| Everybody Has A Chance Authored by Ben Wilkinson - October 17, 2005 - 12:58 am
The Utah Jazz have a chance this year. Read that sentence over again. No, I’m not drunk. They really do have a chance. Not in the same way as I have a chance Mischa Barton or Natalie Portman. but they will actually be competitive in the Western Conference for playoff spots five through eight.
A big reason why they will have a chance was their ability in the off-season to solidify their point guard position. Their draft of D-Will (Deron Williams) was huge. D-Will has showed early sparks of his potential during summer league games as well as in the first couple games of the preseason, especially during the October 13 game at Indiana where he led the Jazz with 17 points and 6 assists.
Another big reason why they will have a chance is because of their big men in the middle. They used a draft pick to pick-up straight out of high-school forward CJ Miles, who has impressed fans and coaches going back as far as July, and as recently as their pre-season game against Toronto, where he put in a game winner. The summer also saw the return of much maligned Center Greg Ostertag. Tag returns to the Jazz from Sacramento where he spent a solid year tipping cows with Brad Miller. Jazz fans have high expectations for Ostertag, but really, how high can you set those expectations for a guy with a Fred Flintstone tattoo.
A couple of key returning veterans for the Jazz are Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilinko. The Booze is the second year of his contract with the Jazz, and quite frankly has a lot to prove. Everybody knows that he can be quite a player when he is properly motivated, unfortunately, last year he was riddled by injury and unable to show why he was such a special player in Cleveland. (Which brings me to a quick side note: If he really thought LeBron was going to be this good, do you honestly think he would’ve left C-town?)
AK47 also starts his way back from a season plagued with injury. Kirilinko, who was an All-Star for the Jazz two years ago, will be aggressive as ever. Interestingly enough, AK47 will be sporting one of those scary-looking, Richard Hamilton-Jason Voorhees type masks for the first few weeks of the season after breaking his nose over the summer.
With all these pieces in place, the Jazz seemed destined to at least show up in the playoffs this May. That’s the thing about Destiny though, she looks nice on paper, but she has the ability to nail your heart to the wall when it really matters.
Other Western Conference thoughts: The Lakers should be entertaining to watch. And when I say “Entertaining” I mean it in the way of things like what’s the over/under on how many games before Kobe bitch-slaps Kwame Brown in practice (ala MJ and Steve Kerr)? Is this the season that Jack Nicholson will have to break up an on-court fight between Kobe and Phil?
I think the Clippers will make the playoffs, but the Warriors will challenge for the eighth spot. The Jazz will be seventh. The Lakers sixth. Rockets take the five-spot. Mavericks four. Denver three, Minnesota two and have the Spurs will win the Conference again. |
