I'm looking forward to the match-up tonight between DWill and Tyreke Evans. Evans is probably the only PG in the league that has a size advantage over Deron. He's listed at 6' 6'', 220 while Deron is 6' 3", 207.
For comparison, Brandon Roy is 6' 6", 211. We saw Deron shut down Roy despite a bit of a size difference. He's not going to be able to play Evans like he did Roy over the course of 42 minutes or so, but Deron's going to need a lot of help on the picks so that Evans can't get a head of steam driving into the lane all night.
The last time the the two went head-to-head, 'Reke got to the line 19 times in a Jazz loss. In the second game against the Kings this season, Deron didn't play but Evans still got 15 FTAs but the Jazz won. He averages just a little under 7 a game for the season.
Excellent post about CJ by clarkpojo. Excellent comments from everyone as well. I'll just add my two cents. Most Jazz fans consider players to be no less than family. Love them or hate them, they're still family. So it's understandable that when we see someone with so much talent and so much going for them struggle, it's easy to get frustrated. We know what they're capable of. So when someone tells him he sucks , which isn't right, it's understandable. We've all said similar stuff to our families for sure.
They say that sports is 20% physical and 80% mental. Maybe they don't say that but that's what people say they say. For CJ, I would split it at 5/95. Completely a mental thing for him right now. I for one would hope he stops trying to please everyone and just go about his business. Instead of apologizing to the fans, I wish he would have the following type of conversation (from Airplane),
Joey : I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't
work hard enough on defence. And he says that lots of
times, you don't even run down court. And that you
don't really try . . . except during the playoffs.
Murdock : The hell I don't!! ( grabs joey by collar ) LISTEN KID!
I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA.
I'm out there busting my buns every night. Tell your
old man to drag Walton and Denier up and down the
court for 48 minutes.
He's going to keep getting criticism even if he has a bad game after reeling off 10 good ones in a row. That's the beast of being a professional athlete. Someone's got to teach him how to get mentally tough.
Some nice hi-res pics of Deron from his SLAM article last year.
Being able to sign Ilgauskas would be a pretty big get for the Jazz. But I would put the chances at signing with the Jazz at 0. As Siler put in his article, Z's has a big attachment to Cleveland. That's probably the odds on favorite place for him to land.
However, from Yahoo! we get this,
But some of these other teams are coming after him hard, coming after him with multiyear deals worth more than the Cavs can offer and much higher than the veteran's minimum salary.
So Ilgauskas is going to have to decide if his heart is in Cleveland or if he wants to make more dough somewhere else. Three of the teams are thought to be the Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, and Dallas Mavericks.
With even money, he's not likely to pick the Jazz. And it looks like other teams are willing to give him some cash, something the Jazz can't do right now. The Jazz can't offer much given that they traded Brewer to save money.
Thanks for the response for the SLC Dunk night out. We got quite a few responses. I'll get the top selections and vote from there and then see what the best way to go to get tickets would be. If anyone that reads this works for the Jazz ticket office or knows someone, please email me. It looks like we'll have at least 20+ right now. If anyone has any experience with group sales, let me know. Thanks.