The state of the Jazz

I have been meaning to write this for a while and really I should have written this before tonight, so yeah the Jazz lost. I am not going to begin with that though. I want to chronicle this season from the most important perspective that matters; mine.

I guess the season really begins after the Kyle Korver for Giricek trade. This will go down as one of the all time great Jazz trades. Its kind of like if you had this old junky car, that was unreliable, sometimes it worked fine, other times it broke down in your driveway. Then out of the blue someone took the crappy car off your hands and handed you the keys to Cadillac. This is really the place where the season started.

Deron Williams has gotten better and better. His turnovers have gone down while his assists have increased. He is a fierce competitor with a penchant for hitting big shots and making the right plays. He has really emerged as the best player on this team. Boozer has been steady, but his lack of defense is troubling. Memo Okur has found his shot and game once again and looks great. Ronnie Price has really emerged as a nice burst of energy, he is better than Dee Brown was last year and probably than Mo Williams from a few years ago. Jason Hart and Jarron Collins do what they do best, sit the bench. Korver has done just what the team has needed, hit the three, stretch the D, and hit the three. He has one of the quickest releases I have ever seen, along with one of the best shots. Both Brewer and Millsap have had nice second years. The one question is what is up with Andrei Kirilenko? The defensive wonder is just average. The one time great defender is not all that brilliant, continually getting beat. Sure his offensive game is better than last year, but his D is no longer what it was.

Last week the Jazz smoked the Spurs and for the first time that I can remember the Spurs gave up and quit. That was nice to see after years of watching the Spurs whip the Jazz. This was followed up with a dominating performance in which the Jazz beat the Western Conference leading Hornets on the road. Deron Williams again proved that at least in head to head matchups with Chris Paul he has the edge.

Last night was a sour loss, even though the Jazz battled back from an early deficit only to have a few calls go the other way at the end. I don't like to blame officials and I won't here, but there were a few sketchy calls down the stretch, even with all that Deron Williams hit a three with a few seconds left to tie the game, only to have Dirk nail a three to win the game. A bitter loss, but at least they came back and made a game out of it and almost won.

I am optimistic for the playoffs but the west is so tough that really anyone the Jazz get will not be easy.

Got a chance to go to game last week. Our neighbor Micah is one of the biggest Jazz fans around so I thought it would be nice for him to get to go to a game. Ben, Mosa, and Micah and I all went and had a blast. Young Micah was highly intent on the game the whole night, his eyes rarely wavered from the action, he was truly living in the moment. His exuberance and enthusiasm made it a fun night.