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Hey all,

I sat down with many of the Jazz players when they were in the Twin Cities recently. Thought I'd post the link for you...

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=8102

Good to hear...hopefully they use this attitude to stay focussed on playing hard and winning, and not setting out to prove as individuals that they deserve attention.

Thanks for the link!

Good article coming from an outside source, it's a well known fact SLC is a small market.. but the locals here have but one team to route for, so a lot of us are very emotional about our Jazz. They are a fixture here in utah, and as long as this squad stays somewhat intact we'll have an interesting future hopefully filled with Divison titles, WC Titles and ultimatley NBA Championships.

The Jazz are easily one of the best teams in the league, but it has always astounded me how little coverage they get. I just tried to do my part, the players seemed to enjoy the topic and hope you all enjoyed it.

I like the article in general because it is very true that our team is just blatantly ignored, and they don't care too much about it. Kinda like the Spurs.

Although the Jazz defend their home court as well as any team in the league, their road record is unremarkable. Currently, their road record of 16-22 is second only to Denver's 15-22 road woes of the eight teams with playoff slots. Without the ability to win on the road with any sort of regularity, Utah simply will not compete for an NBA title, but they are relying on their experience as the playoffs creep closer.

I wanted to challenge that thought highly. We have had discussions here, about the quality of wins on the road vs the quality of losses on the road. First of all, let me say that Utah has a 14-9 (.609) against the top 9 teams in the West. 27-12 and twelve if we combine it with the top 9 teams in the East.

When we evaluate the losses on the road, take a look at this: Indiana, New York, Sacramento(x2), Portland(x2), Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, LA Clippers, Minnesota(x2), Chicago and New Jersey. 14 of the 22 losses have been against teams that are not in the top 9 in the East or West. The Jazz have beaten Detroit, Boston, Denver, Houston, Cleveland, Orlando, Phoenix, and others. Now here is the deal, the Jazz have layed a big egg on december, when they went 1-9 on the road, and have had even records on the road since then.

The Jazz have absolutely laid an egg with each of those losses, but their record against the top teams sure can make up part of it. If they would have beaten Minnesota those two times, New York, and Miami, the Jazz would be right now the top West team. Go figure.

Sure those stats vs quality teams are nice, but the fact of the matter is that the writer of that article is right... if we can find any consistency on the road we have no shot at at title. If we can somehow win 4-5 of those ugly losses on the road we are sitting as the West's best team. But unfortunately for us, we didn't. So here we are stuck in 4th place and need to get hot in order to obtain HC advantage.

Utah has some work to do before they are an elite team, but the pieces are there, those losses are inexcuseable this season.. . but going forward they will not be tolerated, we just cannot afford to lose those so called "Gimme Games" on the road.

Duiz wrote:I like the article in general because it is very true that our team is just blatantly ignored, and they don't care too much about it. Kinda like the Spurs.

Although the Jazz defend their home court as well as any team in the league, their road record is unremarkable. Currently, their road record of 16-22 is second only to Denver's 15-22 road woes of the eight teams with playoff slots. Without the ability to win on the road with any sort of regularity, Utah simply will not compete for an NBA title, but they are relying on their experience as the playoffs creep closer.

I wanted to challenge that thought highly. We have had discussions here, about the quality of wins on the road vs the quality of losses on the road. First of all, let me say that Utah has a 14-9 (.609) against the top 9 teams in the West. 27-12 and twelve if we combine it with the top 9 teams in the East.

When we evaluate the losses on the road, take a look at this: Indiana, New York, Sacramento(x2), Portland(x2), Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, LA Clippers, Minnesota(x2), Chicago and New Jersey. 14 of the 22 losses have been against teams that are not in the top 9 in the East or West. The Jazz have beaten Detroit, Boston, Denver, Houston, Cleveland, Orlando, Phoenix, and others. Now here is the deal, the Jazz have layed a big egg on december, when they went 1-9 on the road, and have had even records on the road since then.

The Jazz have absolutely laid an egg with each of those losses, but their record against the top teams sure can make up part of it. If they would have beaten Minnesota those two times, New York, and Miami, the Jazz would be right now the top West team. Go figure.

Definitely see where you're coming from. Their record against the other top teams is just fine, but it is the fact they really SHOULD be #1 in the West that makes me uneasy. They're a great team, no doubt, but need to develop that killer instinct.

I hate it when Utahns complain about the lack of coverage for their team. Who cares? What good does it do to get that kind of coverage? Will the Jazz win a championship with more coverage? No. Better coverage doesn't =wins. And wins are the only thing you should care about as a fan, all the rest of the stuff doesn't matter.

I agree to an extent....but what happens when you get the wins? What is it all, ultimately, about?

Glory. That's what.

And if the media refuses to give you coverage, it robs you of the fruits of the very accomplishment that you hope so much for.

For example, the Jazz teams of the mid-late 90s are some of the best teams in the history of this league. But very few remember them beyond the fact that they were one of the teams that Jordan layed low in his march to greatness. Obviously, this would change to an extent if we had won one of those Finals appearances, but not entirely. I would say that we were among the best 12 teams of the last 20 years....but we aren't remembered that way.





One last thing. We may not get a lot of coverage, but we get plenty of respect. Almost every so called expert mentions the Jazz as serious contenders, ahead of teams like Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, NO and even LA. We aren't really ignored. People just don't find us that compelling because our players don't shoot people in strip clubs, or appear on the cover of Vogue, or have their own sneaker, or lead high profile, celebrity type lifestyles etc etc. That leaves us with just a very solid basketball team built to win games. That's what I like. I wouldn't change a thing.

BiggMann wrote:Sure those stats vs quality teams are nice, but the fact of the matter is that the writer of that article is right... if we can find any consistency on the road we have no shot at at title. If we can somehow win 4-5 of those ugly losses on the road we are sitting as the West's best team. But unfortunately for us, we didn't. So here we are stuck in 4th place and need to get hot in order to obtain HC advantage.

Utah has some work to do before they are an elite team, but the pieces are there, those losses are inexcuseable this season.. . but going forward they will not be tolerated, we just cannot afford to lose those so called "Gimme Games" on the road.

You're right...to an extent. Yes, we need to get more consistent on the road, but our inconsistency is in large part a result of not getting up for games against bad teams and we won't be playing any bad teams in the playoffs. We always come out to play against good teams, so I'm not worried. Also, if we take care of business at home, we'll never have to win more than one road game.

One road win is all that is neccesary against each team; and the Jazz can easily do that against the top teams. I don't think consistancy is needed in the playoffs on the road.... consistancy is needed at home.

Not a strong arguement in my view.