The Downbeat
The Downbeat - 16 March 2010 - #186 - The Sunday? Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 16, 2010 9:35 AM MDT
in The Downbeat
21 comments
I don't know if you can overstate the impact the Wesley Matthews has had on the team. He's shooting 56% in march including 60% from three and shooting 90% from the free throw line. Overall he's shooting 48.5% from the field, 39% from the arc, and 80% on free throws.
It makes me wonder where he would be right now had we not had the injuries early in the season to Miles and Korver. He likely wouldn't have been signed given the luxury tax situation. So would he have gone to the DLeague? Would he be on another team right now while we were lamenting how well he was playing?
The latest NBA Jam trailer (ht BDL). Deron and Boozer make an appearance at about the :35 mark. Breakin' ankles. Also, was there any other game that had more cheat codes than the original NBA Jam?
Because you can never have too many brackets, here's Deron's group that he's created on ESPN.com. Though, if it's his group, shouldn't he have an entry? Right now there's only 13.
I also created a group just for SLC Dunkers right here. So join both.
So my math was a little off yesterday. It should have read that the Jazz only have 16 games left, not 18. After last night, it's now 15. The Nuggets also have 15 left after last night's loss to the Rockets. So sitting just two games back, the Jazz would need to go 13-2 and the Nuggets to finish 10-4. I still don't think it's likely that we overtake them, but Denver's loss last night gives me a little false hope.
A plea from Deron to start playing on Sundays?
It’s been tough on us, but that’s part of the 82-game season. If we start playing on Sundays, we might be able to get a couple games spread out.
We all know why the Jazz don't play games at home on Sunday and that's because of the owner's LDS beliefs. When they request days off with the league before the schedule is made, the Jazz always request Sundays off.
This year, they only have three games on a Sunday and ofcourse they're all away games. The other argument is that since there's a majority of LDS people in Utah, that having Sunday games wouldn't be profitable for the Jazz as they're not as likely to sell seats to those games outside of season ticket sales. That might still be the case.
Without getting too much into religion, just because there's still a majority of LDS members in the market doesn't necessarily mean that they're all actively practicing LDS. And let's face it, even the active LDS members are watching basketball/football/baseball on Sundays. In addition, the percentage of LDS people in the state is dropping. Also, I believe that in Salt Lake County, or at least in Salt Lake City, there's even less of a majority, if there's one at all. So there's probably a good chance that the Jazz are still going to be able to sell tickets to a few Sunday games. It can't be any worse than a Monday night game against a team like the Wizards.
Maybe another thing to consider is that none of the Jazz players are LDS. None of this is to say that you have to be LDS to consider Sunday a sacred day. I'm guessing though that playing on Sundays isn't a big deal for them. Maybe Deron could buy the remaining tickets that aren't sold for Sunday games and give them to charity?
Religous implications aside, does it help the Jazz to play some Sunday games at home? If the team could guarantee to be profitable on Sunday home games, would they do it? What would be the potential backlash? Would they lose sponsors and advertisers? Those might be some of the biggest reasons that they don't do Sunday games.
I took a random sampling of other teams to see how many Sunday games they play.
Team, # Sunday Games, Home Game, Away Games
Spurs, 11, 4, 7
Bucks, 5, 3, 2
Jazz, 3, 0, 3
Hawks, 7, 4, 3
Raptors, 19, 15, 4 (heathens!)
Lakers, 16, 12, 4
Bobcats, 4, 1, 3
Hornets, 10, 2, 8
The big teams like LA, Boston, Orlando, and Cleveland are going to have a lot of Sunday games given that they're almost always on ABC. Toronto surprised me with the number of games they play on Sunday. The Bobcats are almost like the Jazz, they have just one game at home on Sunday. Maybe because they're in the Bible belt?
So is there an advantage to playing some games at home on Sunday? Maybe a bit. I would like to see some statitician work out some numbers on it. I might do it later if I have some time. This portion of the downbeat went on for a lot longer than I thought it would. I hope this leads to a good discussion.
Ultimately, the decision is going to be the Millers'. I'm not advocating either way, but if they want to have no home Sunday games, that's fine. On the other hand, when you get into a business such as the NBA, Sundays kind of come with the territory. If having a couple of Sundays games would help the players like Deron mentioned, you might have to consider.
