Not surprisingly, Jerry Sloan is nowhere to be found on this list of coaches whose job could be on the line. In fact, if the list included all 30 coaches, he would be number 30 on that list.
Short of committing a felony, what would it take to get the Jazz to fire Sloan? I'm not asking for it of course but I can't think of anything basketball-related where the front office would dismiss him.
It's hard to even think about how poor the team would have to play for even the thought of letting Jerry go enter into the mind of Greg Miller. This team, not matter if they're underachieving, would ever be such a poor team under Sloan that he would get the boot. Even if the team went on a 10-game losing streak, there might be some fans calling for someone's head but would it be enough for the team to start thinking about making a change?
It's easy to argue that Sloan has the most job security in all of the major pro sports in the US. That's a testament to how hard he works and how much he gets out of his players.
NBA TV has been showing the Thunder/Jazz game from last season. That game still makes me nervous even though I know the ending. Here's an excerpt from my recap of that game,
Durant's 45 points were just short of his career high. His line shows just how dominant he was yet it doesn't show where those shots were coming from. He was nailing shots from everywhere. What's scary was how effortless he can put up 30-footers. He's got a unique set of arms that lets him coil up and let it fly with just a little power. He had a turnaround 40-footer at the end of regulation that he took falling backwards and off his back foot and it bounced off the back of the rim. Take that in. It wasn't short, it was long and almost in.
I'm looking forward to that Halloween game against OKC. I'll have to DVR that one as well as 5 p.m. local is a prime Trick or Treating time. I might have to think of a Jazz/Thunder-centric costume.
Almost forgot that they're going to be inducting the 1992 Dream Team into the HOF. From the Jazz,
Can I just say how anxious I am for the NBA this season? I'm not just talking about the Jazz, that's a given. There's so much going on in the league right now, even if the league is moving towards becoming the WWE. If this photo and this one don't scream professional wrestling, I don't know what does. The sooner you come to grips with this, the better. I remember when I didn't want to believe that wrestling is faked either.
Say what you want about about the Heat, you're going to watch to at least root against them. You're also going to get force-fed heavy doses of DwyaLeBrosh whether you like it or not.
On the flip side of that, you have the Northwest Division which is arguably the best in the league. The Jazz, Thunder, Blazers, and the Nuggets should all be in the playoffs. I want the teams in the division to do well so long as the Jazz are a couple games ahead of them come the end of the season. It kind of has a college conference feel to it. It's not the same thing but wins are a bit sweeter when you take out good teams. The Jazz of course haven't had problems beating the good teams, it's been showing up for the likes of the Timberwolves that's been the problem. It looks like we took care of two birds with the Al trade.
Thank goodness football is almost here to bridge the gap to basketball. For the first time in a long time, I'm looking forward not to just the Jazz, but basketball overall.
Thursday poll,