Can Jazz Win the West?

TG13Returns · Post #1 » by **TG13Returns** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:18 am

ESPN's John Hollinger has Utah winning the West, and none of the panelists have us worse than a 4-seed on espn.com. Now I know Hollinger loves the Jazz more than everyone else, but is it actually within reach this year or are we just a little too hopeful before the season starts? Your thoughts...

BarneyGumble · Post #2 » by **BarneyGumble** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 4:52 am

TG13Returns wrote:ESPN's John Hollinger has Utah winning the West, and none of the panelists have us worse than a 4-seed on espn.com. Now I know Hollinger loves the Jazz more than everyone else, but is it actually within reach this year or are we just a little too hopeful before the season starts? Your thoughts...

Um...duh. We're right there, in the mix. Year after year. For TWO decades we're in the hunt. I;ve been critical of Sloan in the past, and he's made MANY mistakes......but I'll give him that his teams are ALWAYS in the playoffs and ALWAYS competitive.

This team is built to win the whole thing. But we have a major weakness: interior defense. And there we are whistled for more fouls than we should be/we dont get calls from the officials against teams like LA in the playoffs. But we can win the whole thing. Book it.

outerspacefella · Post #3 » by **outerspacefella** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:01 am

No we can't win the whole thing this year. And no we can't win West this year. This team has some very huge flaws and lacks mental toughness... not to mention Boozer's flaws...

Post #4 » by **JStockLivesOn** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:07 am

Yes, it's within reach. Are we the best bet? Probably not. But if Boozer grows a pair, then I like our chances.

gojazzmjsucks · Post #5 » by **gojazzmjsucks** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:35 am

Ak coming off the bench is going to go down as Sloan's greatest move as a coach!This is our year, you heard it from the Jazzman from R.I.

We are deep and Koufos and Fez will battle to be are defence down low!
Brewer and CJ have alot to do with how far we go!Because they fill in the cracks between our stars.

After losing to the Spurs in 06' I turned to my friend who was talkin about falling short again and said "Gives us Two Years and Sloan will get his first ring!" Since then we have gone and gotten Korver our back up Guards are solid, and the Jazz have the experience now!I said it two years ago and I'm sticking to it!The Jazz will win the finals this year against the Celtics in Seven or the Cavs in six! We will get there by having a great seven game series with the Rockets!

Reckless · Post #6 » by **Reckless** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:00 am

although we made some major progress since 06 we are still one piece away

we all know what it is, but the question is are we going to get a opportunity to trade for a quality defensive big. who knows

Ming Kong! · Post #7 » by **Ming Kong!** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:14 am

Wow the majority have us in the top 3, nice. I expect us to be top 4, 1-3 is where I see us, since we're going to probably have one of the best homecourt advantages again, and I think there is no way we can be any worse on the road. I'm quite sure we wont have another drought like we had in December. Anyways if the Jazz win anything 1-5 more games we could be anywhere in that range.

erudite23 · Post #8 » by **erudite23** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:17 am

Absolutely we can.

Post #9 » by **jazzfan1971** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:31 am

Can we beat lotto teams on teh road? IF so, yeah. IF not, no.

Denizfeital · Post #10 » by **Denizfeital** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:32 am

Hi everyone.

I think we have a shot to win it all. I dont think we are favorites though.

IMHO, Carlos Boozer is the one who needs to gets better to make The Jazz win. If he can do better on defense we ae gonna be fine. I am not asking him to be "The Defensive Player of the Year", but asking him to cause some trouble to the oponents.

Our guards are fine, our small fowards are fine, and Memo is fine. Its gonna be all about Boozer.

And one more thing that scares me: I think this is one of our last chances to win it all with this team. Next year there will be like eight players with a chance to be out of Utah, I dont know whats gonna happen next.

Regards,

HolyToledo · Post #11 » by **HolyToledo** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:23 pm

Jazz can win the west only if they have home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Jazz need to stay healthy and play defense. Jazz can and will score. Winning the west is all up to Boozer and Okur wanting it bad enough that they play much better D. I dont see it happening. Thus, I see the Jazz as a number 2 or 3 seed definitely behind the Lakers and maybe now Houston who play tough D every game. I think Spurs are old and done likely 5th seed with New Orleans lacking one more player to win it all. They will likely be a 4th seed.

