If you're keeping score at home, the Jazz won 3 road games during the pre-season or roughly three times the number they won all of last year on the road.
They're still a young team, but most of them have been in the league several years now. So as far as having maturity and experience on the road, there are really no more excuses.
We'll see right off if the pre-season success carries over into the regular season when the Jazz open the season at Denver. The Jazz have had relative success there splitting the last 8 games.
With two of our shooters out in Korver and Miles, Deron Williams and Memo are really our only three-point threats. Wes Matthews could be there as well should he stay with the team. He shot 44% from the arc.
Jerry probably won't miss threes being put up as often as he would prefer to get all of the points in the paint. Of course teams can just pack the inside now so somebody is going to have to hit those.
Speaking of Matthews, this station in Madison, WI is reporting that he has officially made the roster,
Former Madison Memorial and Marquette basketball star Wesley Matthews tells WKOW-TV he is officially on the Utah Jazz regular season roster. Matthews wasn't even drafted out of college, but he beat out forward Ronald Dupree and guard Paul Harris to make the roster.
From the interview, they were just talking about surviving the cuts. I don't think anything is official yet and I didn't hear Matthews say anything about officially making the roster.
So how did everyone do during the pre-season? I'll group them into great, good, meh, and bad. II didn't include those that aren't with the team any more or are out with injuries. Let's get the bad out of the way.
BAD: The KOOF and Fess. They're still young, I get that. They both still looked young though. Both had a chance to step it up this pre-season and were disappointing. The KOOF couldn't hit a shot and Fess couldn't stop hacking. Maybe this is more disappointment because I was expecting more out of these two. Still early though.
Also bad, the Jazz getting balls rejected like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.
MEH: Couldn't really find anyone to put in this category. Ronnie Price could have been here, but 3 games doesn't really give us a good sample size. With his injury, I couldn't really make a fair assessment.
GOOD: Paul Millsap, Ronnie Brewer, AK, Eric Maynor, road victories, and the Jazz D.
Millsap could have moved up to great, but he had a couple of games where he didn't play well.
Ronnie B was on the verge of great. He made some mid-range jumpers but didn't shoot the three well. GIven that's what we're going to need shortly, it knocks him down a bit. I'd like to see him knock some shots down consistently. I could be persuaded to move him up, but right now he was at expectations.
Maynor didn't shoot well but was 50% from downtown. He gets a good because he came in and performed above what most were expecting. Handled the ball and the games well.
GREAT: Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur, and Carlos Boozer.
First up, DWill. Averaged 19 & 6 in 28 minutes. He's also shooting 94% from the FT line. Would like to see the three-point percentage up a bit and the turnovers come down though. He's ready to go.
Memo has been on fire. He's shooting 50% and nailing 2/3rds of his 3PA. Can't wait for Money to start the season.
As has been said many times here, no one has ever doubted Boozer's basketball skills (well, maybe come playoff time). He's been a monster this pre-season and has kept his mouth shut. Have to give credit where credit is due. Let's hope this is what we see for the next 8 months.
The fact that this wasn't caught on video sorely disappoints me. With Deron being a Twitter/Iphone expert, I expect more.