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Yep, it's time for you, the SLC Dunk community, to stage another coup and Occupy Downbeat #1280. It's been several months since I've turned the Downbeat completely over to you folks, but there's too much great content on the site right now. Time to give you your due.
via media.giphy.com
(Forgive me; I'm in the middle of a House of Cards binge. That's not the last you'll see of Frank Underwood in this Downbeat.)
First up: We are slouching towards the trade deadline, and Amar's already given some thoughts on what will happen, with input from our resident capologists Clarkpojo and Peter J. Novak.
On top of that, stocktonjr (with his first FanPost!) has put together some scenarios of his own:
This year is an interesting scenario. We are somewhere between mediocre and cellar-dwellers. This is not really the place to be if you ask me. We have talented young players whose deals end soon. We have veteran guys that could certainly help a team make a championship push. And we have large contracts coming off the books that could help teams that have taken bigger bites than they can swallow. This is a situation some GM's would dread for and some would dream of. As couch managers, we will always have our 2 cents to put in (although being as biased as we human beings are, we likely view our 2 cents to be more in the value of 200-2,000,000 depending on who we are).
Being an avid Jazz fan since I can even remember (and I am not just saying that, my first wird was ball), I have come up with a few trade ideas that I view as reasonable and potentially helpful for each team. I would love to hear some feedback from all you other Dunkers whether or not you would pull the trigger if you were the GM and why or why not.
Click through for the individual proposals. I'm awful at proposing trades, personally, so I love reading when others put them together.
Oh, and one last thought before moving on from trade talk...Remember, if you see, read, or hear a trade rumor that involves the Jazz, it's almost guaranteed that it did NOT come from the Jazz organization. I swear they've killed potential trades OUT OF PURE SPITE because the other party blabbed to someone that a deal was in the works. It's some serious Underwood ish up in there.
(Okay, I don't necessarily believe that. But they REALLY don't like gossiping about trades. So if you see a rumor, consider the source, and consider who it came from -- an opposing GM, an agent, a player, whomever. It almost certainly wasn't a Jazz employee.)
JuMu has been working on a series of posts examining the young Jazz players, beginning with a general overview and moving through a comparison of Gordon Hayward to his draft peers. This time, he does the same with Derrick Favors:
In regards to his development, Favors had a fairly unique situation of being a 3rd overall pick playing on a team where there were two arguably better big men on the team even into his 3rd season (Kanter disagrees with this situation being unique). This may have hurt his development, or on the flip-side this may have been a suitable method of easing him into being a solid starting big man of the future for this team while keeping him healthy. Favors appears to be doing quite well this year as an anchoring big man in the middle and has kept out of foul trouble for the increased role where no big man from his draft class has played more than 2 MPG more than him. Let me know your stance on this situation.
Frank, what do you have to say about youth?
Speaking of comparisons, thatdoolinkid has made an interesting one between our swagtastic Alec Burks and a prominent playoff performer from last season. Observe:
Alec Burks has exceeded many folks expectations this year with his production off the bench. In fact, this is his first year ever with an above 15 (i.e. above average) PER. However, I don't like 1 number as a quantifier. I like multiple numbers. So, to quantify his season, behold the chart!
Some of our staffers already guessed doolin's mystery comparison; click through to his post to hazard your own guess. That is, if you have the patience for guessing.
FanPoster b.mc.d has gathered a cool collection of alternate Jazz uniform and logos designs from across the interwebs, including some of his (her?) own designs. A taste:
Styles upon styles. Click through for more. After all, it's important to look good, isn't it, Frank?
Finally, SFWvladmir found this video of Gordon Hayward chilling with a professional League of Legends player:
They actually find some pretty interesting common ground as two of the best in the world in their respective fields. I'm a gamer myself (although I've never touched League of Legends), so seeing Gordon in this context was especially cool for me, but I think G-Time shows some personality you might not have seen from him before.
And hey, games are the perfect way to unwind after a stressful day, right, Frank? 
Thank you for your time, Mr. Underwood.
via i.crushable.com