via www.nba.com
Even the official Utah Jazz site doesn't have the teams mentioned for the Rocky Mountain Revue, but if you follow The Fan Sports pre-sale link, you can find the following teams,
- Dallas Mavericks
- Atlanta Hawks
- San Antonio Spurs
- New Jersey Nets
- Golden State Warriors
- FIBA National Team
- D-League All-Stars
So we should be seeing such players as Brook Lopez, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Goran Dragic, and Anthony Randolph in addition to our players. The Hawks didn't have any 2008 picks and the Mavs had just the one. I was hoping to have Chicago here again to see Rose, but that's not happening. I guess the teams could change between now and then, but this is pretty much it.
We're down one NBA team from last year, but they've added the FIBA team and Dl-League All-stars. So it's not the death of the RMR yet. But there aren't any big name players this year. Lopez is probablyt the biggest one. But we all go to see the Jazz team, right?
Should be a great Revue. For the Jazz we'll see Koufos, Fesenko, Almond, and maybe CJ Miles. He got QOd again. The brass was a little disappointed that he didn't play last year and so he may play just to please them. He didn't want to play because of the chance of injury. He and his agent also stated that there was a lot of interest from other teams, but I don't recall who those other teams were. If CJ wants to earn some brownie points with Sloan, he'll play. I wish the Jazz would just give him a guaranteed contract and be done with it. He's an obvious upgrade over Hapring, but Matt still has two long years on his deal.
And there will be outrage if I don't see Fess and Kosta on the floor at the same time.
More Kosta
Surprisingly, Kosta isn't the only Kosta in the league. Kosta Perovic is another 7-footer and hails from Croatia. Seems like if you want your kid to be 7 feet, you name him Kosta. And should his nickname be the Big K?
I like what I've read and heard about Kousos. He sounds like a gym rat that just wants to play ball. He doesn't have any distractions and will be a hard worker (Sloan's only requirement).
And I might have been a little hard on Ante Tomic in my draft recap. Part of it was that it was late, I was tired, and I was just trying to finish up. I still don't think we'll see him with the Jazz, but there's definitely potential there. He just doesn't seem like he'll ever be able to put on the weight that's necessary to play in the NBA. Too bad we probably won't be the first team to have the triple-towers. Maybe we'd see it in the Revue, but not likely.
Other news
Millsap had his team option picked up. Shocker. I know the Jazz would prefer to keep him on the cheap, and I see the advantages of the rookie scale, but it seems like there should be some option for the rookies to get some type of performance pay or bonus. You don't want to have to pay players based on hype in case they don't pan out, but having guys like Millsap and Williams playing for relative peanuts doesn't seem right. I'm sure something like that would open up all kinds of loopholes though. If they're good enough to stick around for a few years, then that second contract should make up for it.
Speaking of Williams, he and Boozer are in Vegas training for the Olympics. It would be great to be there right now. You have the Olympic practices going on along with the Vegas summer league. I don't know where you could get any more basketball right now.
And of course tomorrow is the first official day Williams could agree to a new deal. The length of the new deal is what seems to be the discussion right now. It could range from 3-5 years with a player option. Of course we'd all love to see Deron here for 5 years +. I'm guessing the length of the contract depends on how Deron sees the stability of the team. We know he loves the SLC. The team will have to assure him that they'll be doing what's necessary to keep and bring in players. It's kind of a catch-22 because having Deron here will help the Jazz in what has traditionally been free agent hell. But I'm sure Deron has to be convinced that the team can bring in FAs.
I'm predicting a 4-year deal with a player option for the fifth. He could set the tone for Chris Paul's similar deal.
Crazy month coming ahead.