For a variety of reasons - most that stem with me being out of town right now - today's entry is going to be short.
- The Jazz are rocking right now, regardless of who is in or out of the game. This *is* just the pre-season though. Are the Jazz ahead of the curve, or just playing in games that don't count? What do you think?
- Often the refrain for this season for Fesenko seems to be "...if only he can develop into Greg Ostertag...," I think that this is actually selling his ceiling short. Ostertag was a shot blocking fool, but he was far from proficient on offense, as documented here. I'm not drinking the Ukrainian Kool-Aid or anything here, I just think that Fesenko should be able to average more than 4.89 ppg and 5.68 rpg over his career.
- Remember a few off-seasons ago when everyone, including actual scouts and talking heads at ESPN.com went ga-ga over Mouhamed Saer-Sene because of a YouTube video displaying his exploits? Well, Basketball Mix Video specialist Misiek produced an Ostertag video that makes him seem like a guy who averaged more than 5 ppg. Check this out:
- Thanks to Basketball John and his polls we here at SLCDUNK have received some radio mention over the last few weeks. More than a few people wandered over here after being told about us by these radio guys. I hope we can keep them here. We do good works, and don't just write nasty things about your loudest radio personalities.
- Speaking of that smart, funny, talented, and attractive Basketball John, he sent me this and I don't know what to think about it: SLAM MAG (Online) suggests that Deron Williams is the 8th best player in the NBA right now. There wasn't enough stats in the article for my liking, but I think we can agree that he's a Top 10 Talent right now. [BBJ with the assist]
- The "actual" NBA season is upon us. I think it's okay to re-post this breakdown of our schedule for the benefit for all the new people who may have signed up in the last few weeks. (Also, good to re-post this before someone else presents it as original research, this was posted on August 11th) The Ultimate Utah Jazz 2010-2011 Regular Season Schedule (56k beware)
- C.J. Miles is a guy we're all hoping has a break-out season for us. I'm sure over the season we're all pretty much going to debate over if he should start or come off the bench. How about we propose that it shouldn't matter if he starts or not, just as long as he keeps knocking down shots (including free throws which before last seasons' playoffs were a problem for him) he'll get plenty of playing time and touches this year?
- The assumption of the point guard pecking order concerns me. We think that Earl Watson is the number two guy, but last night Ronnie Price had 7 assists and 3 turn overs in 20 minutes of action. In comparison, Earl had 4 assists and 3 turn overs in 21 minutes of action. Bringing up the rear (or something else entirely) Sunny G had 3 assists in just 7 minutes of action, and no turn overs. These guys are still fighting for the pecking order right? It hasn't already been won by Earl because "we think he's the best guy," right?
- On March 17th, 1990, John Stockton had 34 points (64 fg%), 16 assists, and 6 steals - in a loss to the Kings. Imagine how good those early Stockton and Malone teams would have been if the Jazz brass were getting good team mates back then, instead of waiting till 1996 to do it...
- ...case in point, this guy started over 120+ games for the Jazz during the Stockton and Malone era.
- Marc Iavaroni did manage to score 4.5 ppg as a starter one season though, but it's not hard to see that the front office wasn't really bringing in the Hornaceks (<-- Meme alert!) and Memos back in those days.
- Lastly, should the Sunday Syncopation be moved ahead in the weekend to the Saturday Syncopation? What do you guys think?