DWill is indoctrinating the new guys with the Laker hate,
"I hate ’em, you know," he said the other day. "I hate the Lakers. They’re so good. I hate them because they win all the time. They’re a tough team. … We definitely talk about it. It’s not a secret. We hate the Lakers."
We know Ronnie Price already hates them. One of the things I left off my season preview was the goal to beat the Lakers. The team wiped out 10 years of losing to the Spurs last season as they swept them. The Spurs aren't the Lakers, but until they can start beating them in the regular season, and more importantly in the post-season, that hate is going to be there. I'd rather beat the Lakers though than to have broken the streak in San Antonio.
Jody Genessy brings up a good point from Saturday's scrimmage,
After the open scrimmage Saturday, the more pertinent question might be: Will Kirilenko or Paul Millsap start at power forward?
Millsap played with the white team which consisted mainly of the reserves. It's just a scrimmage so I don't think it says much but it is worth noting that most of the starting-type players were on the same team. I thought they normally split things up a little more evenly.
Though Sloan couldn't care less, I wonder how much it would hurt Millsap's psyche not being the starter after all of these years waiting. He even speaks about becoming a starter after the scrimmage,
"I know I worked hard to get where I'm at, to earn this spot. There's nothing better than to work your way into the starting lineup."
Someone has to come off the bench. One of the group of Miles, Bell, AK, or Millsap is going to have to be the 6th man. It could be too that it rotates depending on the matchup that night. However, Sloan has said in the past that he prefers to give players a defined role on the team.
I wouldn't read anything into it though this early.
CJ's wrist sprain that he received at the scrimmage (on a nice block on Sap) is going to be re-evaluated today. Everything should be good with it.
UPDATE: x-ray negative. Cue George Costanza
Should we start devaluing Sloan's comments on players? Relatively speaking, he's been doling out compliments like candy over the past couple of seasons. He'll still come down hard on players and say they need to get their act together, but I still don't remember him giving out praise like he has. Speaking about Jeremy Evans after the scrimmage,
"He's a pretty intelligent basketball player, not just (with) athletic ability," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "His intelligence of seeing and knowing what's going on is not by accident.
"A lot of people have got the athletic ability," Sloan added, "but they can't do anything with it. He seems to do quite a bit."
He'll be the first to tell you that Evans has a long way to go but it's nice to see rookies making an impression on Sloan.
Francisco Elson on why he joined the Jazz,
Great organization. Awesome coach ... probably a Hall of Famer, if not already in the Hall of Fame.
Did someone let him know?