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2012-3 or 2013-4?
Posted by: Dave Leeky on October 25th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Dear JazzNation
I’m a long time fan from England and although I watch plenty of games, it has always been a lifetime ambition of mine to watch the Jazz play at home in Salt Lake. Now I’m old enough, and started working, so I’m almost in a position to afford the airfare, but I’ve got a question that I keep pondering: will the Jazz be better this season or next?
Any Jazz fan would always say their team will get better year-on-year, but it got me wondering whether 2013-4 might be a year of change.
Hayward, Kanter, Favors and Burks should all have had the benefit of a training camp and develop into better players, although looking at Favors he has been somewhat disappointing in pre-season (at least offensively). So it might be that Favors will only truly make the step-up next season (2013-4) particularly when there may be more minutes available. Equally, one might think that all the young players will be better year-on-year so 2013-4 might be the best year of their short careers.
I love Millsap, but chances are I think he leaves or is traded this season, so not only will the Jazz lose his offensive production in 2013-4, but also a player that resembles the heart of the team. Coupled with the predicted loss of Al that is an awful lot of possessions and points that the Jazz will lose in 2013-4 so looking at the team currently it is difficult to see where the points are going to come from, even if Hayward, Favors etc averages go up. This might all depend on a trade and if Kanter/Favors were ready to lead the team, a trade might help the Jazz upgrade at PG.
Cap space though might solve a lot of the problems invisaged in the above paragraph, but I’m not even going to list all the possible free agents here as it is unlikely that any will go to Utah as historically it is never the case. To attract a free agent it is also likely that the Jazz will have to overpay for one, so again this comes with its own health-warning. However, the Jazz could use the flexibilty to take bad contracts and perhaps build further through the draft, but this would again make the Jazz an even younger team and take years before any impact is seen.
All this at a time when the Jazz have a new GM with new ideas and even a new vision. So will 2013-4 be a time to start thinking top 4 in the West (although I know some of us are thinking we can do this, this year!) or another year of transition?
Hmm… so the 2012-3 or the 2013-4 Jazz? Which will be better? Too many variables to quantify I reckon, but before this season has even begun, I thought I go and post a waffley long post considering the season after this one, crazy? No just bored!
Ignoring all the other stuff, I reckon it might boil-down to this: The starting line-up is perhaps likely to be better in 2013-4 (player development/trades), but there’s no way I can see the 2013-4 Jazz having the same depth as the current roster.
Sorry JazzNation, that just ended-up being a random collection of thoughts in the end, but thank you for reading!
Replies: 8
Views: 455
8 Responses
I agree you on Favors situation. But I believe his abilities. I think there is a really big pressure on his shoulders during the game, because he is currently second choice on Power Forward position.
I believe this year can be good for us, if our new/last year prospects shows good effect on the court. Last year Hayward worked really well on the court. Kanter dissapointed me however he is playing well on this pre-season. Also we have Burks, Evans and this years probably most interesting player for me, Kevin Murphy ( his pre-season stats really good 5 ppg – 8 mpg ) so if these guys can shows his abilities during the game, that year will be cool for us.
I’m also dreaming to watch a home with our great fans at Salt Lake City. I hope that dream will come true in one day.
Best Wishes from Istanbul
My personal feeling is we’ll have a great year this year, we’ll have a dip next year while Favors and Kanter adjust to the full load of frontcourt responsibility, and then we’ll be better for having gone through that the years after, and that yes, we’ll have a deeper team this year than we will in the next few years. If we can somehow use our cap space to lure a top free agent player (CP3!) to play with our young core, then we’ll be in championship contention in 2-3 years.
My philosophy would be to choose a good opponent to see. Any Jazz team is going to be awesome to see because, lets be honest, they are the Jazz. I would come to a LA game, because we always bring it when we play LA. Every player and fan is electric those nights. We always seem to have intense games with Miami as well. From the miracle in Miami, to Devin Harris’s buzzerbeater last year.
I agree that this year will probably result in more wins than next, because of the statements above. Next year should be the beginning of something beautiful, depending on resigning the youth, the draft, and a trade or two along with free agency. It’s going to be a big challenge to fill in the pieces and we have a very competent management team to do it.
Based on the speculation that our winning percentage will dip (down) in 2013-2014 when either Millsap and/or Jefferson will leave or Traded, my thought is PLAY THE ‘new’ CORE GROUP NOW (Hayward, Burks, Favors, Kanter, and Kevin MURHY). Use Millsap as the 6th Man (PF or SF) and Jefferson on heavily on ISO’s when the game is on the line during the 4th Quarter where Coaching Staff feels we’ll have an upper hand over the Defense. These 2 guys can very well help teach the young ones this year.
However, I hope that BOTH Players will re-sign to an equitable contract that helps the growth (Personnel & Financial) of the Utah Jazz.
Go Jazz! And, nice to hear from a Jazz Fan in UK & TURKEY!
Hey Dave, if I were you and had to spend a bunch of money on airfare to get to SLC in order to watch the Jazz play, I would find a stretch where they play three or four home games in one week or week and a half, and go to all of them. You’re paying all that money to fly over just to see the Jazz, might as well see them a few times! Just a thought.
One example of that is March 30 through April 5, the Jazz play home games against the Nets, Blazers, Nuggets, and Hornets all during those seven days.
Best Jazz Fan Ever!!!!!!! haha
mason and Taco have good ideas. If it were me, my first option would be to come on a stretch week and increase the chance to see your favorite player play awesome.
But if its one game, pick the best. Definitely LA or Miami this year. So most likely Miami will be our best home game this year.