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Are we championship contenders now?
Posted by: Michael King on July 16th, 2010
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.I think most of us can agree that we still aren’t quite championship contenders with the roster we have now. So who is the final piece we need to bring home the title? I’ve heard names like Shannon Brown and Matt Barnes thrown out there. I’ve also heard that the final piece is a solid big man. If so, is that big a PF, center or a combo of the two? Most of us, if not all would probably agree that the elusive final piece needs to be a tenacious defender. The Jazz have never really had a problem putting points on the board, but have never really been a good defensive team. Defense wins championships, not offense. Otherwise Golden State and Utah would have multiple championships under their belt already. Matt Barnes definitely is a tenacious defender, but don’t we already have several wings? I can see both sides. On one hand, yes it would probably create another logjam at the wing. On the other, Matt could simply play the 3 only, leaving Hayward to backup the 2 and AK to play behind Millsap. Either way, Jeremy Evans is likely going to be getting 5-10 minutes a game unless someone gets injured. Others don’t think Ronnie Price is a good backup to Deron. Personally I disagree with that one. I’m perfectly fine with him coming off the bench. As for the big, is Ante Tomic the answer? I’m not so sure. He reminds me of another Hassan Whiteside due to his size, or lack thereof. Plus Tomic doesn’t come over for at least another year or two. Fes just simply isn’t ready to be a backup in the NBA right now, and may never be. Though with Memo’s injury, he could get some extra playing time as long as he’s out. Hopefully if he does get more time on the court, it translates into serious improvement. The other option we have is to wait til next year when AK’s contract is up and resign him for less and use the leftover money for our missing piece. What are your thoughts?
Replies: 13
Views: 321
13 Responses
Agreed. We’re not a contender right now. That can change at the start of the season when we come out and we see CJ Miles improve as a cutter and finisher around the rim as well as stretching out for the three occasionally. Hoping the three ball for him improves. Seeing how well hayward transitions from college/summer league to the nba and starts putting up real numbers. Seeing if Raja Bell can recover fully and be the shot taker defensive guy we need. Also can Al Jefferson become more of a post up defensive guy. We won’t know any of this till the season starts. Right now we are a pretty good team though.
But if we had a dominating center. One whose 7 feet plus and can move well and clogs up the middle and blocks shots. I think we’d be a championship team. But that’s rare here. And to snag one up here in Utah seems far fetched. We’d have to do it by trade but nobody is giving up that kind of player. Or by draft. But I doubt we’re falling into the top 3 of the draft anytime soon. Right now I say we wait and see. New pieces like a Shannon Brown or Louis Amundson would surely help us on our way now.
There just aren’t any big men left on the free agent market except Shaq and miller. The rest would give us no more of a boost than Fes. Shaq is old but still a dominant player but will never come to Utah and I don’t think Miller has much left. I think Barnes is our best bet. WSY
Yeah I agree with you there, we do need a dominating center. Course when did we ever have one? We would’ve already won the title without one, if it weren’t for MJ. So could we do it again? Amundson is good, but he plays the 4.
I might be optimistic, but I think they have a chance. I think Al Jefferson is their dominant center. I think when fans get to see him they will realize he is pretty big. I also think he will improve defensivly. He has averaged 1.7 blocks already. In Minnisota he played with the worst defense in the NBA so his teammates didn’t help him out at all. I do think the Jazz need more depth up front but thats it. I think Gordan Hayward will have more of an effect then people think to.
Well, I think championship contender is a bit strong. I think we put ourselves in a very good position to make a good run, but I still think the Lakers, Heat, and Magic are a step above us. I think, though that is the consensus here. To be in conversations for a title, I think any team needs at least 2-3 all star caliber players. We have one in D-Will. I think in order to get to the point of being a title contender it will require more money than we have to spend at this time. Yes, I like Matt Barnes, but he is a SF and we have Miles, AK, and Hayward at that position and we don’t need 4 of them. We need a SG and a C. Since we don’t have the money to pay for the type of player to make us contenders, solid backups at those positions would be what we can realistically get at this point. True, there aren’t too many free agents left out there that fit the bill, but how did we get Jefferson? We still have our 2 trade exceptions left to get us the players that we need. The answer, though, for us to beat a team like the Lakers in the playoffs is have some of our current starters take their game to the next level. Jefferson could be our 2nd all star at this point. Someone else needs to step up their game. CJ? AK? Millsap? I don’t know. We’ll be a good team. We just need to be patient and not shoot ourselves if we win a title this year.
*correction- we just need to be patient and not shoot ourselves if we DON’T win a title this year.
The Heat have proved nothing yet. Adam you obviosly haven’t watched Al Jefferson play. He is on the verge of being a superstar.He will get better on a winning team. The Jazz got swept by the Lakers last year, but I think the first three games they lost by a total of 14 points combined and I think the Jazz are better now. I actually dont think you need three superstars I can think of a lot of team that have won without three. I think they are close, maybe not quite there but close.
Kevin, I agree. We are close. We already have a very good starting five in Williams, Bell, Miles/AK, Millsap and Jefferson. From there, we have a good second team coming in with Price, Hayward, Evans/AK/Miles, AK, Memo/Fes. The reason I have AK listed twice in the second team is if he doesn’t start, he can backup either CJ or Millsap, but likely Millsap with Evans as the backup 2. All we need right now, could very well be an extra big that has a good inside game that can defend and rebound. If we had that, that would allow us to maintain an inside presence, and giving Memo more room to operate on the perimeter. If we got someone along those lines, that could be what puts us over the top.
well, kevin, all-stars and super-stars are two different things. You don’t need 3 superstars. If you have one superstar like James, Bryant, or Wade, you just need a good supporting cast around them to be contenders. But notice I did not say 3 Superstars, I said 2-3 all-stars. Williams is our one all-star right now. Kirilenko and Okur have been in the past, but that is the past. Yes, I have seen Jefferson play and he is way good, but he has yet to make an all star appearance, which is what my point was. He has potential to be an all star and could easily do so this season. He is like a Boozer clone right now that has potential to be even better than Boozer in a year or two, but the Jazz with two all stars in D-Will and Boozer weren’t enough to do anything in the playoffs, so just adding Jefferson won’t turn us in contenders. We still need one more solid player that can play at an all star type level and outside D-Will and Jefferson, I’m not sure who that will be. Yeah, we played the Lakers pretty well, but the cold hard facts are that no matter how close we got, we still had our worst playoff series in franchise history.
adam you don’t have to make an all star apearence to be an all star. just look at dwill
Did I say that? Maybe I did. But I do agree. You don’t have to have an official appearance to play like an all star, I just don’t think Jefferson has played like an all star yet. I’m in no way downplaying Jefferson, though. He’s had attitude and injury problems in the past that have held him back and has never played for a winning team, so as of this very second, he’s not an all star. But he will be and soon, which is why Deron said to Jefferson when the deal was final that, “I’m going to make you an all star.” Deron can’t make him an all star if he already is. Is that clear?
Two years ago Al Jefferson was considered an all star snub. I agree that they do need another 4 though and I think they will get one.
Yeah, then he got injured right before which ended his season. You’re not an all-star if you’re not playing