So here's a poll, should the Jazz have some home games on Sunday?
21 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 15 March 2010 - #185 - The Crying Game Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 15, 2010 9:24 AM MDT
in The Downbeat
3 comments
Here are the standings if we just take the games since the beginning of the year,
DEN 25-9 .735
OKC 25-10 .714
UTH 24-10 .706
LAL 23-12 .657
DAL 23-12 .657
PHX 20-14 .588
SAS 20-14 .588
POR 20-15 .571
MEM 20-16 .555
I think given the Lakers easier schedule to start the year and the Jazz fans desire to erase Oct-December from the history books, we should just go with this.
As for the rest of the season, the Jazz have 18 games left and only 8 of those on the road. With the exception of the game @ LA, all of those are winnable. The question is what are the Jazz going to do over the remaining 18? If this season is any indication, they could go 16-2, 10-8, or 8-10. Like I've said before though, the Jazz really don't have an excuse not to finish out the season strong. The remaing schedule is the easiest they've had in recent years.
If they were to go 16-2 to close out the season, Denver would have to choke down the stretch for the Jazz to win the division. Denver only has 16 games left which means they would have to go 10-6 (11-5 does us no good as they hold the tiebreaker). Do they have six losses left? They do have a five-game road trip @NY, @BOS, @TOR, @ORL, and @DAL. They also have remaining away games against Houston, OKC, and PHX. THey have some tough home games against the Bucks, Lakers, Grizz, and Spurs. So it's not impossible that they could stumble, but I don't think it's likely. They're a very good team and a legitimate threat to knock off the Lakers.
Othyus jeffers got picked up for another 10-day contract. He's not likely to see many minutes given that he didn't even get PT against OKC when we were short on players. So if he's going to get signed for the rest of the season, he'll have to make the team in practice.
Right now, I'm not sure there's a better option out there for the Jazz. Larry Hughes got signed over the weekend. Is there really a player out there that the Jazz can sign that would be an upgrade? Given that whoever it is, they're not going to get much court time. If anything though, I'd like to see what Jeffers can do at least on defense. They say that he can guard guards and power forwards. The offense might take a bit to learn, but the defense is something that can be picked up pretty quickly.
I have to say, I watched my first national college basketball games over the weekend and it makes me salivate for Evan Turner, Cousins, Wall, and the like. I've said it before, but the fact that we even have a slim chance at landing one of these types of players makes me drool. I'd like to thank to Dallas Mavericks for getting taken behind the woodshed by the Knicks. Thanks a lot.
Do you realize that if we were to land Turner, that we could have two pirates, Wesley and a relative of Bill Turner?
When did we turn into whiney Bs when we don't get a call? It's one thing to complain, but I counted at least a couple of times when Deron's man got up court because DWill was crying to the officials. First, if you're going to complain, it shouldn't be when the action is still going on. Second, at what point do you think that it's going to help for future calls?
That's one of the biggest reasons I hate other players like LeBron and Kobe and the like because they're whining after every call. Frankly, (breaks out cheese doodles) it's embarassing. Let us fans whine, that's our job.
Looks like the Jazz are drawing big locally on FSN. It looks like it didn't start out well though in the beginning of the season,
"We have been consistent in our [ratings] delivery, but earlier in the season, we were getting some concerns from some advertisers because the ratings weren’t there," said Chris Baum, senior vice president of broadcasting for the Jazz. "But we have started to grow our ratings dramatically in February,"
I'm guessing with Boozer still on the team, college football still going on, and the overall poor play of the Jazz had something to do with that. It looks like things are back on track though.
"Our ratings are now back to our glory days when we had John Stockton and Karl Malone," Baum said. "And February in Utah is cold."
It would be interesting to see how this year has compared to year's past when there was KJZZ as well.
3 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 12 March 2010 - #184 - The KOOF > Chuck Norris Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 12, 2010 9:29 AM MST
in The Downbeat
15 comments
This is good news: It looks like Ronnie B could be returning to action as soon as the beginning of next week,
"If I push it, I might be (back) this weekend. If not, early next week," Brewer said. "I plan on getting out there and helping this team. I have to get the OK from the doctors but I'm trying to come back soon. But 31/2 games out (of the eighth playoff spot) is not unachievable with the talent level on this team.
