So last night before USB 1.0(Nate, as opposed to 2.0-Doug, the better version.) was going to bed, he turned on the Jazz game right in time see Kobe bury a 3-pointer to tie the game with enough time for each team to have a possession. Was I surprised? Of course not. The Jazz hadn't won in Staples center in 17 trips! 17! They showed a clip of the last time we won...needless to say it involved Greg Ostertag. I knew how this was going to play out. A missed shot by the Jazz, Kobe winning it at the buzzer. Did I turn it off even though I knew it was going to end that way? Of course not. The Jazz have a way of always getting your hopes up. Anyway, what happened? Exactly what I predicted....wait....Gordon Hayward hit a free throw?....and Kobe fumbled the winning shot?....Does anyone else hear twilight zone music??? This morning as I read about it(this is what I love about sports: We'll watch a game. And the clips on Sports Center. And read every article we can find. Why? Who knows, we just do.) I realized something, the Karma has reversed and I attribute it all to Gordon Hayward. Not because he scored a career high 22 points. Not because he outplayed and out hustled Kobe, earning Kobe's affection(which might be a bad thing...definitely is a bad thing). It's because of what happened last year when he barely missed the winning shot in the NCAA championship. The basketball gods slipped up letting him miss that and letting Duke win. No one wants to see Duke win. They're like the Yankees. So now they are repaying him and it started last night. Our luck is finally looking good. Thank you Gordon! Goodbye bad karma, hello 2012 NBA Finals featuring finals MVP Gordon Hayward. GO JAZZ!
P.s. Best Friend of the Blog, Chris Loftus, asked USB's opinion on the hiring of Larry Krystkowiak. All I know is that he once played for the Jazz(thumbs up) and now coaches the Utes(double thumbs up). So that gives him 3 thumbs up, so he's good in our book. But seriously, I have a new theory based of Coach K of Duke. When a coach with a crazy hard to pronounce name gets hired, your team is guaranteed 900 wins and 4 national championships. So here's to decades of Ute dominance in basketball(and football) in the Pac-12. GO UTES!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Here’s to a better decade of draft picks!
In a previous article, we mentioned how the Jazz could potentially have three picks in the upcoming draft. We decided that we should educate you on the history of the Jazz draft picks over the last eleven years and hypothesize on what the Jazz should do in the 2011 Draft. As we researched how the draft has gone in the past for us, I wanted to take a Karl Malone knee to the chest. It was painful to see who we’ve lost and who we could have chosen. Also, analyzing these picks has led to possibly the greatest mystery in sports: Why would we give up three players, yes you read that right, three players to get Greg Ostertag BACK!?!?! Not for the first time, but for the last of his 11 seasons!!! If that doesn’t leave you utterly baffled we don’t know what would. So here is out the last 11 drafts for the Jazz have played out with accompanying notes on whether or not the player is still with us, who we traded him for, and whether or not the pick was acceptable or not in USB’s eyes.
2010: Gordon Hayward-We like Hayward. He is averaging 13.7 minutes per game in his rookie season. Most importantly, after a dunk in Indianapolis he was able to get the opposing crowd to chant his name. Granted that is where he grew up and almost brought a championship to Butler, it was still an impressive feat.
2009: Erick Maynor-traded for the rights to Peter Fehse who is hanging out on a German team. We can live with this trade, because it was really about getting rid of contracts to lower luxury tax responsibilities. Nothing we can find suggests Fehse will be heading towards the NBA, but Harpring was part of that trade to OKC, he retired, and is now our color guy, so this was great.
2008: Kosta Kofus-Part of trade for Al Jefferson. On the surface we’re okay with choosing Kosta because that pick helped us get Al Jefferson, who we love because he is like Carlos Boozer. Just better and less girly. (See Big Al’s 70 games this season vs. Boozer’s 45. Plus Big Al was never benched in the 4th quarter due to lack of hussle. Boozer? Of course he was.) But the problem is that we could have chosen Big Al in 2004. So there is no excuse for this pick. Plus, we could have chosen Serge Ibaka! Who is that you ask? Well number one, he is from the Congo, so he is like family considering we both spent 2 years in Africa and countless hours with Congolese people. And number two, in the recent slam dunk contest he dunked from the free throw line. For real. Not Doctor J/MJ foot over the line style. He actually jumped FROM the line. It was awe inspiring. And he could have done it in a Jazz uni. No excuse.
