel Peace Prize
• Been named to the NBA All-Star team

The first two are somewhat understandable. Williams is young. He has time. But the third? Entirely inexplicable. It's not that his team doesn't win-the Jazz have won 51, 54 and 48 games the last three seasons, after making a 15-win jump to .500 his rookie year. It's not that Williams is just along for the ride-Jerry Sloan trusts him enough to let him call a majority of plays on the floor, something John Stockton rarely did. By any measurable standard (except for maybe tattoos and haircuts), Williams is one of the top three-if not two-point guards in the game. And he can't even make an All-Star team? What in the name of Rod Strickland is going on here?

If VoteDeron.com has anything to do with it, this will be last year of that drought.

5_medium Losing your (NBA) virginity at the Bulls/Jazz game. Very funny article here about an overseas Bulls fan finally being able to catch a game in person. I think it gives some good insight into those fans that don't live in the US and have that craving to catch just a glimpse of a team. Kind of like me and cricket (not really).

Some very funny observations from a first-time game attender.

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Comments

About SLAM's top 50

I always hate straight numerical rankings of players, because the biggest arguments are about who is better between the best players. But if I were to rank players, and yes I am about to, DWill is higher: Here is my criteria: value, as determined by tradability:

Top tier; In a crazy scenario, these players might be traded for one another heads up, but in no scenario would they be traded heads up for anyone else in the league: James, Bryant, Wade, and Howard.

Next tier; Would not be traded heads up for anyone lower: Paul, Williams, and Roy.

Next: Sitting alone, Durant. No, the teams with the previous tier players would not trade heads up.

Next: Nowitzki, Anthony, and Duncan. Duncan suffers in these ranking because of age. Durant is only higher then these players because of age… and the assumption his teams will eventually be better when he is on the floor then when he is off it.

by Frank5 on Oct 13, 2009 12:01 PM MDT reply actions

4. I hate it when everyone keeps saying his time will come.

5. Coverage over here in Aus has been up and down. I remember for years having to stay up late til like midnight just for the 30sec NBA highlights hoping to get a glimpse of Stockton or Malone.

More often than not just seeing the Jazz score on the screen or hear them mentioned was my biggest highlight of the day.

Thankgoodness for the internet. First it was listening to every game called by Hot Rod, now it’s logging on searching for streams.

My sister has been to Utah 5 times and everytime she goes to a Jazz game or two.

Jealous much?

HELL YES!!!!!!

"He is STUPID but he knows that he is STUPID and that almost makes him smart."

by LoWBlok on Oct 13, 2009 3:43 PM MDT reply actions

thank goodness indeed

back in high school, the highlight of the day would be when my dad got home from work with “USA Today” and my sister (spurs fan) and i would fight over the paper to check the box scores

when i got to college (and the internet—back when there was only netscape and it was easier to use the text-based lynx), the first two sites i started reading daily were the salt lake tribune and the desernet news. that part hasn’t changed…

by moni on Oct 14, 2009 1:38 AM MDT up reply actions