The Downbeat #1615: The Deron Williams Was Ninja and Missing the Jazz in the Playoffs Edition

So it has only been two weeks since the Jazz season ended. Two weeks. It seems like this off-season has been going on forever. Its still only the first round of the playoffs. So this is what we know so far*:

Last week we shared who we were rooting for in the playoffs. This week's playoff question is which player has surprised you the most? This can be answered for good or bad. Here is a nice sentence prompt for you.

The player that has surprised me the most is _________ because_______.

I honestly haven't been able to watch as many games as I would like to watch. My answer with very limited watching is probably Deron Williams. For three out of the five games Deron has look pretty horrid. In game 4, Deron was Ninja. 35 points, including 7-11 from three. He also had 7 assists and 3 steals.

From our very own Yucca. Here is celebrating Deron as our ninja. Gosh I miss that team.

*The Clippers and Spurs game was still going on when this downbeat was written.

Lou and I frequently joke about how the NBA 2K15 version of Joe Ingles looks NOTHING like Joe Ingles. We laugh about it quite a bit and probably harder than we should laugh. So when Moni posted a post entitled Utah Has Really Aged Joe Ingles. I laughed even before reading her post! (Disclaimer: my laughter has NOTHING to do with how Joe Ingles looks,he is fine looking, nothing wrong with him. My laughter is solely based on NBA2K15)

Check out Moni's post for awesome pics and gifs. It is here.

Remember when the Jazz were always in the playoffs? Well the Utah Jazz twitter account remembers :) Check out the Jazz's great photo gallery of the Jazz in the playoffs.

ICYMI - #TBT Utah Jazz: The Playoffs PHOTO GALLERY: http://t.co/QEvmnpNc7i pic.twitter.com/tJbjKXfhlO

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) May 1, 2015

The gallery is here.

So many gems. Going through the pics reminded me of how fun it is to have the Jazz in the playoffs. It is strange to me that the Jazz have not won a playoff series in five years! The last series win they had was in 2010 over the Denver Nuggets.

Ugh. I miss the playoffs. I miss the Jazz in the playoffs. I miss having a superstar.

Our friend from the Trib, Kurt Kragthorpe wrote about the Jazz's five year playoff victory drought. Kurt writes about the emotions of that Denver series and all the changes that have happened with the Jazz since that series. He asks the question, when will the Jazz get their next playoff victory? Read it here.

Should everyone have seen this coming? Some of the personnel changes were inevitable. The moves mainly were driven by contract issues and a youth-oriented push that led to a complete overhaul of the roster. Considering the Jazz had gone 206-122 and won four playoff series in four seasons as of 2010, though, any suggestion that they would go five years without winning a single playoff game would have seemed like an extreme forecast of doom. The Jazz's improvement in 2014-15 suggests their rebuilding process is gradually working. Yet the question persists: When will the Jazz's next playoff victory come?

When will it Jazz fans? Is the rebuild going longer than expected? When did the rebuild start for you? When did the rebuild start in the Jazz's eyes?

So I haven't seen this posted on SLC Dunk but I could have missed it. The great @jazzgamenight and the Utah Jazz broadcasting team brought us Jazz on the Road. Its a 45 minute special about the Jazz's road trip to Memphis, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn.

and

I literally watched this completely enthralled. I didn't play on my phone, I didn't study, I didn't do anything else whilst watching it. I wish that they could cover every game of the season like they did this road trip.

Things that I loved:

• The comradeship of the team.
• How constantly engaged Quin Snyder is.
• The friendships shown between different players.
• How hard Brian Zettler works.
• Quin's insights into the game. There isn't the cliche responses and comments. He is dang smart.
• That Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Evans sit by each other on the plane.
• That Joe and Dante Exum sit by each other on the plane.
• Seeing what goes into a game day on the road.
• That the team seems to really care about each other.
• The college feel of the team.

There are so many other good things in the video. It was a few weeks ago when I watched it and I want to watch it again already. If you haven't watched it yet, do so now. If you have share your favorite parts.