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Utah Jazz Trending Up - The Downbeat #1539

By Dustin LaMarr
"They can be mad at me. I understand that. Everybody wants to play. They just can’t be mad at each other."
"They can be mad at me. I understand that. Everybody wants to play. They just can’t be mad at each other."
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

First off, I'd like to extend a hearty congratulations to Derrick Favors and his fiancee Shivolli. She made this announcement on Twitter, last night:

Wishing happy health and sending good vibes from SLC Dunk and our community of Dunkers.

Despite it being Super Bowl Sunday, Coach Q wasn't going to let the day go without a practice (the Jazz don't play again until tomorrow). It ended up being a little bit more intense than the players expected, but our friends Jody Genessy and Tony Jones had some great quotes from the session:

From the SL Trib, Trey on his new role:

"I'm good with it," Burke said. "It's a new thing to me, but I'm playing the same amount of minutes as I always was, and I've just come in and tried to be more aggressive offensively. Coach has been on me about holding the ball, so I've just been trying to work on shooting or driving the ball right away, and just being generally aggressive."

Many (myself included) thought that Trey might show some immaturity if his role was changed. Often times when a player has such high levels of confidence, this happens. But to his credit, Trey has take it very well:

I'll put this here because the Jazz play the Blazers 2/3. After doing a wonderful job containing 50% of the Splash Brothers on Friday night, the Jazz's Aussie strong backcourt matches up against Portland's Damian Lillard and Wes Matthews. You have heard of them. The duo has been on a bit of a shooting slump lately, but the Jazz definitely don't want to be the ones that help them out of it.

LaMarcus Aldridge has an injury to his hand, but was recently named to the All-Star reserves. He has (as of now) decided to wait to have surgery, but for how long? Do you think it happens soon after the All-Star break?

Some interesting narratives ahead of tomorrow's game. Look for the full preview tomorrow.

Does anyone else follow the NBA Championship Belt? Click over and check it out. It starts with the team that one the championship last season. They hold the belt until they lose, then it gets passed on to the team that beats them, and so on, until the end of the regular season.

The Jazz had it for one game, 3 games into the season, after they beat the Suns to take it. I found out about it a couple of years ago and think it's a different, fun way to track the NBA season.

Sometimes a little bit of context helps. As many ups and downs as this season has had, it seems the team, as of late, is headed in the right direction. If you want to feel better, look no further than our Rocky Mountain rivals, the Nuggets. On 1/18 they were 18-20, and in the fight for the 8th seed. Now? They've lost nine of their last 10 and are only two games up on the Jazz. They've made some head scratching trades and seem to have no direction.

Terrible for Nuggets fans, but it's nice to know that the Jazz have a front office that makes smart decisions.

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