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Re-occurring theme
Posted by: Matt Webb on January 24th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.First Blog post so go easy on me people.
The theme is simple, the Jazz being too good to miss the playoffs (whilst also missing the chance at a star via lottery) but not being good enough to win a championship. It seems this has been the case for the past 5 years.
Is this our Jazz? At the beginning of the season I would have answered no, that isn’t the case and our team hasn’t even sniffed their ceiling. Nevertheless after a good half season long looking over it prompts me to ask, “Are the pieces of a championship on our team?”. Now we have Dwill, AL, Sap, CJ, and (in the future) Hayward. Not to discount the other players quality or meaning to our team but those 4 are the big time players, ones that will make the difference in the long run. This is our core.
The question is, will these 5 surrounded with 4-5 quality role players win a championship?
I’m not saying yes or no because I don’t know the answer yet.
I also think as fans we shouldn’t accept it if the answer is indeed no, a successful NBA franchise shouldn’t be gaged upon it’s profitability but its capabilities on the court.
Are we stuck in “neutral” Jazz nation? What are your thoughts?
P.S. I don’t mention coaching because it should be obvious we have a championship quality coach.
Thanks.
Replies: 5
Views: 291
5 Responses
This is a nice post and brings up a couple of questions I had not thought about. While DWill is certainly a super-star, I just don’t see a strong second or third player to support him. I think Millsap could be and maybe CJ if he were a little more consistent. I know Jefferson had some great numbers in Minnesota, but who else was on that team? My big concern is that DWill is not going to want to stay around and see if anyone steps up into that second bananna role.
I think the key to a lot of issues is to have a healthy Memo.
I think both Al and Millsap at PF can do much better with more space. Millsap kills against other teams benches, which is why I actually like Al starting PF and Millsap coming off the bench at PF. Memo on the court pulls a big defender out to guard him on the perimeter, opening up the paint for drives, pick-and-rolls and post-ups.
In my mind, Memo’s really a huge key to the success of our offense. His absence probably explains most of our offensive woes for this first half of the season.
I agree with KC,the only worry I would have with the Memo-Big Al lineup is that its pretty lead footed. But Al with space would kill in the post…especially if Memo would slide to get open jumpers off the double teams that would eventually be coming. And then Paul would have much more space to slash and take slower big men to the rack.
I think the obvious part of your question is the core… Yes, it’s championship caliber.
The Coach however… I’ve had my doubts. It’s not as if he’s never had the core to get it done before… he has.
I like Paul as a 3. He may not be as quick as one would desire but he has a solid jumpshot and would kill other 3’s in the post.
Tell me what is wrong with this line up? Besides the defensive quickness it may lack in Millsap at the 3. I think the upside is far bigger.
Okur
Jefferson
Millsap
Miles/Bell
Williams