Preview - Denver Nuggets @ Utah Jazz - Pre-season

The road starts here. Where that road leads to, I don't know. The great thing about the pre-season is that if your team has a great pre-season, it's obviously a sign to a spectacular regular season. If they tank or are ho-hum, well, you can say, "It's only the pre-season."

I don't know where the Jazz are heading this year. If they're headed towards another "finish in the middle of the pack, maybe make the second round" type of season, I don't know if I can take that kind of season again. I want a trade that vaults them to the top of the conference and league. If only my words could make that happen.

So for now, hope springs eternal. Though we've had basically the same team as the last two or three seasons, we don't really know what to expect and that's kind of exciting. I don't think we have anywhere to go but up from last year. I don't think a 4-6 game improvement is out of the question. Just a couple of years ago we had 54 wins with this current team.

If the Jazz practice what they're preaching this year, defense, that alone might pick us up 1-2 wins. And heaven help us if we can just break even on the road this season. We're not that far off. I think I've been saying that the last two seasons though.

So until we start seeing results, just kick back and relax and see where this season takes us.

Up first on the list are the Nuggets of Denver. This is the team that of course knocked us off the top of the Northwest Division last year. They too have pretty much the same team coming back. I really expect a 3-team race for the division title this season. So if we're going to take it back, it's likely to go through Denver and Portland.

The Nuggets made the biggest move of the season last year in my opinion when they dealt AI for Billups just after the season started. Disappointing to Jazz fans because it gave them a true PG and leader that hampered them in years past. They played consistently well all season and ended up with the #2 seed in the west.

Some things I'm looking forward to "seeing" (since it's not televised) tonight

• Deron's start toward his first All-star game
• The crazy rotation - With the group of vets gone from last year, there's a lot of PT to be had. Who's going to fill those minutes? How much will we see Millsap and Boozer on the floor?
• How does CJ do? He earned a bit of praise from Sloan during training camp, something Sloan doesn't do often.
• How have Fess and the KOOF advanced? Not much would please me more than to see one or both of them become major contributors.
• Ronnie P and Maynor battle. Apparently it's very close. They could see some floor time together as well.
• Seeing the Nuggets get destroyed.