Looks like he's ahead of schedule in the healing process. I wish nothing but the best for Brewer.
So you've likely read Siler's notes about Fesenko re-telling Chuck Norris jokes that he heard from Kyle Korver. Shouldn't there be a site for the KOOF? Like... The KOOF only plays the last minute of blow-out games because Stern doesn't want him to break the record for most points in a game. Or... the KOOF is the only person to be able to divide a prime number evenly by another number besides itself and one?
Great article from SLAM on Jerry Sloan,
He also feels coaches should be given a chance to prove something to the players who are essentially seen as the proverbial inmates running the asylum. "I think [sticking with a coach] would send a message to the players. Players [feel like] ‘I don’t have to play for this guy so when the next guy comes in, I’ll wait and play for him.’ It’s an attitude that players have."
And how does he deal with that kind of attitude from guys? "I tell our players I’m gonna be here and you may not."
End of discussion.
As if this was anyone else's team. You have to have some pretty good confidence in your relationship with management to be able to make a statement like that.
Sloan has said many times that he doesn't know when he'll stop coaching. He's stated that he will likely will just wake up one morning and decide that he's done. My question is what's going to be the piece of straw that breaks the John Deere tractor's back? Honestly, as long as he's physically able to do it, I don't see him retiring.
It's likely going to have to be his back that breaks before he stops coaching. I don't think it's going to be a voluntary retirement from the game.
I'm not saying I want him to retire by any means. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. I hope he coaches for a very long time.
So far, so good for March. The Jazz have typically had great starts to the new year over the past several seasons and this year isn't an exception. They're 4-1 this month and 24-8 since the calendar flipped to 2010.
There really isn't any one thing that you can nail down as the reason for the recent success of the Jazz, it's been a combination of everything. Everyone is healthy. Chemistry seems to be at an all-time high. Kyle Korver is so freakin' hot right now. Memo is getting his post-baby bump in production. AK is being AK. Deron seems to have transitioned to the next belt in ninja. Doe is getting it done and not just with his unconcious three-point shooting. Has he finally started figuring things out? Simply put, everyone is clicking and everyone is contributing in their defined roles.
Do you realize that we were a couple of hiccup games in LA and Sacramento from having a 12-game winning streak ON THE ROAD? In what alternate universe does that happen for the Jazz? Every game something happens that reinforces the Sundiata Gaines/Jughead theory. If that's the case, there's only one place this season is going.
Friday poll
15 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 11 March 2010 - #183 - The Jazz MVP Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 11, 2010 9:47 AM MST
in The Downbeat
21 comments
This should probably be the mailing it in edition. Here's my top 5 MVP candidates for the Jazz with no explanation. Discuss
Deron - Ninja
Andrei Kirilenko - If you watch the Jazz, you just know.
Carlos Boozer - Huge, consistent season
Wesley Matthews - Definition of diamond in the rough
Kyle Korver - He's so hot right now.
21 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 10 March 2010 - #182 - The Raining Threes Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 10, 2010 10:00 AM MST
in The Downbeat
8 comments
Man, if the Jazz keep shooting threes like this, my expectation for the playoffs just went way, way up. Over the last 5 games, they're 49/98 (50%) from downtown. Against the Clippers they were 4-15, a game which they lost of course. If you throw out that game, they're shooting 54% in those other 4 games.
What have we been asking for? An outside shooter. Maybe they're not going to create their own shots, but if you have Matthews, Memo, Deron, CJ, and Korver hitting threes, that's bad news for other teams. Very bad news.
Can they keep up their current pace? Probably not. But they're becoming a three-point threat and that's going to let our bigs go wild.
Make sure to give some love to Ross Siler today. I think he's one of the best beat writers in the league and Jazz fans are lucky to have him. Make sure to hit him up on twitter or email him, rsiler@sltrib.com.
Deron comes in at #5 on the top Illini athlete of the decade. Maybe if he had worn #1, he would have had the #1 spot? I'm not up on my Illini athletics, but I'd like to see who ranks ahead of him. An excerpt,
Walk into a typical freshman athlete’s dorm, and you’ll most likely see clothes strewn about, empty Gatorade bottles on the floor and shoes laying everywhere. But if you walked into Deron Williams’ apartment during his college days, picked up a magazine and put it down in the wrong place, he would be looming behind you, just waiting to put it back in its correct spot.
