So the NBA schedule has finally been released, which means I/we/everyone can finally plan out the rest of the year and the first half of 2013. Jazz-centric schedule post here.
First thing I do when the schedule is released is circle the late/national/west coast games, which are a mutantly gigantic thorn in my side, because they make me have to take the day off from work whenever possible (my one co-worker that knows I do this thinks I'm going get fired). This year's schedule looks more work-friendly than previous years, for whatever reason. Hurray!
What's the first thing you look for when the schedule comes out? Are you a Stockton/Sloan type, where you "take it one game at a time"? Are you looking for marquee matchups/opposing players? Are you looking for national games so you know when you get a break from hammers, Houdinis, and heads on sticks?
Lot of posts going up on SLC Dunk in the past week about three-point shooting.
Kevin O'Connor has spent the summer collecting 3-point shooters.
The problem is...
As CJ Miles said during locker room cleanout, "We were basically told not to shoot [three-pointers]. That wasn’t what we did. When you shot them was pretty much out of sense of urgency. That was pretty much the only time we shot them. It wasn’t really part of our offense."
But Tyrone Corbin has had the benefits of summer league and will have the benefits of training camp and no lockout and all summer to think about implementing a new and improved system that incorporates the three-point shot, right?
Here's Jeff Hornacek from a few days ago:
Our offense isn’t geared to shoot three pointers. In the summer [league], I think we scored, in 40 minutes, I think we scored 90 points one time. I think we only took six three-point shots and made two of them. So you go back to the whole thing when I was playing back in the day in Phoenix, we were averaging 120 points a game and we didn’t shoot threes…I don’t think there’s a correlation [between three pointers and] scoring. We do need to have that weapon, but our offense isn’t one that we’re designing three-point shots.
The next question to be asked: Have these three guys have been signed to act as three-point shooting threats, rather than three-point shooters?
Since it's impossible that they would be on the floor and never shoot, and if they will be shooting mostly two-point shots, let's look at their 2P% last season.
Mo Williams: .449 overall; .406 on shots taken 16-23 feet; shots outside 16 feet accounted for 72% of all shots taken
Marvin Williams: .446; .339 on shots taken 16-23 feet; shots outside 16 feet accounted for 57% of all shots taken
Randy Foye: .410; .319 on shots taken 16-23 feet; shots outside 16 feet accounted for 73% of all shots taken
What happens when you sign a bunch of three-point shooters that are asked not to shoot threes, so they shoot twos, but we don't necessarily want them shooting twos?
Spencer of Salt City Hoops tweeted a few days ago that the Jazz will wear 90s throwbacks next season for a few games.
Rank these in order from throwbacks you'd most like to see on the court next season to throwbacks you'd least like to see:
1) original white (home) uniform with purple/yellow/green J-note
2) original purple (road) uniform with yellow J-note
3) original green (road alternate) uniform with yellow J-note (the ones we were invincible in when we wore them in '09-'10)
4) white (home) mountain uniform
5) purple (road) mountain uniform
6) black/copper road alternates from mountain uniform era
7) any Utah Stars uniform
If your memory is fuzzy or you are young, click here for pictures.
(The following has nothing to do with the Jazz. I just found it really funny.)
There's this show called "Trust Us with Your Life" right now in which a group of improv guys/comedians (including many of the guys from "Whose Line Is It Anyway?") act out scenes from a guest star's life. In this episode, the guest star is Mark Cuban. The shtick of the game "Sideways" is that the guys are acting out the scene while lying down:
The Timberwolves have assembled/are assembling possibly the whitest team in the modern NBA era. The Jazz, meanwhile, have pretty much ditched all white representation except for Gordon Hayward and to a lesser extent, Enes Kanter.