New Utah Squad

[Cavskilla431]

The 10-11 season will be above expectations for the Utah Jazz, I would see them with a 50-32 season record, and in they playoffs I would see them eliminated in the 1st round if they do make it. This is their roster and lineups as of now.

PG-Deron Williams, Sundiata Gaines, Ronnie Price
SG-C.J. Miles, Othyus Jeffers, Wesley Matthews(if matched)
SF-Gordon Hayward, Andrei Kirilenko, Jeremy Evans
PF-Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap
C-Mehmet Okur, Kyrylo Fesenko

Starting Lineup:
PG- Deron Williams
SG- C.J. Miles
SF-Andrei Kirilenko
PF-Al Jefferson
C-Mehmet Okur

[carrottop12]

I still think the Jazz are going to be competing for HCA in the first round and thus wouldn't be at all surprised to see us advance to the second round or further.

And I think Millsap and Jefferson start every game.

[babyjax13]

I think we will go undefeated and win the championship.

[Colby]

The 10-11 season will be above expectations for the Utah Jazz, I would see them with a 50-32 season record, and in they playoffs I would see them eliminated in the 1st round if they do make it. This is their roster and lineups as of now.

PG-Deron Williams, Sundiata Gaines, Ronnie Price
SG-C.J. Miles, Othyus Jeffers, Wesley Matthews(if matched)
SF-Gordon Hayward, Andrei Kirilenko, Jeremy Evans
PF-Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap
C-Mehmet Okur, Kyrylo Fesenko

Starting Lineup:
PG- Deron Williams
SG- C.J. Miles
SF-Andrei Kirilenko
PF-Al Jefferson
C-Mehmet Okur

If we don't start Jefferson at Center and Millsap at Power Forward, it will be a long season and we'll probably end up trading a very disgruntled Millsap.

If they decide to stick Millsap on the bench I will be jumping into the fire KOC corner. You don't promote a guy for two days only to make a trade and do the EXACT same thing. Change it. 6'10" 265 is plenty big for a center.

Sign a low level backup PF/C who plays defense and hustles (ala Amundson, etc.) to cover for the lack of D from Jefferson (although he has long ass arms and helps us match up immensely better with L.A. for that reason alone).

[HolyToledo]

Memo is coming off the bench!!! I see the Jazz as the Lakers biggest competition in the West.

#1 Lakers
#2 Jazz
#3 Mavs
#4 Portland
#5 OKC
#6 Nuggets
#7 Spurs
#8 Suns

[seejaydeja]

No way Hayward starts, my guess is we snag Mason Jr out of free agency and our SL looks something like

C- Big Al
PF- Sap
SF- CJ
SG- Mason Jr
PG- DWill

[Fido]

...If they decide to stick Millsap on the bench I will be jumping into the fire KOC corner. You don't promote a guy for two days only to make a trade and do the EXACT same thing. Change it. 6'10" 265 is plenty big for a center...

Your enthusiasm and passion are appreciated though misguided. If Millsap comes off the bench, that would be Sloan's decision, not KOC's. And Millsap wasn't "promoted" for 2 days. There is no starting lineup over the summer--only virtual projected lineups--Sloan will work that out in training camp.

[David Ginola 14]

But Evans is a PF...or not...?

[outerspacefella]

Evans is, according to Sloan, just "a basketball player".
Is he a PF? We'll know after fall camp...
From what I watched, dude's super athletic, uses all his vertical ability on D, attack the basket if you give him a little space, and don't shy away from contact...
I'm pretty sure the Jazz will make room for him...

[LjJazzman]

I think yall are WAY too optimistic. Id much rather see this kind of talk rather then the front office sucks talk that we have been seeing tho.

This team is not as good as last years at this point, not even close. Losing Kyle and Wes is HUGE. They are both very good players and with them gone we have no true SG on the team.

I have no clue how people right now think we are a 50 win team.

Jefferson MIGHT be better than boozer, might. We have no idea how good he is going to be, we don't even know if he is going to be as good as boozer was for us. I'm guessing its going to be close either way but its not going to be this huge upgrade over boozer.

We have NO sgs right now. Closest thing we have is CJ and hes much better at the 3.

We have NO center right now either. Yes Jefferson will probably play center for us but hes going to be way undersized. At 6'10 he could be the tallest healthy player on the team at the start of the season.

We have no depth at SG, and no real centers.

I'm not sayign we are a bad team either. I'm just saying as of right now we arent even as good as we were last year.

