The Downbeat - 16 October 2009 - #80 - The You Had Me At 'I Hate The Lakers' Edition

Funny how one word can change the meaning of a quote.  In this case, both things are true, but you can see how quotes might get messed up from time to time.  

In their respective "Collins coming back to Utah" articles, Siler and Genessy had basically the same quote until the end from Deron Williams on Collins.  Here's Jody's,

He's great teammate. He always worked hard, didn't say much. I know coach liked him.

And here's Ross',

He was a great teammate, always worked hard, didn't say much, and I know coach liked that.

We all know Sloan loves Collins as well as probably liking that he didn't say much.

   At this point, I'll be sorely disappointed if Ronnie Price doesn't retire a Jazz man.  How can you not like this guy?  The latest from Siler has him taking Wes Matthews under his wing,

Talking to him after shootaround Thursday, Price revealed that he’d had undrafted rookie Wesley Matthews over to his house the night before, trying to give Matthews a little bit of a 25th birthday celebration.

And who can forget his comments over the summer after he signed his contract.  Here's the audio from KFAN, and the transcript from Moni,

KFAN: How much of that final 17 minutes [of the Jazz's last Playoff game] was "Hey, you forgot about me and I'm proving to you what I could have brought?"

Ronnie Price: It was more ‘I hate the Lakers‘ and I wanted to...it was more about that. It had nothing to do with trying to prove a point to Coach or anything like that. I just like getting my name called and like being on the court and having a chance to compete, especially against a team I can't stand.

Seriously, how can you not want this guy on your team.  Oh, and his basketball skills aren't bad either

via Yahoo! Images

Short clip from the Jazz in London and Madrid

  Just three more pre-season games from the Jazz.  The Clips tomorrow night in LA, @Portland on Tuesday, and next Friday @ Sacramento.  I hate prefacing everything with "it's just the pre-season" but I would like to see the Jazz win at least 2 of those games on the road.  I imagine that we'll start seeing regular rotations and playing time increase starting with the Portland game as they ramp up to the first regular season @ Denver.

Coach Nissalke mentioned last night on 1320 that we could start seeing some cuts coming soon, as early as today.  I suppose Johnson and Nelson could be the first ones to go.  Paul Harris has been out all pre-season with that injury, so he could be let go as well.  That would leave Suton, Dupree, and Matthews.  They'll all probably stay around until the end.