NBA London

"Look kids, Big Ben... Parliament." As the Jazz take on the Bulls in London, I wonder what the NBA would look like in Europe. I can't imagine it would ever go there... too much travel across the Pond. Now, thinking of Carlos Boozer playing for the Bulls might be a little more plausible since he requested for such a trade last summer. The Booz takes on questions about his summer inquiries to join the Chicago Bulls.

Miles Hurts Thumb

CJ Miles has ruptured a ligament and tendon in his thumb and won't be playing for the Utah Jazz for the next little while, the Deseret News is reporting. The injury apparently happened during a practice at the O2 Arena in London where the Jazz are scheduled to play a pre-season game versus the Bulls.

The injury couldn't come at a worse time. The Jazz are already thin at the wing positions, with Matt Harpring planning to retire, and Andrei Kirilenko & Kyle Korver ailing from pre-season injuries. CJ's injury could also be a doozy because tendons on the hand take time to heal. I would expect CJ to be out for at least 3-4 months, especially if he's scheduled to have surgery, which it looks to be the diagnosis. As Jazz fans, we better get used to the sight of having guys like Ronald Dupree and Wesley Matthews in the Jazz line-up. Perhaps we should make a trade for a significant wing prospect. Another item of business for the Jazz to do will be to extend Ronnie Brewer's contract. While that situation has little to do with the Jazz's current circumstance (CJ's injury), I believe renewing Ronnie's contract is something we need to take care of in order to establish our future at the guard/wing position (a position that's been somewhat shaky and troublesome in the past). CJ and Ronnie are expected to be our future at SG and SF. In the meantime, we can only hope CJ gets better sooner rather than later.

Good Start

The Jazz started the preseason out on a high note with an impressive win over the Nuggets.




Among the encouraging signs for the Jazz were CJ Miles's 16 points in 17 minutes and Okur's Kareemesque baby hook. Miles reported to camp in great shape and showed signs that he may be ready to play up to the potential the Jazz have talked about for the past few seasons. Improved play from Miles and Brewer would go a long way toward making us more competitive with the elite teams in the West.

The report out of camp is that Okur has been working hard on his post moves, and he showed one of them off when he hit a baby hook over the Bird Man. Okur's ability to play out of the post could be critical when Boozer is gone. Although it was only the first preseason game, the Jazz played well and showed signs of good things to come.

Preseason Game 1: Jazz - Nuggets

It’s hard to get too excited about the preseason, but this year there are several interesting position battles that should make tonight’s tipoff with the Nuggets and the rest of the preseason interesting.

1. Who will start at power forward? Millsap and Boozer both have starter talent and are being paid starter money. Millsap signed a contract that makes him an essential part of the future of the team, and Boozer will likely be playing for another team by the time the trade deadline rolls around. But Boozer’s offensive game is more developed, and Paul has shown the ability to contribute off the bench. I’m not sure how Boozer and his me-first attitude would adjust to being a 6th man, and my guess is that Carlos will get the start.

2. Who will fill the HUGE gap left by Jarron Collins? The battle for playing time at the back up center spot between Fes and Kosta begins tonight and could possibly last well into the season. Fes has been around longer, has a bigger body, and has a new girl friend, but he has never shown the focus or grasp of the offense that Jerry demands. Kosta seems to be a quick learner, is active on defense, and has an underrated shot. My guess is that Kosta will win the spot, and I would love to see him give the Jazz a solid ten to fifteen minutes a night.

3. Who will back up DWill? Although DWill plays a lot of minutes, the Jazz need a capable backup point guard to keep the momentum going during the last two minutes of the first quarter and when DWill is in foul trouble. Price has shown flashes of being an effective change of pace PG, but, for the last two season, he has endured long stretches when he couldn’t seem to get off the bench. Enter Eric Maynor. The Jazz passed on several promising players to take Maynor in the first round of the draft and are obviously very high on him. Judging from the summer league, he seems to know how to get a team into the offense and is good at getting to the basket. Price has the edge going into the season, but Maynor will be given opportunities to prove himself, especially during the preseason. I could see this going either way but would bet on Price seeing the lion’s share of the backup PG minutes.

And finally, according to Ross Siler at the Salt Lake Tribune, the Jazz will break the huddle this year with "1-2-3 Defense." Whether that means that they will actually play solid defense remains to be seen. Sloan has really emphasized defense during the teams early practices, and it will be interesting to see how that translates on the court.

Expensive Jazz

Is our team elite enough to warrant spending so much money? Ross Siler from the Salt Lake Tribune put together a nice piece about the expensive payroll we'll be having for this season. $94 Million is boatload of dough. Is it worth it?

