The Best Links In All The World, In All The NBA, In All The Universe... 19 October 2009

Giricek, "Something that would have been useful to me 5 years ago!"
The new two-step traveling rule in the NBA

JazzFanz.com • View topic - Here's your Green Jerseys!
I hope they're not that short.

Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap surprisingly still together with Jazz
As much as Millsap, 24, wants to be a starter, he isn't upset at Boozer, 27, for staying and keeping his spot. In fact, the two are good friends, sitting beside each other in the locker room and on the bench during timeouts. The two will also be on the court together this season, with Boozer capable of playing some center and Millsap versatile enough to slide to small forward against certain matchups. "We have fun together," Boozer said. "We're both strong, we're both really explosive and we can play defense pretty good together. ... The good thing is we have a deep team so we can mix up our lineups a little bit."

FanHouse Preview: Jazz -- NBA FanHouse
But whatever configuration of players Utah coach Jerry Sloan has, you better believe he'll coach the heck out of them. Sloan was named to the Hall of Fame last month, but Jazz officials will make sure Sloan, who hates it when somebody makes a fuss over him, won't be introduced before games as any sort of living legend.

I'm loving the low predictions this year
3. Utah Jazz During a long stretch of missed games due to injury last season, Millsap showed why the Jazz could do without Boozer. Now, Coach Jerry Sloan isn’t certain whom to start. Of course, if Boozer’s healthy, he’s the obvious choice. He is, after all, a former All-Star, who’s still in his prime. Another possibility is that Sloan plays Boozer at center some of the time, pairing him alongside Millsap at the four spot. One thing is certain, though, as long as the Jazz have Deron Williams running the show at point guard, they should be competitive. The Jazz should fight for the eighth seed in the West.

I would be very surprised.
The Jazz have a couple of interesting rookies in their camp. Paul Harris from Syracuse and Wesley Matthews from Marquette; Harris is a Jerry Sloan type player, he won't take bad shots and he plays very physical defense. Wesley Matthews is a great shooter who can spread the court. They only have 13 players under contract and it wouldn't surprise me if they kept both of them.

Another Jazz season preview
Of course, the reason the Jazz are so eager to part with Boozer is because they have Paul Millsap waiting in the wings to replace him. Millsap isn’t as good as Boozer, but he’s not much worse, and he is much younger and much cheaper. The best way to describe Millsap is "bull in a china shop". He’s not a guy you’d call "skilled," but he’s really strong, and is constantly in motion. He gets most of his points in the flow of the offense, off of cuts or offensive rebounds, which means you don’t have to call a lot of plays for him. When he does get the ball, there’s nothing fancy going on. He’s going to bull his way to the rim and look for contact. Defensively, he has a similar approach. He’s strong enough to push guys out of post position, and he’s very aggressive going for steals and blocks. That aggressive play helps him make up for his size disadvantage, but it also tends to get him in foul trouble (he had the second-highest foul rate among players who played at least 2000 minutes), and he’s going to have to be a bit more careful if he’s going to be the starting power forward in the future.

Is this a copy and paste from last season?
Matt Harpring is a tough as nails type player that gives his all at both ends of the floor but is out indefinitely after undergoing what was thought to be routine surgery to remove bone spurs over the summer. The swingman suffered an infection that forced him to be hospitalized for four days and treated with intravenous antibiotics for a month.

Sloan Reflects as Career Enters Twilight
SALT LAKE CITY -- Jerry Sloan was in his fourth season as Utah's coach and had just one playoff series win to show for it. So when Sloan's Jazz prepared to play the deciding Game 5 of a first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers in May 1992, there was some uneasiness. via BDL "[The series] was 2-2 and going back to Salt Lake,'' said Charlotte coach Larry Brown, then coach of the Clippers. "Before the game, Jerry told me, if he loses, he might not be the coach next year. "That was 18 years ago.'' We'll never know what might have happened had the Jazz lost. Utah won 98-89 to take the series. The Jazz went on to defeat Seattle 4-1 in the second round before losing to Portland 4-2 in the Western Conference finals. By then, Sloan's job was secure. (via BDL)

What the comment? Of course it's not Stockton and Malone, but I would say the Jazz have more total talent now then they've ever had.
I love Jerry Sloan. He’s as classy as they come and is one of the NBA’s top all-time coaches. Unfortunately he hasn’t had a ton of talent to work with since Karl Malone and John Stockton retired.

The Baseline Sees All: Utah Jazz - Bethlehem Shoals
Why else you should care: Because at this point, the Jazz are no longer strictly Sloan-ball. Internal conundrums aside, this team is, in its own quiet way, pushing toward the future, and nurturing at least one of the league's most scintillating young stars. We might be on the verge of one of those spells where the Jazz put Utah on the national map. Really, is there any pro franchise that can so totally affect the way outsiders see a city or state?

Utah Jazz - It's A Jazz Thing
These aren't the Utah Jazz you're thinking about