The Downbeat: Vivint Arena’s New Statue

I really like what I am seeing from all the pictures of the arena remodel. I am excited for what the team can do this year, but half of my excitement is for the season to just start already so I can go check out the changes in person and enjoy Jazz basketball again in the new, best arena in the league.

The 2K hype continues with all time teams being released for every team. It was interesting to look at some of the other teams I'll admit, but I really just wanted to see what the Jazz all time team was made of. I think they got it mostly right for the Jazz although I don't see how you can have Al Jefferson on the team but not Carlos Boozer. Also, at this point I would swap Rudy into the starting lineup for Mark Eaton.... Here is the full list for anybody who is missed it:

Starters:

• John Stockton (97)
• Pete Maravich (95)
• Adrian Dantley (92)
• Karl Malone (97)
• Mark Eaton (89)

Reserves:

• Deron Williams (89)
• Andrei Kirilenko (88)
• Rudy Gobert (88)
• Gordon Hayward (88)
• Darrell Griffith (87)
• Al Jefferson (84)
• Jeff Hornacek (84)
• Paul Millsap (83)
• Derrick Favors (83)
• Greg Ostertag (80)

The new coach is a bit of an unknown as he has been coaching in the German league since 2010, but this is just another building block in the Dennis Lindsey world of player development. At this point, I trust completely that Dennis Lindsey knows what he is doing when it comes to personnel decisions so I can only assume that this will be a good hire. He must have a pretty good track record to come straight from the German league into 1 out of only 60 head coaching spots affiliated with the NBA, at the age of 33 mind you.

Admittedly, I'm not really a huge "analytical/numbers" fan so I don't put a huge amount of stock into something like this. Still, it's interesting to see Rudy Gobert at the top of this list especially because he is not the first person I would think of when I think of the word clutch. It's really eye opening that he is so good on defense even in the clutch, that it puts him at the top of this list.

I wish that NBA free agency didn't start until about 9/1 or 9/15 because then we wouldn't have a situation where a team and fan base loses a beloved player and then has to endure an endless slog of tweets and commentary over the summer just to rub salt in the wound.......but anyway, I digress. I couldn't resist watching and laughing at this tweet. Most have probably already seen it but if you haven't give it a listen.