Monday, October 6, 2008

Can Kosta?


Everybody knows about the incredible gap that remains unplugged for the Jazz at backup center. In the front court, there's Memo Okur, Carlos Boozer, Paul Millsap and... ?????. Who knows? Jarron Collins has played fewer minutes each of the past couple seasons due to his lack of production. Hafa Araujo had his opportunities to contribute a couple years back but never fulfilled on his promise (was there any?).
The Jazz really haven't had a solid back-up center since...ohh...maybe, Greg Ostertag. Yikes! We all know that Double-0 Tag had his issues, but at least he filled the paint! That hasn't happened since John Stockton was still lacing up the shoes.
Our frontcourt is in desperate need of a shake-up. Memo and Boozer can provide the offensive firepower, but can they overcome their defensive deficiencies? Paul Millsap is excellent coming off the bench as a sparkplug, but let's not kid ourselves, Paul doesn't play center! Can we masquerade Kirilenko in the line-up and play small-ball? Not against Tim Duncan or Pau Gasol or Yao Ming or Shaq or Baby Shaq (Andrew Bynum). Poor Memo! He has to man-up all by himself.
Can Kosta Koufos provide some stability and playing time? What about Fess? Can he give us some bruising minutes, over sideshow goofiness? The D-News reports that maybe Koufos might actually give the Jazz a boost. Kosta Koufos played well in the Jazz's Saturday scrimmage and scored 11 points which included an alley-oop dunk from CJ Miles. Perhaps with a solid core of veterans around him, Koufos might actually play some decent basketball as a rookie. Will he get time over Jarron Collins though? If it's up to Jerry Sloan and his penchant for never playing rookies, then... NO.

4 comments:

Pasty Gangsta said...

As the Guru points out, Sloan hates rookies. But judging from recent comments, he likes Kosta quite a bit so far. And remember, he played Paul a lot his rookie year. The problem with rookies though is that they ALWAYS hit the wall. We just can't count on Kosta this year. Still, if Collins and Fes get more minutes than him I won't be happy. Especially Collins. No mystery in what that guy brings us: NOTHING.

Orlando said...

I am not sold on Kosta. The only good thing I see out of him so far is that his presence means the end of the Jarron Collins era. We have a new Citizenship MVP!

Tucker McCann said...

I don't even know if Fes will be around much this year from everything I am hearing . . .

Pasty Gangsta said...

So are you saying we're stuck with Collins again, Booner? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.