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Coming off of a huge come for behind win against the Goran Dragic & Channing Frye-led Suns (REALLY!?), the Jazz head out on the road to take on the injury decimated Blazers. The team has been falling apart... Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, Joel Przybilla, Travis Outlaw, etc. They're 5-5 in their last 5, and in a virtual tie with the Jazz for 2nd in the NW & 4th in the Western Conference right now. Both teams have suffered disappointing seasons so far... the Jazz seem to have finally woken up though, while the Blazers are still trying to find a way around all the injuries, I think.
In a move that surprised pretty much no one, the Jazz resigned Sundiata Gaines for the rest of the season. I guess it wouldn't have been surprising to see them look elsewhere... he's one of the least important players on the team right now... but he does have 1 big shot under his belt. Oh, and 2 weeks of experience in the system. If the Jazz really wanted system-experience, they would probably have signed Jason Hart or Brevin Knight or Keith McLeod or Dontell Jefferson (who's been in the system for 1.5 years with the Flash). No reason for them to look that way now. Best of luck to Sundiata, but I don't think he'll be getting much action unless the Jazz start blowing teams out. And given who the coach is, even then its not a guarantee.
Wes Matthews will not be taking part in the Rookie/Sophomore popularity contest this year. Which isn't really surprising, given that he was undrafted ( the reason he when undrafted is easy enough... 60 times, teams passed on him because they thought there were better players or players with more potential or players they could stash in Europe until the world ends) and he plays for the Jazz. That said, there is this...
He is one of only four rookies - - along with Oklahoma City’s James Harden, Denver’s Ty Lawson and Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan - - to be averaging 20 minutes a game for a team with a winning record.
I don't think Harden deserves it, but that might just be me. And even then, I'm sure Lawson would get the nod over Matthews. Now, if they went back to the East Rookies v. West Rookies thing, then maybe he'd get a look.
The Jazz are currently 4th place in the West. 4th! They're 3.5 games out of 3rd place, 2 games out of 11th place, 7 games out of 1st place and 6 games out of 12th place. Now you know.
Around the league for a second... Gilbert Arenas & Javaris Crittenton have both been suspended for the season by David Stern. The team now probably needs a PG. Maybe we offer them CJ Miles & market him as a PG?
So, if you were to rank the 13 Jazz players based solely on importance to the team right now (following the Jazz motto of "Potential be damned!"), how do you rank them? I end up with...
- Deron Williams. No questions asked.
- Carlos Boozer. Love him or hate him, he's been huge this year.
- Andrei Kirilenko. When he's on, the Jazz are unstoppable (kind of). When he's not... struggles.
- Paul Millsap. Even in a seemingly off season, he's been a key cog off of the bench.
- Wes Matthews. When a youngster plays as much as he does., you take notice.
- Ronnie Brewer. His lack of a jumper is really killer at times... to the Jazz.
- Mehmet Okur. His game has been off for a while. If he could put it together...
- Ronnie Price. Finally getting minutes as a back-up PG. Unfortunately, he's not a PG.
- Kyle Korver. If he's healthy, maybe the Jazz can look to him for a trey every now and then?
- CJ Miles. Horribly & maddeningly inconsistent.
- Kyrylo Fesenko. Back-up big man is #11 on the list, and the starter is playing horribly. Ouch.
- Sundiata Gaines. 1 big shot... very few minutes since. Obviously J-Slow wasn't impressed.
- Kosta Koufos. In the D-League because he struggled big time when finally given minutes.
#1, 2 & 3 are set. After that, it's pretty much a big mess from #4 to #7. Ronnie P isn't one of the top 7, but isn't one of the "bench-warmers" at the end either. After him though, it's a toss of guys that aren't playing (Fesenko, Gaines, Korver, Koufos?) or shouldn't be playing (CJ right now). Koof gets the 'LVP' on the team award because, well... he's not even on the team right now. It really seems like the Koufos experiment is going to go like the Morris Almond experiment. AKA... over before it even began.
I'm still waiting for a trade around the league to be excited about (sorry, Devin Brown). Or a Jazz trade that involves them getting better & not just cutting salary, but that's probably just wishful thinking. Let's see how they do against a short-handed Blazers team tonight. It'll be interesting to see how the Jazz come out against an injured team...
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