HAPPY NBA TRADE DEADLINE DAY!
P.S. This Downbeat is being written on Wednesday at 9:04 pm PST. If the Jazz make a trade after this is published we’ll update it :)
As of now the Jazz have not made a trade. There are rumors and rumblings but nothing has happened. I don't know how I feel. I mean change is always exciting but I love this team. I want to see how it runs when we are perfectly healthy. We have yet to see it running on all cylinders. David Locke tweeted yesterday that he believes last night’s practice was the first practice with all of the Jazz players (minus Joel Bolomboy). Imagine that here we are 57 games into the season, now post-all-star break and this is perhaps the first practice that the Jazz have had all their players. We really don’t know what this team is capable of entirely healthy. We know that we are pretty dang good with a healthy George Hill, but Favors hasn’t been healthy all season, Hood has been in-and-out with injuries. Burks is still getting acclimated. Hayward missed seven games early on in the season. For a season where we wanted to finally see what this team is made of, that sure hasn’t been the case.
Rudy Gobert is the only starter that has played and started in all 57 games so far this season. Joe Ingles and Trey Lyles are the only other players who have played in all 57 games. Joe Johnson missed one game for rest otherwise he would be in our 57 club.
Hayward at 50 games is the next starter who has played in the most games this season. Derrick Favors and Rodney Hood have played in 40 games. George Hill has played in 32 games.
I am uncertain if I as a fan, want to mess with things when we truly don't know what we have in our team.
So there was a little drama with Derrick Favors. That was covered in Amar’s Downbeat yesterday. Read about it here. Here is Derrick Favor’s response to his tweet when asked about it by the local media at yesterday’s practice.
On -Gate: "I was just being on Twitter. Just using it. I just tweeted that. It was just a tweet I did. It wasn't that big. Just a tweet." pic.twitter.com/BV25WGySMD
— Aaron Falk (@aaronfalk) February 23, 2017
Favors on Twitter: "It's fun! That's what it's for. Social media, you've got to have fun on there. You just can't let it get to you."
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 23, 2017
Favors on the rumors: "I've been through it already, and I don't really pay attention to it. If I'm here, I'm here, if I'm not, I'm not."
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 23, 2017
Love you Derrick
Derrick’s girlfriend didn't seem as calm about cryptic tweets.
Here is a tweet from her
SMDH
— L❤VER (@SHiV0LLi) February 22, 2017
And then an interesting thread after a fan jokingly replied to her tweet.
Absolutely no judgement, I just found it all very interesting. I don't know what it’s like to have your significant other be a public figure and to see tweets about his future and such. I do know moving is hard, I do know lack of control in your own life is hard. So sending good wishes to all players and their families/friends during this rumoresque time.
So it has been reported that the Jazz have had talks about Deron Williams. Yesterday the basketball guru Adrian Wojnarowski did a live stream. He confirmed that there has been talks about Deron and the Jazz. He also mentioned how Deron perhaps doesn’t like the way things ended with Utah and how he would like to make things right again. He said that the Jazz haven’t been willing to give up what Dallas wants but that may change closer to the deadline. He did however, also say that perhaps no deal is more likely but that if Deron is bought out maybe he’d want to sign with the Jazz.
He starts talking about the Jazz about 52 minutes in. Its good stuff. Its just a few minutes but good.
https://www.facebook.com/TheVerticalWoj/ (its the post with the video that says The Vertical with Woj was live... looks like this (I don't know how to link directly to a FB live video.) )
Non-trade deadline news.
Here is a great article on Dante Exum return from injury. Its from the NBA Australia website.
I liked this following quote because I really like when people are internal and self-aware.