Before basketball games, Williams’ shoes have to be tied the right way, his socks have to be on correctly and his jersey has to be tucked in the way he likes it.
And when he was on the court as an Illini from 2002-05, that perfectionist mentality, along with an endlessly competitive spirit, kept him striving to become the best at everything he did.
Can I say that I have a theory about the Sundiata Gaines shot and jinxes? I'm terrified to even mention it. But if my theory is correct, talking about it wouldn't be a problem. Okay, I've said too much.
A little self-promotion. March 7th was my three-year anniversary of blogging. Three years in internet time equates to about 55 real years. I'll spare you the link to my old, old blog. But this has turned into something good for me and I have all of you to thank for it. I'll shut up now and get writing.
8 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 9 March 2010 - #181 - The Anti Mark Price Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 9, 2010 10:05 AM MST
in The Downbeat
6 comments
Proving that this league is a lot about match-ups, the Knicks beat the Hawks for the third time this season. That's two or three losses we could have used to sweeten that Knicks pick.
If we lose out on a position in the draft, thank the Hawks. You can also thank Wilson Chandler for his last-second block of Josh Smith that would have given Atlanta the win.
We're still not in a bad position though.
Seems that most of you are pretty bullish about the rest of the season starting tonight with the Bulls. Chicago has struggled mightily since losing Joakim Noah to plantar fasciitis. They were a top-ten team defensively, but have given up 100+ points in 7 straight games. They've also lost the last four straight without Noah.
Their offense has been terrible this season so if their defense is going downhill, they don't have much going for them right now.
If the Jazz are to have a good road trip, they need to take care of the Bulls tonight.
The KOOF will be wreaking havoc on the D-League again as he was sent down to the Flash yesterday. This will be his second trip this season. He had 16 & 7 in the one game he played in the last time he was in Orem.
I have to admit, the KOOF confuses me. He's not going to get a lot of playing time right now with everyone in front of him. But when he is in, he hasn't impressed. He's only getting PT for maybe 1-2 minutes a game, tops, so it's probably pretty hard to get into any kind of rhythm. Maybe it's just a case of getting more minutes for him? Those aren't going to come this year though so D-League makes sense for now.
We have Hornacek for a shooting coach to work with AK, Korver a bit, and wherever else he's needed. He's done a great job.
However, can we get him to work with everyone on their free throws? The Jazz are tied for fourth in the league in free throw attempts with 1,679 yet they're 24th in the league in percentage at 73.8%. Even if they were to shoot just the league average of 75.8%, that's a 1/2 a point a game more.
Last year they shot 77% and the year before that was 76%. So who's having a down year? Of the regulars, everyone is shooting below their career averages other than Boozer and Millsap. Even Korver is shooting below 80% for the first time in his career. Memo is shooting about his average though.
If the Jazz were to go back to 77%, they'd be almost a point a game better. Maybe that's not much, but when you give up as many fouls shots as you do, you need to make up for it on the other end.
This is why Denver is going to be hard to beat this year in the playoffs. They have more than 350 attempts than the next team in the league. They're shooting 77.3% and have 200+ more made free throws than the next team.
Do you know why Boozer yells AND-1 so loud? That's because the Jazz lead the league in AND-1%. It's shocking then that Boozer doesn't lead the league. But as a team, the Jazz have the highest percentage of getting to the line after a bucket. If they would ever call a foul for Millsap, we could add 75 more points a game.
6 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 8 March 2010 - #180 - The Terrible Case Of The Mondays Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 8, 2010 10:32 AM MST
in The Downbeat
19 comments
Lot's of delicious nuggets from Monson's conversation with Kevin O'Connor though it does just look like he copied his notes directly into his article. It ranges from those "Sons a bitches" Lakers to the Blazers offering a contract to Millsap, to other trade talk. The biggest part I think though was his talk about trading for a $20M player,
To illustrate the complexity of getting any substantive trade done, O'Connor said the Jazz attempted a few years ago to nail down a $20 million deal for a top-tier player. Both teams were game, but the financials didn't match up by a small margin and the trade was doomed.