I have a feeling this could be the year of the Rockets.

GP · Post #12 » by GP » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:36 pm

Its of course possible that the jazz can win it all, but not very likely. The playoffs is about defense and the jazz have very little.

Ming Kong! · Post #13 » by **Ming Kong!** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:39 pm

Denizfeital wrote:Hi everyone.

I think we have a shot to win it all. I dont think we are favorites though.

IMHO, Carlos Boozer is the one who needs to gets better to make The Jazz win. If he can do better on defense we ae gonna be fine. I am not asking him to be "The Defensive Player of the Year", but asking him to cause some trouble to the oponents.

Our guards are fine, our small fowards are fine, and Memo is fine. Its gonna be all about Boozer.

And one more thing that scares me: I think this is one of our last chances to win it all with this team. Next year there will be like eight players with a chance to be out of Utah, I dont know whats gonna happen next.

Regards,

I think Boozer was fine for the most part except for a 15 stretch a the end of the season which unfortunately stretch through most of the playoffs as well. He even seems a little more motivated on defense with his experience on Team USA, hopefully he can improve. A gradual improvement is a big improvement in the case of Boozer where he was at the very best an average defender, and probably less than that. Still if he can atleast give us anywhere near the number he posted in October-December and Memo manages to give anything near what he did after the all-star break then we're in for a great season.

Ming Kong! · Post #14 » by **Ming Kong!** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:43 pm

jazzfan1971 wrote:Can we beat lotto teams on teh road? IF so, yeah. IF not, no.

I really think the lottery teams is something the Jazz are really going to focus on since they are already like the best team versus playoff teams besides the Celtics. I think with another year, they'll be able to handle "bad teams" a little more maturely, with respect.

podrywacz · Post #15 » by **podrywacz** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:52 pm

lol you are not even gonna win NW so how come you d win west? Portland will screw you bad...

JTSPEED · Post #16 » by **JTSPEED** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:55 pm

H yeah we can!!! I think that this is the year the Jazz win it all!!! Although I say this every year I feel better about that statement this year more then any other year.

podrywacz · Post #17 » by **podrywacz** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:03 am

hollinger is a funny clown .he says foye is better than roy due to his fcked up per min theory...

as i ve said. you are not gonna win either west or NW ....

gojazzmjsucks · Post #18 » by **gojazzmjsucks** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:57 am

I'm sorry are you a Nuggs fan?If so we will see you opening night and hope you come in for a chat when we are killing you! If a Blazers fan then you will have a good year too!The division is still ours though Sorry.

HammerDunk · Post #19 » by **HammerDunk** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:49 am

I'm really trying not to get my hopes up quite as high this year. Not because I don't think the Jazz can't win it all, because I know they can. But I am not expecting it. The West is so stacked, that it will take some incredible consistency to go all the way. The Jazz didn't have much of that last year, and I hope they can find it on the road this year. That would make all the difference in the world.

One major thing we have going for us, is out experience. We know our main weakness, and hopefully we can address it better this year. A team like Portland can't say they know what their main weakness is. Every team has one, and must address it to be great. Maybe four or five years down the road.

podrywacz · Post #20 » by **podrywacz** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:56 am

gojazzmjsucks wrote:I'm sorry are you a Nuggs fan?If so we will see you opening night and hope you come in for a chat when we are killing you! If a Blazers fan then you will have a good year too!The division is still ours though Sorry.

blazers fan here. dont get me wrong. i m not a troll ,i really respect your team , jerry sloan is already a legendary coach to me...

but i think you are gonna have problems with boozer , especially after the all star break...he will push for a huge contract and i m not sure how big you d give him... so i d never ever count on boozer.he is such an unreliable guy to me.

plus some ppl are really underestimating my team blazers .the only **** they say that we are full of unproven talent. we are more than that and we ll prove it.

to sum up , you may also end up with another NW title this year too but it s not gonna be as easy as you think. and i m not gonna be suprised if we finish the NW group ahead of you....