The Big Turkey? I guess that might work for Kanter. At least the nickname comes from one of his teammates and not a reporter trying to force a nickname on a player. But when Coach Corbin talks about Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors, you can't help but hear a little grin in his words. From Jody Genessy,
The Jazz were running a routine drill in which the ball is thrown off the backboard, the rebounder makes an outlet pass and a fast break play is executed.
Only problem?
Favors and Kanter both wanted the basketball in their hands.
Glass. Crash. Clash.
"They were fighting each other just for the rebound to get out into transition," Corbin said, smiling about the good problem. "I was excited about it from that day."
One thing I would like to see Kanter do better is hitting the outlet quicker. He's grabbing the board just fine but seems to take a few seconds in recognizing where Harris or Watson are. Maybe he can teach them some Turkish so that they can yell at him?
At least we don't have to hear "Get it Memo Enes!"
The digital ink wasn't even dry on Paul Westphal's firing before Jerry Sloan's name came up to replace him. The Sacramento Bee said this (via SheridanHoops),
This all came down pretty quickly, which probably means Geoff Petrie and the Maloofs are still studying their alternatives. They can go one of two ways here - give the job to assistant Keith Smart on an interim basis for the remainder of the season or try to make a big strike with one of the established coaches available. The list of the latter is fairly impressive: Jerry Sloan, Larry Brown, Don Nelson and Phil Jackson, though it sounds like Phil wants to take off a year. Sloan would seem like an obvious choice here. I am hearing he wants to coach again, likes some of the Kings' talent, and likes coaching in small markets.
Then late yesterday afternoon, it was announced that Keith Smart, the interim coach, had been given a two-year deal to stay on as a head coach.
Jerry Sloan wanting to coach DeMarcus Cousins? I don't see it.
Again though, every time there's an opening in the league, Sloan's name will be brought up as a replacement. Will he coach somewhere again? Perhaps, but he's one of the few coaches that can have his choice of a team.
A happy belated 80th birthday to Coach Layden. I really, really wish he had some desire to do his own talk show. I think he has the perfect balance though of a retired life and popping up now and again for interviews and whatnot. Here's more from ABC 4,
Do yourself a favor and kill some time on Youtube and watch all of the Frank Layden stuff you can.
I've wondered why Kanter hasn't been taking many outside shots. It's good that he's working on his post game first according to Corbin but wasn't one of the big attractions of Kanter was that he had range to the three-point line? Does nobody remember the the video where he made every shot?
Kidding aside, being able to hit from the outside would open up thing for him and for Favors or whoever is playing opposite of him. I'd like to see how he puts the ball on the floor as well after giving a pump fake.
A fine interview with Coach Corbin at Utah Jazz 360 from last year. On how he became the milkman,
Speaking of food, where did you get the nickname Milkman?
The milk mustache started right here in Utah. We did the first campaign that I'm aware of with the milk mustache. Utah Dairy Farmers had a campaign going to drink more milk. I was the player they selected to do the commercial and to do the signage on it. I had the first milk mustache.
And thus started the fine tradition passed down to all young Jazz wing players. Does anyone know who the other milkmen were between Corbin's days and Brewer's (and now CJ's)?