Jazz are the class of the Northwest - TSN

[CarlosBoozer (給我大懶熊)]

JAZZ ARE THE CLASS OF THE NORTHWEST

TIM CHISHOLM
9/26/2008 1:44:27 PM


While it's flirting with potential embarrassment to insist that a
certain team should win 'X' number of games or a division, conference
or what have you - but if the Utah Jazz don't win the Northwest
Division something has gone seriously wrong for the club. The Jazz
have an enviable stable of talent and one of the best coaches to ever
prowl the sidelines and even though they may have to keep their eyes
on the upstart Trailblazers, this is without a doubt their division
title to lose.

The road for this team is navigated by the superbly talented point
guard Deron Williams. While some franchises go decades without a
top-level lead guard, the Jazz simply transitioned from the
retirement of John Stockton in 2003 to the drafting Williams in 2005
and thought never fell off of the radar in between. This summer
Williams was locked into a rich multi-year deal that will keep him
overseeing the Jazz offense until at least 2012. He has swiftly
elevated himself to the top of the Jazz pile in his three NBA seasons
and it couldn't have come at a better time for the franchise.

That's because while Williams has firmly ensconced himself in Utah
for the foreseeable future, his frontcourt partner Carlos Boozer is
poised to be a free agent of some appeal next summer and he could set
Utah's gains back quite substantially with a departure. Boozer has
developed into one of the league's preeminent power forwards in the
last three years, combining a deadly post-game that defies his 6'8"
frame with a silky, high-arcing midrange jumper that makes him one of
the strongest offensive big men in the NBA (even if his defense still
leaves something to be desired). He and Williams are one of the most
effective pick-and-roll tandems going and yet both are able to create
shots for themselves as well, which makes Utah's offense surprisingly
potent considering stogy reputation Jerry Sloan's teams have in that
department in years past.

Take Boozer out of that tandem, however, and Utah quickly falls back
of the pack. Williams keeps the team relevant by being able to
elevate the talent of those around him, but Boozer's free agency is a
scenario that is going to dog Utah all season even if a resolution of
any kind can't be had until next summer.

In the interim, mind you, the Jazz should remain an excellent machine
running near the top of a very competitive Western heap. The addition
of veteran point guard Brevin Knight was a savvy move - despite his
penchant for injuries - as this was one of the teams glaring
weaknesses after Derek Fisher left the team for L.A. While Knight
doesn't have nearly the pedigree that Fisher had he's a solid
playmaker - though considering the 37-minutes Williams logs in front
of him it isn't as though he's going to have a huge say in the fate
of the team, but he's a welcome addition nonetheless.

If anything still dogs this team (outside of the uncontrollable
Boozer rumor-mongering) it's the slight penchant for inconsistency 
this team showed in last season's playoffs. The team grabbed a big
lead in the Houston series - while in Houston - and then allowed the
Yao-less Rockets to push them to six games. They followed up that
series by getting the Lakers to six-games, though they never looked
capable of keeping up with Kobe and company.

It proved to be too easy to get the Jazz out-of-sync and if they want 
to truly belong to the NBA's elite they are going to have to be able 
to hang with the best in the league, and today that looks ability
(while possible) looks tenuous. The talent is there, on the court and
on the sidelines, but the team just has to be able to rely on all its
cogs each game. That's where the fear of losing Boozer really
sets-in. For this team to achieve the kind of cohesion that is
required of the best teams they are going to need time and while they
can try and replace Boozer with the money losing him would free up it
would take multiple seasons to catch-up with the current iteration
and their experiences together.

For now the Jazz appear to be on the outside looking in. They are
like the West Coast equivalent of the Orlando Magic - sitting just
below the best and trying to manufacture the intangibles that take a
team from good to great. Beating a heavy-hitter like L.A. or San
Antonio would go a long way to achieving that end. They are only one
season removed from a run to the Western Conference Finals and the
only thing standing between them and that stage right now is their
own ability to execute consistently as a unit. The roster is one of
the most balanced in basketball and they've got to capitalize on that
while they're still together.


PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP

PG - Deron Williams

Williams is everything a team could want in a point guard: He is a
tremendous passer and playmaker, he can score inside and out and he
elevates his game in the post-season. He is a fantastic floor leader
at twenty-four-years-old and inking him to a max-money deal this
summer was about as easy a decision as the Jazz have had to make in a
good, long while. Whatever happens to Boozer next summer the Jazz can 
breathe a little easier because Williams will make any back-up plan 
work better than most NBA point guards could. He coalesces this team
and that is a skill that should only expand as he gets more years
under his belt.

SG - Ronnie Brewer

If saying that Brewer had a breakout season last year is an 
overstatement (and it is) then at least concede that he had a
mini-breakout for a team that desperately needed what he brought to
the table. After losing two-guard Fisher last summer this team was
desperate for a body who could even suit up at the position. Brewer
was first in line to try and went from anonymous rookie to full-time
starter in year two by playing stifling perimeter defense with his
long arms and active hands and combining that strength with a
vastly-improved and more efficient offensive game, connecting on 57%
of his shots (nearly half of those attempts were jumpers, too).
                 (按：82games的數據是41%)
Unsurprisingly well over 70% of his shots were assisted but it was
his ability to blend into an offense that already featured Williams,
Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko that made him so
indispensible. He didn't need lots of touches to be effective and yet 
by simply looking to be in the right place on the floor he wound up 
averaging more points per game than Jazz mainstay Kirilenko. His role
is pretty well defined and he plays it to perfection, so hopefully
the Jazz can simply count on more than the same from Brewer in the
future.

SF - Andrei Kirilenko

Kirilenko has become the most maligned member of the Jazz since Greg 
Ostertag. He was a statistical marvel early in his career and his
production and effectiveness have backslid since the emergence of
Boozer and Williams. While he is much more effective as a power 
forward playing closer to the rim, Kirilenko started to find a feel
for the small forward position last season and it showed as he shot a
career-high from the field (51%) and from three (38%). He got his
block, steal and rebounding numbers up - though not to the peaks of
'03 thru '06 - and he stopped chirping about touches and his role and
simply played basketball. His enormous contract ($15 million this
season) and third- or fourth-banana role will keep him on the trading
block but he's still a player with lots of value since he's still
only 27-years-old and has been relatively healthy for the last few
years. He may not be the player that he was, and some people revile
him for it, but he's still a very useful player to have on your
roster.

PF - Carlos Boozer

The issue of his free agency has been discussed to death, and it
overshadows other aspects of his game that require attention.
Chiefly, Boozer did his best Karl Malone impression last spring and
choked in the Playoffs. His scoring was off by five points per game 
and his shooting percentages plummeted from 54.7% during the regular 
season to 41.5% in the post-season. He needs to be a steady rock that
anchors this team's post-offense and last spring he simply couldn't
be relied on. With guys like Kirilenko and Okur such crapshoots in
the springtime the Jazz cannot afford to have Boozer fall off like he
did when it matters. Two years ago, when the team made its run to the
Conference Finals, Boozer averaged 23.5 ppg on 54% shooting. Where
that player was last season is uncertain, but the Jazz will need that
player back if they are going to make any noise this April and beyond
(it would also make a big-money contract a lot easier to offer).

C - Mehmet Okur

Okur is what he is in Utah. He stands outside and shoots a lot of
threes (about four per game) and will nab about seven boards when he
opts to venture inside of the arc. His defense isn't all that
remarkable, and he's certainly no intimidator inside with his 0.4
blocks per game, but he works for this team when he's on and by now
this team knows that that will be about two out of every three games.
Ideally the Jazz would have another, more reliable veteran stashed
away behind him on the bench for when possessions and defense mean
something in the Playoffs, because he's been a liability the last two
years with trying to stay consistent, but if he is the guy that the
team has to go to war with at least they know what they're getting
from him - which is basically an inability to know what to expect
from him. It's not perfect, but it works for now.


http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=250783


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