Utah Jazz 2011 season: Grow it out, or shave it off?

In a fit of Jazz Depression, I once...

Kids, it's time to have a little talk.  All the crying, yelling, kicking, and screaming has got to stop.  The hours spent standing in the corner, trying to calm down, has put a kink in my spine and a new schizophrenic voice named GiGi in my head.  


That reminds me, her and I have a police car to tip later.


Before GiGi and myself are hauled off to the big house of West Bountiful, I sat down (via the world wide net) with the world traveler; Soren Jespersen, and a fellow depressed Caver; Iceman (Tyler Higgins).






Soren Jespersen   Tyler Higgins(Iceman)  Kelly Jewkes(Dignan)  






Question 1: What do you do with the starting five (two part question); Keep the same,  Bring up a bench player to start (who for who?),  Trade for a new (realistic) starter (who for who?),  Trade for a new bench player (who for who?).   WHY?


 I don't understand why Jerry is so averse, or hesitant, to experiment with the starting line-up. We are a .500 team since the start of December. Switching out CJ for Kirilenko, for example. Or CJ for Bell for just a couple of games and then to assess the results is the kind of experimentation this team needs. Not to mention that energy and focus have been one of our biggest weaknesses. Last I checked there is nothing better to incentivize increased focus and drive than the threat of losing your job or having your role reduced. But, and this sounds contrary to my first point but it really isn't, Sloan needs to begin to narrow down his bench and give more DNP-CDs. When guys like Fesenko, Price, Hayward, etc. are getting 2 mins one game, 14 the next, and a DNP on the third, it is really hard for the team to get in a rhythm. Popovich and Jackson use 8 or 9 guys religiously and everyone knows their roles...not so on the ol' Jazz. 

David Locke had a great article showing the most successful and least successful line-ups statistically this year… Interesting findings. Especially about the current starting line-up (Williams, Bell, AK, Millsap, Jefferson)… one of the poorest statistically rated starting line-ups in the NBA.
There may not be “one answer” as far as the line-up goes, but I think Locke’s findings make the current line-up pretty tough to swallow as our starting line-up.
At this time, I would start C.J. over Raja, with the intent to pull him if he is not on in 3-5 mins into the 1st.  If he is on, he stays in and pushes the lead.  If not… no harm, no foul.  Raja or Price sneak in and clean up for a few minutes, and then you can transition into your 2nd team late in the 1st/beg of the 2nd.
One of my biggest worries is Paul Millsap… his funk that he is in right now has been eye opening.  He has a skill set that is incredible, a work ethic that is unmatched, and court vision to go with it… similar to Charles Barkley!
What he doesn't have is height.  It has shown up like a poke in the eye against bigger 4’s.
So I guess the big hairy question is this; Is Paul the guy that needs to be traded for a “taller” big, sliding Al to the 4?  
He might be.
Would you pull the trigger on Paul if a 7-2  Roy Hibbert (12pts. 8rbs. 1.8blks. in 27 minutes) were on the other end?

One may say that we need to start C.J. For Raja but we learned that last year he could not start, he is a much better player off the bench...although he averages 4 points, 1 board and a better 3pt percentage than Raja. C.J. Needs to try to become 6th man of the year. We need his spark off the bench. When we picked up Raja in the off season I was so excited for his 3pt capabilities and tenacious defense, but I have yet to see either. We cannot start our spark plug in Ronnie Price because he is to small to guard a shooting guard, and if you move Deron to the 2 spot on defense he will get tired way to fast. We need to trade but we don¹t have any players good enough to trade in the 3,4,5 depth charts (shown below) nor do we have any additional money available...so they say.

My proposal is since Utah has the most season ticket holders of any team this year as well as the most successful merchandise sales in the league, we need to do two things. 1-Figure what's going on in the locker room and in the front office as well. Our drive to be a top tier team is no where close to where it needs to be. I know that we have done everything possible to beat L.A., but that doesn't mean we have to look like the L.A.
Losers. 2- Let's use that additional money (which we supposedly don't have) that we are pulling in for a player incentive given for player development. For every point you average different from today to the end of the year each player gets an additional $15,000 and the same goes for rebounds, steals and assists. An additional $50,000 will be given if the player plays in every game for the rest of the season. If you combine the totals and if the player raises his points by 4, rebounds by 2, steals by 1, and assists by 2, that is a player incentive of an additional $185,000. This is how the league needs to format their player contracts anyway, we are just going to be the trend setters. If every player qualifies for the incentive the Jazz would be out $2.4 million but would be way cheaper than
an additional player and we would be a complete team playing as one unit.

Question 2: Rank the roster from most important to this team, to least important.

1-Deron Williams
2-Paul Millsap
3-Al Jefferson
4-Andrei Kirilenko
5-Raja Bell
6-C.J. Miles
7-Ronnie Price
8-Gordon Hayward
9-Memo Okur
10-Francisco Elson
11-Earl Watson
12-Kyrylo Fesenko
13-Jeremy Evans

Deron is obviously the leader of the pack, but where we struggle is in the 4 and 5 rankings. We peak again with 6-8. You may be surprised that I have Memo at #9 but he is a 10 point man tops. His injury may be healed but he
will not be back until next season. 10-13 are fillers to spell the starters. For the first time in years we are not a deep Jazz team...actually we only have arguably 3 top tier players.


 I think CJ Miles is the most important player on this team this year. Not the MVP of the team, just the most important player. If Miles could get the minutes and improve his consistency, he'd open up the court for Jefferson and Milsap, while taking pressure off DWill in the back court. The Jazz should change their name to the Utah WeNeverHaveAShootingGuardThatCanActuallyShoots, because, well, other than Griffith and Hornacek, we've never had one. And getting one that can shoot AND can drive to the lane and finish, would be key to our emergence from upper-mediocrity. I think CJ could be an All Star someday, but maybe only after he gets out of Sloan's doghouse.

I took this question as “importance” not “best”.  Who’s absence would hurt Utah the most if he wasn’t here this year?

1. Williams
2. Jefferson
3. Paul
4. CJ
5. Watson
6. AK
7. Memo
8. Raja
9. Price
10. Fesenko
11. Hayward
12. Francisco
13. Evens

Question 3: Are any of Utah’s starting five one of the five best in the league at their position?  If so, list that position’s top 5.  (ex: Top 5 point guards:  1. Williams  2. Rose  3.  Paul  4.  Westbrook  5. Rondo)

The above example is my top 5 for guards.  That might look different by April.
I really thought this question was interesting, because it made me list the “best” in each position until I hit a starter for the Jazz… Raja fell the farthest.
Don’t know if that just means he is in a position that presents a lot of talent (yes!), or if Raja really is the starting line-up’s weakest link (Yes!).
One thing is for sure, W. Mathews was barely outside my top 5….

Deron is the one, but you can't rank the top point guards in this year's NBA. There are just too many great guards and they all do many things well.


PG: 1-Deron Williams 2-Derrick Rose 3-Rajon Rondo 4-Russell Westbrook 5-Chris Paul


PF: 1-Blake Griffin 2-Amar'e Stoudemire 3-Pau Gasol 4-Kevin Garnett 5-Paul Millsap