Utah Jazz Downbeat #1463 - The night before Media Day Edition

SUPER SECRET SUNDAY DOWNBEAT! (Because I slacked this summer)

So tomorrow is media day. And We'll be covering it on the site, in addition to on Twitter and on Facebook. Be sure to follow us on Twitter here, and like us on Facebook here. If you don't know what media day is, well, it's like the "first day of school" for the team, the staff, and the media. (Except that the team and coaches have been in contact with each other all summer long.) The Jazz take pictures, and do interviews. It's fun. Everyone is in the best shape of their life and/or added 15 pounds of muscle over the off-season.

If you are following along at work or home, you can via the local radio stations.

.@Lockedonsports says interviews with players/coaches will start tomorrow @ 3pm on @1280sports w/ @1280Spence & @GordonMonson #JazzMediaDay

— I Am A Utah Jazz Fan (@IAmAUtahJazzFan) September 28, 2014

Fun!

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Less fun, is well, this . . .

.@k24bruno: will the NBA miss games in 2017 because of the lockout? ---> No evidence to suggest we won't

— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) September 29, 2014

. . . so what does that have to do with our Utah Jazz team and their progress? Well, it is likely to happen after the 2016-2017 season. That's three seasons from now (including the upcoming one). Beyond the obvious that everyone (who is still alive) will be three years older . . .

• Gordon Hayward could become an unrestricted free agent (he has a player's option for 2017-2018)
• Derrick Favors will be in a contract year
• Trey Burke and Rudy Gobert would be restricted free agents if they don't get a deal done before the deadline, and if the deadline is going to be October 31st, 2017 -- then the deadline is likely to fall during the lockout.
• Dante Exum would still be on his rookie contract, same with Rodney Hood
• We can't speculate on Enes Kanter or Alec Burks, because their contract/future with the Jazz remains to be seen.
• Everyone else would have become a free agent years ahead of this time frame (Trevor Booker, Steve Novak, Jeremy Evans, Ian Clark), or possibly be people that aren't world changers (Toure' Murry, Dahntay Jones, Kevin Murphy, Carrick Felix, Dee Bost, Jack Cooley, and Brock Motum).

Worst case scenario? The Jazz 'youth' have a window of opportunity to get better, develop, and start winning games because the next lockout (if the last two NBA lockouts are any measure) is likely to be a threepeat for the owners. (Particularly the larger market owners) I'm cool with rooting for a Jazz team that's Derrick Favors, Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, and maybe some of Alec Burks or Trey Burke or whatever.

I'm much happier to root for our current squad as is. As someone who spends 10 months out of the year completely dedicated to writing about the Jazz, the players, and the events -- a lockout sucks. So I do have to keep track of it. I know that Dennis Lindsey and company are following it as well. I am of course bringing it out TODAY so that it gets buried under the deluge of positive, happy, Utah Jazz / NBA Season is starting news that will come out tomorrow. (Not unlike that Pentagon report that somehow wasn't in the news for a while.)

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Do you follow our former Jazz players? If you do, you probably know that things are going CRAZY in Brooklyn right now. If you hop over to the SB Nation site NetsDaily you'll see a lot of news that kinda matters. (They had their media day on Friday)

• Andrei Kirilenko is injured already, again (post here); and dispels the idea that he was pissed about playing time last season (post here).
• Deron Williams has to defend himself a bit against the slings and arrows of other star players public comments (post here) (beware -- F-Bomb)
• . . . oh, and they are going to try to bring some of that Jerry Sloan playbook back (post here). (ESPN)

I know that there are plenty of former Jazzmen on other teams, the Atlanta Hawks have quite a few (Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver, and DeMarre Carroll); the Charlotte Hornets have Al Jefferson and Marvin Williams; the Dallas Mavericks have Devin Harris and Richard Jefferson; and there are a handful of other players scattered to the edges of the NBA -- but for me the primary soap opera has to be the Nets because they have TWO of the best ever Utah Jazz players on their team right now.

They are in the downswing of their careers, but I would REALLY like for both of them to have really productive seasons.

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Is there a perfect player out there? NBA TV tried to get people to go crazy with this idea.

Fill it out by hand or type in your answers (current players)...We may feature your ballot in an upcoming #OpenCourt pic.twitter.com/B6rTO6Xy4T

— NBA TV (@NBATV) September 23, 2014

I know there was an NBA video a while back called the "Ultimate Player" or something. (No surprise there, Karl Malone was in there for "arms"). Wow. You can watch the hour long video on YouTube here.

Weeell, according to their open court thingie they divide a player into:

• IQ
• Vision
• Communicator
• Heart
• Guts
• Arms
• Hands
• Upper Body
• Legs
• Feed

From THIS TEAM ALONE build the 2014-15 Utah Jazz perfect player!

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Who is going to be the front-running fan favorite newcomer on media day?