[HammerDunk]

If Al is a serviceable 5, I don't think he is all that undersized. He has some very good length. I am just wondering if he will do well at the 5 though. Time will tell. Would I prefer Pau? Yes. Will I be happy with Al? Most likely, yes.

As for the SG thing. It will be answered. Losing Kyle and Wes will be tough, but if our cards are played right, it may not make that much of a difference. I expect CJ to step up and take the pressure off whoever we get at the 2. If he can't do that, he needs to be traded. Same goes for AK. I am optimistic about Hayward giving us some quality minutes, all of which COULD be at the 2.

[darthkiller]

people who think jefferson is a 5. just look at minnesota, they gave away jefferson for peanuts because he isnt a 5 , they wanted Darko to get minutes over him.

a jefferson milsap will be the worst defensive front court in the league and jazz wont go far in the playoffs.

[carrottop12]

people who think jefferson is a 5. just look at minnesota, they gave away jefferson for peanuts because he isnt a 5 , they wanted Darko to get minutes over him.

a jefferson milsap will be the worst defensive front court in the league and jazz wont go far in the playoffs.

If YOU would look at Minnesota you would realize that they run the Triangle offense which is completely different than the flex offense the Jazz will be running.

[HammerDunk]

people who think jefferson is a 5. just look at minnesota, they gave away jefferson for peanuts because he isnt a 5 , they wanted Darko to get minutes over him.

a jefferson milsap will be the worst defensive front court in the league and jazz wont go far in the playoffs.

I think it has more to do with Jefferson not fitting in with their offensive schemes. They had to pick between Love and Jeff. I would probably have picked Love for their system as well. Al isn't going to run the break all that well, which is something they really want to do. I'm not sure Darko will either, but I could see Beasley and Webster fitting that role nicely. Looking at what they are doing this off-season, I wouldn't be so quick to judge ANY moves they make having anything to do with how a player is performing in general. They are clearly trying to form this team to fit what they want to do offensively. They are looking the be the Heat of the West, only in terms of having a nearly completely different looking team than what they had last year except for a few pieces they value greatly. But who knows, they may feel that he is not going to return 100% from his injury, which would suck.

Also, I feel that they didn't focus much on defense at all. Jefferson is moving to a team that, hopefully, is going to focus more on defense and give him more incentive to work hard on that end of the floor. He can score 30 and grab 15 rebounds every night, but if he truly wants to impress Sloan, all he has to do is work hard on the defensive end and play to his potential there, which is all we ever wanted Boozer to do. He will get his on the offensive end regardless.

These are my hopes about him anyway.

[gojazzmjsucks]

NBA TV said that their owner said that they only had one starter on their team coming out of last season!.....That starter was Darko. Sorry the ownership on that team wear sun glasses at night! I saw BIg Al in Boston we will be just fine with him!

"Once you pop the fun dont stop"....Hope to see you showing love to Big Al after we are the 2 or 3 seed in the West for the 1st time in years!

[ADWCTA]

hold up. min gave jefferson away because he can't play an up and down game (which min wants to do w/ all the young guns). it has nothing to do with jefferson playing the 5.

it's like running 100% set plays and paying jason kidd 15mil, it's just not worth it.

jefferson can play the 5 in today's NBA. who're the top 3 offensive Cs in the west? Yao? Injury recovery. Bynum? Injury recovery. Nene? Really? AJ won't have that much trouble guarding them or boxing them out for rebs. i don't understand why the 5 spot has this mystical aura of "oh he can't play it". hell, Boozer was even sort of pulling it off for a strech there. the only guy at 5 who's scary next season in the west is Kaman... and I don't think we have to worry all that much about 1/15 teams, esp when it's the clippers.

the real question is whether Jefferson can score on opposing Cs... and I think the answer is clearly yes, given his performance history.

[HammerDunk]

Boozer destroyed Kaman every time we played them. I don't have a doubt that Al can do the same. ADWCTA is right, there is no reason whey Al can't play the 5 in our system.

[StocktonShorts]

You guys realize that even with a healthy Okur, Boozer played about 40% of his minutes at center last year, right?

So the question isn't whether Jefferson was or should've been a Center on the T-Wolves. The question is: will he do a better job manning the 5 for the Jazz than Boozer did? I see him playing about 60% of his minutes there.

[HammerDunk]

Exactly. The Jazz would never have signed him if they didn't feel he could cover the 5 spot.

[gojazzmjsucks]

Ive read that he did well against the size of Howard....Its Gasol i want to see the stats on!