2007: Morris Almond-Played in D-League, ended up with Orlando Magic. We don’t have too much to say about this. We could have chosen Aaron Brooks, Arron Afflalo, or Marc Gasol, all of which are contributing for NBA teams and would have at least given us some trade value…actually…this is inexcusable too! If we would have chosen Marc Gasol, the Laker’s wouldn’t have, and then wouldn’t have been able to trade for Pau Gasol, who helped Kobe get focused again, which led to multiple titles. So I blame the Jazz for that. Bad pick.
2006: Ronnie Brewer-Traded for a protected first round pick. It’s too early to tell about this one. When we traded Ronnie we got the Warriors pick for this year, but it is protected if they are in the top 14. This is how we could potentially have 3 picks, if the Warriors finish 15 or better, we get their pick. Now, we could have chosen Rajon Rondo, but we had already chosen D-Will the year before, so we didn’t need a point guard. So we’ll see how this plays out, so far, we have no verdict.
2005: Deron Williams-Traded for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first round picks. We all know how this played out. Pure basketball genius.
2004: We had two first round picks this year. Kris Humpries who was traded after two seasons for Rafael Arujo who played for 28 games before leaving to Russia. We then chose Kirk Snyder who was part of the horrific trade for Greg Ostertag. This is the year we could have chosen Al Jefferson. So we pretty much chose a gassed out, one season left Ostertag for a fresh out of high school Al Jefferson. Makes you want to take a fastball to the ribcage doesn’t it?
2003: Sasha Pavlovic. We could have taken Kendrick Perkins, but we lost Pavlovic in the expansion draft, so who knows if we would have lost Perkins, so we’ll give the Jazz Front Office the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they knew he was going to be taken and didn’t want take any heat for losing a good player.
2002: Curtis Borchardt- Which would you rather have: Tayshaun Prince’s whole career or Greg Ostertag’s last season. Point made.
2001: Raul Lopez. Do you see why this was so painful for us. We could have had Tony Parker! But no, we chose Raul Lopez! Who? Exactly! And guess who we traded him for….yup..GREG OSTERTAG!!! We’re about to lose our minds.
2000: DeShawn Stevenson who was traded for Gordon Giricek who was traded for Kyle Korver who we lost in free agency. There was really no one of note chosen after DeShawn, so will give this one to the Jazz.
So as you can see, out of the last 11 drafts, five have been absolutely horrendous. No reasonable explanation. Once again…we basically traded Tayshaun Prince, Al Jefferson, and Tony Parker for Greg Ostertag! Not even brand new Greg Ostertag would make that okay. So USB has answered the un-solicited call from the Jazz to help with the next draft. Here are our scenarios based off what the lottery would look like now, and since the Warriors would be 11th, we won’t get their pick, so we’ll be picking 6th and 12th.
#1: Trade the picks. It’s the easy way out and boring so we won’t delve into this.
#2: Jimmer!!! Either at 6 or 12 it doesn’t matter, we just need to keep Jimmer-mania contained in Utah. From a purely business standpoint it is genius! With Jerry and Deron gone and with our season not looking so good, attendance could potentially drop. Not with Jimmer on the team. Home games will be packed and jersey sales will skyrocket. From a basketball standpoint it is also genius! A) We’ve already established he has laser-like shot with robotic range. No one can stop the Jimmer. B) It is a proven fact that Jimmer plays better on the road which is perfect. Historically the Jazz thrive at home and tank on the road. Not with Jimmer. Jimmer’s 50 foot three’s will silence crowds and bring us the energy we need. The only downside: Jimmer will have to choose a new number. We recommend him becoming the first player ever to use the infinity sign as his number, symbolic of his infinite range.
#3: If someone takes Jimmer we can always let history repeat itself and do something dumb.
We hear Ostertag is thinking of coming out of retirement.
2010: Gordon Hayward-We like Hayward. He is averaging 13.7 minutes per game in his rookie season. Most importantly, after a dunk in Indianapolis he was able to get the opposing crowd to chant his name. Granted that is where he grew up and almost brought a championship to Butler, it was still an impressive feat.
2009: Erick Maynor-traded for the rights to Peter Fehse who is hanging out on a German team. We can live with this trade, because it was really about getting rid of contracts to lower luxury tax responsibilities. Nothing we can find suggests Fehse will be heading towards the NBA, but Harpring was part of that trade to OKC, he retired, and is now our color guy, so this was great.