"I want the Millers to make the best decision they can," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I'm kind of caught in no-man's land with that. I want the players here to play. I appreciate [the Millers'] support in trying to keep players.

"I've always felt like it's important to keep players together, give them a chance to know each other. Your young guys get better as you go along. That's how you have a chance to build a team that's competitive."

"What I want to do is have a very good basketball team and be an elite team," O'Connor said. "I can't go past that."
"We control our own fate next year, we didn't this year."

Summer Love

The offseason has mercifully come to a close. As the players trickle back into practice, it is apparent that basketball has not been an all-consuming mistress. In fact, a lot of formerly "available" players are now spoken for.

Most notorious, of course, is Lamar Odom's recent fake marriage to reality TV she-man, Khloe Kardashian. If you didn't already hate the Lakers (anyone?), the fact that the new additions to Laker's practices this year will be Ron Artest, Ryan Seacrest, and Brody Jenner should awaken you to the following reality: LAKERS FANS SUBSCRIBE TO PEOPLE.

Closer to home, love has bitten our slower, less-talented, Ukranian version of Lamar Odom: The Fez! That's right, the second most attractive center on the Jazz has stopped his wild, non-stop skirt chasing and has settled down with an anonymous lucky lady. Her identity won't be a secret for long, though: L.A. may have TMZ, but Salt Lake has Hope Woodside.

Deshawn, the Patriot

On the eve of the NBA preseason tipoff, former jazzman DeShawn Stevenson is showing off his new patriotic ink (yes, that IS Abraham Lincoln on his throat):

. . . and this fresh ink is a CRACK under his eye and on his forehead to symbolize how he never 'cracks' under pressure (unless of course LeBron is anywhere in the same building, in which case he cracks hard).

Opportunity Abounds

AK47 has gained weight… CJ Miles is in the best shape of his life… and Carlos Boozer still finds himself stuck in Salt Lake… It must be the start of fall camp, where all things “Jazz” look gloriously optimistic. And then practice starts. Aren’t these guys playing ball every day in the summer? Stretching… lifting… running… in good shape? Injuries… This can’t be good. Apparently, opportunity abounds for playing time (especially at small forward and center). However, nobody is around to compete for the positions. AK, KK, and CJ are all fighting off the injury bug. Ironically, all of them play the same position… small forward, along with our other injured warrior, Matt Harpring. Get well guys. We might actually need you during the season. Good thing our first game doesn’t start for another month.

Collins Officially Moves On

Jarron Collins will move on from his career playing for the Utah Jazz and try out for the Portland Trail Blazers. The end of an era has come, according to the Salt Lake Tribune... the Jarron Collins era is finished. What an incredible era it was! To his credit, Collins was one of the few and final players to play with both Karl Malone and John Stockton and made a minor impact on the team over the years.

"It was an honor and a privilege to play for the organization and to play with all of my teammates throughout all the years..."

Even better... over the course of trying out for other teams, Collins ran into Ostertag.

"In recent weeks, Collins worked out with Cleveland and Portland. He even crossed paths in Portland with Ostertag, who is trying to make a comeback at 36, and played in a handful of games with his former teammate. 'It was great,' Collins said. 'Just like old times playing with Oster. We were actually pretty good on the defensive end, knowing how to cover for each other."

Sports Illustrated's Take on Boozer

From SI's Steve Aschburner (Steve who?) this morning:

"For now, we know Boozer is in Salt Lake City. But that's not where he wants to be and that's not where we expect the Jazz power forward to be for long, given the positional redundancy with Paul Millsap and Boozer's chronic me-first attitude. When it suited Boozer -- who gave Utah basically a half-season of production (16.2 ppg, 10.4 rpg) in an injury-marred 2008-09 -- to openly ponder opting out of his $12.7 million contract, he did that. When it behooved him to instead cling to that money for this year, he did that. Yet when he gave several interviews this summer, he speculated about playing in Chicago or Miami, solidifying his image as an individual disconnected from his team -- or even good form.

Next to Boozer these days, Zach Randolph looks like the consummate chemistry guy. Jazz teammate Kyle Korver recently told the Salt Lake Tribune: "We expect him to come back and play really well and try to be healthy and earn back the respect that whoever people think that he needs to earn it back to." We'll say this much: Boozer's consistency has to be applauded in Cleveland, which learned in losing his talented but self-absorbed act to Utah what Jazz fans now are fully wise to."

Come opening night, it is too bad that with a name like "Boozer," we will be unable to differentiate the "Boooooo's" from the "Booooze." I would guess that 75% will be the former, and 25% the latter. Anybody beg to differ?