I'm assuming he meant $20M/year player given that he states it was a top-tier player. That said, there's a lot of speculation as to who it could have been. I would think AK would have been part of the package given his contract. But given the deal, it might not be hard to narrow it down a bit. Any ideas?
There was a winner in the VoteDeron.com guess Deron's stats winner, but I haven't been able to track down the top three. The top person was very, very close to all of the stats though. Hopefully we'll have that this week. You know, because I'm sure everyone is anxious to find out.
20 games left in the regular season, give me your W/L prediction.
Now that Memo's had a couple of great games, what do we do with him? Obviously he's not going anywhere this season.
He's got two more years after this left on his deal. Is he going to be consistent for the rest of the season and for the next couple of years?
It's a hard place to be in because if you want to trade him, we need him to play well. But if he's playing well, why would you want to trade?
Recent success notwithstanding, I'm waiting for another 5-6 games before Memo is back. SLC Dunk night out is still a go. I'm putting together the top nights that you voted on and will get a new list to vote on shortly.
19 comments | 0 recs |
The Downbeat - 5 March 2010 - #179 - The Magic 8 Ball Edition
by Basketball John on Mar 5, 2010 9:45 AM MST
in The Downbeat
23 comments
The playoff teams in the west are pretty much set right now. You have LA, Dallas, Denver, Utah, Pheonix, OKC, SA, and Portland.
While a lot can still happen, Memphis, New Orleans, and Houston are at least 4 games out with just over 20 games left to play. That's a big climb for each of those teams. And if you look at their point differential, they all have negative values while all of the playoff teams have at least a +3.
So what's left is just playoff positioning. Obviously the Jazz, and other teams, want to avoid the Lakers until they get to the WCF. So that means playing as either the 2, 3, 6, or 7 seeds. We know what happens when you're the eighth seed. Obviously the 2 or 3 seed is where the Jazz want to be given that you have home-court and also avoid the Lakers in the second round.
So what kind of finish do the Jazz need to get one of those spots? If they're going to overtake a team, it will be Denver. Dallas' schedule is relatively easy for the rest of the season.
Denver on the other hand, had a tough road trip to finish out the month of March. They're @ NY, Boston, Orlando, Toronto, and Dallas. The problem is that they've shown they can beat pretty much any team in the league. But if they're going to trip, that's when it will be.
The Jazz on the other hand are @ Toronto, Indiana, and Washington before returning home to play the Knicks and Warriors. This could be when we see the Jazz pass the Nuggets.
Phoenix will play a big part in our playoff destiny. They host the Nuggets on April 13th and then fly out to Utah the next day for the last game of the season. I'm guessing there's going to still be something on the line with that one.
The only downside to being the 2 or 3 seed is that you have to play SA, OKC, or Portland. Those teams scare me.
I know Jerry is rolling over in his grave when the Jazz start shooting threes, but maybe he should be more open to it. The Jazz are 15-3 when they make at least 7 three pointers a game. When they're shooting the three well, they're playing well. They're shooting nearly 46% from the arc when that happens, so they're not just jacking up 30 a game. If they make 8 a game, they're 10-1.
When you just look at attempts, they're 20-9 when they take at least 15 three-pointers a game. So Sloan is right, as long as you're making them, that's fine.
Of course, having Memo being able to hit the three again is nice.
I'm sure someone keeps track of this, but I couldn't find anything on it. They have starting lineups, but does anyone keep track of the lineups used to close out the games?
It sure seems like the Jazz have used a different closing lineup each game of the season. It's mainly a rotation on the wing players, but outside of Deron, it could be anyone out there. I'd like to have someone pick Sloan's brain on the subject to see how he determines who's going to be on the floor in the closing minutes. If it match-ups? Whoever is hot? Who's playing D? Whatever formula he's using, it's working. Now if he could just work the same magic with starting lineups.
I still need to see Memo do what he did last night for at least 4 out of the next 6 or 7 games or so before I'm a believer again. But if he gets back on track, man, that would be huge. Since I haven't talked about LOST for a bit, I'd like to see the Jazz marketing team do a big budget playoff commercial based on the final scene of Tuesday's episode. This really isn't too big of a spoiler, but just in case, here's my idea after the jump. Just click on comments if you want to still comment and yet bypass the final DB.
23 comments | 0 recs |
Showing 1 - 8 of 143 Older
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