2008: Kosta Kofus-Part of trade for Al Jefferson. On the surface we’re okay with choosing Kosta because that pick helped us get Al Jefferson, who we love because he is like Carlos Boozer. Just better and less girly. (See Big Al’s 70 games this season vs. Boozer’s 45. Plus Big Al was never benched in the 4th quarter due to lack of hussle. Boozer? Of course he was.) But the problem is that we could have chosen Big Al in 2004. So there is no excuse for this pick. Plus, we could have chosen Serge Ibaka! Who is that you ask? Well number one, he is from the Congo, so he is like family considering we both spent 2 years in Africa and countless hours with Congolese people. And number two, in the recent slam dunk contest he dunked from the free throw line. For real. Not Doctor J/MJ foot over the line style. He actually jumped FROM the line. It was awe inspiring. And he could have done it in a Jazz uni. No excuse.
2007: Morris Almond-Played in D-League, ended up with Orlando Magic. We don’t have too much to say about this. We could have chosen Aaron Brooks, Arron Afflalo, or Marc Gasol, all of which are contributing for NBA teams and would have at least given us some trade value…actually…this is inexcusable too! If we would have chosen Marc Gasol, the Laker’s wouldn’t have, and then wouldn’t have been able to trade for Pau Gasol, who helped Kobe get focused again, which led to multiple titles. So I blame the Jazz for that. Bad pick.
2006: Ronnie Brewer-Traded for a protected first round pick. It’s too early to tell about this one. When we traded Ronnie we got the Warriors pick for this year, but it is protected if they are in the top 14. This is how we could potentially have 3 picks, if the Warriors finish 15 or better, we get their pick. Now, we could have chosen Rajon Rondo, but we had already chosen D-Will the year before, so we didn’t need a point guard. So we’ll see how this plays out, so far, we have no verdict.
2005: Deron Williams-Traded for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first round picks. We all know how this played out. Pure basketball genius.
2004: We had two first round picks this year. Kris Humpries who was traded after two seasons for Rafael Arujo who played for 28 games before leaving to Russia. We then chose Kirk Snyder who was part of the horrific trade for Greg Ostertag. This is the year we could have chosen Al Jefferson. So we pretty much chose a gassed out, one season left Ostertag for a fresh out of high school Al Jefferson. Makes you want to take a fastball to the ribcage doesn’t it?
2003: Sasha Pavlovic. We could have taken Kendrick Perkins, but we lost Pavlovic in the expansion draft, so who knows if we would have lost Perkins, so we’ll give the Jazz Front Office the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they knew he was going to be taken and didn’t want take any heat for losing a good player.
2002: Curtis Borchardt- Which would you rather have: Tayshaun Prince’s whole career or Greg Ostertag’s last season. Point made.
2001: Raul Lopez. Do you see why this was so painful for us. We could have had Tony Parker! But no, we chose Raul Lopez! Who? Exactly! And guess who we traded him for….yup..GREG OSTERTAG!!! We’re about to lose our minds.
2000: DeShawn Stevenson who was traded for Gordon Giricek who was traded for Kyle Korver who we lost in free agency. There was really no one of note chosen after DeShawn, so will give this one to the Jazz.
So as you can see, out of the last 11 drafts, five have been absolutely horrendous. No reasonable explanation. Once again…we basically traded Tayshaun Prince, Al Jefferson, and Tony Parker for Greg Ostertag! Not even brand new Greg Ostertag would make that okay. So USB has answered the un-solicited call from the Jazz to help with the next draft. Here are our scenarios based off what the lottery would look like now, and since the Warriors would be 11th, we won’t get their pick, so we’ll be picking 6th and 12th.
#1: Trade the picks. It’s the easy way out and boring so we won’t delve into this.
#2: Jimmer!!! Either at 6 or 12 it doesn’t matter, we just need to keep Jimmer-mania contained in Utah. From a purely business standpoint it is genius! With Jerry and Deron gone and with our season not looking so good, attendance could potentially drop. Not with Jimmer on the team. Home games will be packed and jersey sales will skyrocket. From a basketball standpoint it is also genius! A) We’ve already established he has laser-like shot with robotic range. No one can stop the Jimmer. B) It is a proven fact that Jimmer plays better on the road which is perfect. Historically the Jazz thrive at home and tank on the road. Not with Jimmer. Jimmer’s 50 foot three’s will silence crowds and bring us the energy we need. The only downside: Jimmer will have to choose a new number. We recommend him becoming the first player ever to use the infinity sign as his number, symbolic of his infinite range.
#3: If someone takes Jimmer we can always let history repeat itself and do something dumb.
We hear Ostertag is thinking of coming out of retirement.
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