Okay, by now if you had been noticing things you would have noticed that the Utah Jazz did not make the playoffs this year. You would have also noticed that there are 14 former Jazz players (essentially a team) who ARE playing for teams that did. Now with the first round complete, and half the teams advancing, the number is reduced to only six. Anyway . . . here's the list of players:
- Atlanta Hawks: Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver, DeMarre Carroll
- Brooklyn Nets: Deron Williams, Andrei Kirilenko
- Charlotte Bobcats: Al Jefferson
-
Chicago Bulls: Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer
- Dallas Mavericks: Devin Harris,
- Memphis Grizzlies: Kosta Koufos
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Derek Fisher
- Portland Trail Blazers: Wesley Matthews, Mo Williams, Earl Watson
Some are stars on the rise, others role players, and still others are bench warmers. What we do know is that some of them had excellent playoff outings. Anyway, here are the stats:
- Millsap finished with 19.4 / 10.9 / 2.9 / 1.4 / 1.9 while going to seven games as an 8th seed. He didn't shoot well, and wasn't a threat from three, but still got to the line 8 times a game and nearly filled up the stat sheet to a 1:1 ratio of minutes played
- Big Al's team didn't go seven games, he didn't even PLAY in all the games his team played in due to injury. But hobbled and playing the Heat he still managed 18.7 / 9.3, and 1.7 bpg. Those are solid numbers for a bigman -- but as we've seen the last three seasons -- those aren't numbers that can get your team a playoff win. When he was on the floor his team was -29.0 in +/-. Sometimes you're just the best player on a bad team, a team that will be nothing but bad.
- D-Will had a hard fought series against Kyle Lowry, but still managed to come out of it okay. Deron had way more turn overs than he'd like, and wasn't useful at all from downtown -- but still put the pressure on the other team as a focal point. The Nets were +44 with him on the court.
- Wes plays the most minutes, has to play defense, and his shooting has been out of wack. He still managed to score enough and fill in other places to be one of the best performing former Jazzmen in the first round
- Kyle lost and found and lost his shot as the series went on, but managed to bomb nearly 8 treys a game, and finishing shooting nearly 43%. When he was on he was a weapon to deal with all series long.
- Booz used to be one of our best players, and here he's barely playing half the game in the playoffs. The Bulls were -31 with him on the floor (only -2 off of Big Al), and he was on the wrong side of a double double (9.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg).
- Devin had to step it up for the Mavs, and did. Playing effectively half the game he came off the bench to shoot astoundingly well, and do a lot of clutch scoring at the basket and from deep (he shot 44% from outside, which is better than Korver did)
- DeMarre had a great Game 1, but wasn't found after that. Mo came off the bench as a scorer but his shooting percentages weren't doing the Blazers any favors. Fisher, The KOOF, and AK47 did not play enough to make any large impacts. Kosta and Andrei didn't play in every game their team did.
- Ronnie B and Earl got DNP-CDs for each game
So the first round is over, and some Jazzmen did well. Sadly, most of them are out of the playoffs now. The remaining Jazzmen to watch are: Deron, Andrei, Derek, Wes, Mo, and Earl.