The Downbeat - 14 May 2010 - #229 - The Bucket List Edition

So they were talking a bit about CJ on Locke yesterday and his improved play. I agree, it does seem like we've seen more smart CJ than doh! CJ lately and especially to close out the season.

In fact, March and April of this year might have been CJ's best performance of his career. He shot 46% from the field and nearly 35% from three. He put up 12.3, 3.7 boards, and just over 2 assists a game.

This was also his best playoff performance by far. Scroll down a bit on B-R.com and you'll see the numbers jump out at you.

So the question is: Is this CJ's ceiling? 12 points, 3-4 boards, 45% shooting, and 35-37% from three? That's still a solid player even if that's all he's got. Most players don't enter their prime for a few more years but CJ was a very young player when he came into the league so he might be a year or two ahead of everyone else. That would mean he should be entering his prime NBA-wise for the next few seasons at least. If he can stay healthy, I don't see any reason why we should get the same production out of CJ that he's given over the past two months.

Only a little related to the Jazz and LOST ends in a couple of weeks, so bear with me,

So how is that related to the Jazz? Well, of course if you're awake, you know that the Cavs went down to the Celtics last night. As if we weren't going to get enough LeBron FA hysteria, now we get another full month of it. SLAM came up with this improbable scenario though,

Off-Season Scenario from the Moon #1: The Jazz win the #1 pick in the draft, courtesy of the Knicks. They offer John Wall (let’s be real here) and anybody else the Cavs want, except for Deron Williams. For some reason, LeBron forgets that Utah has no black people in it and signs off on this. The Jazz win four consecutive NBA titles and America is confused.

Second, just when I think how bad the Jazz have had it by being denied by Jordan, the whole city of Cleveland might not recover. They were taken down by Jordan as well but now their own Jordan might be leaving.

Third, if LeBron does leave, Booze might be able to head home.

Basketball-reference.com talks about what positions you should build around for playoff success. It used to be that you had to build around a great PG or center.

In the MJ era it was the SG who was most important. That of course was because MJ was a SG. Since his retirement, it looks like the biggest position has been the PF spot.

So from the past decade, if you build around the SG and PF, you have a great shot at being successful in the playoffs. Does Millsap give us that? Does Matthews fit that mold? Are those two players that you can build around? There was one year when the Piston won it where the best player on the court was a PG (Billups). Deron obviously has that. Can he buck the trend?