The Jazz Junkies

Wow, it’s been since the summer since either of us slackers (Ben and myself) have posted anything – even throughout this tumultuous season which I have been following every game of! I was responding to a comment on the post that describes how we got the Knicks draft pick this year, and it got me talking about the possibilities and also about the controversial Brewer trade. I thought I’d copy some of it here and expand on it a little.

First, what to think of the Ronnie Brewer trade for nothing but a future 1st round pick from the Memphis Grizzlies. Does this improve the Jazz? For now or the future? Did it hurt them? Let’s take a look at some pros and cons and then I’ll share my opinion:

PRO’s

(1) Jazz save several million dollars – Brewer’s salary, doubled because of the dollar for dollar luxury tax.
(2) Jazz get a future 1st round draft pick from the Grizz. Will it be used on another player? Or coupled with something else to acquire a much better draft pick or player?
(3) Jazz wing players AK, Wes Matthews, Kyle Korver, and CJ Miles all get more minutes, more experience and should be happier and improve with the added playing time.
(4) Jazz get SOMEthing in return for Brewer, who was somewhat likely to leave for nothing in free agency because he and the Jazz were apparently far off in new contract negotiations.
(5) Jazz don’t lose much because the play of Matthews and AK had made Brewer, and his lack of shooting expendable.

CON’s

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According to the Utah Jazz website and confirmed by Espn.com, the Jazz will match the offer given by the Blazers to Paul Millsap.  The deal is for 4 years and is worth around 32 million with a 10.3 million signing bonus. Read the rest of this entry »

  Are the Utah Jazz headed for a lottery pick?

Isiah Thomas can't even stand himself!

  Hopefully not!  At least not this year… Though this season has been disappointing (an understatement!), I’m optimistic the Jazz can eventually get healthy and make a push for at least a playoff spot.  They are however, due the New York Knicks first-round pick most likely next year.  I’ll explain how we got it, and what the complicated protection clauses are.

  So first of all, here is how the Jazz ended up with this first-round Knicks pick: Read the rest of this entry »

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The Jazz Junkies.com has finished Volume 1 of their original series “Jazz Player MVP Rankings.” Every Sunday we will rank every Jazz player from 1-15 based on how valuable they are to the Jazz based on how they are playing so far this year. Think of it as a player “power rankings”. The rankings and comments are the opinions of the staff, so we would love to hear your comments! Please keep them civil.

On to the Rankings….
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Just a heads up: The Jazz Junkies.com will be releasing their own version of the NBA Power Rankings. We will try to be as objective, fair, and thorough as possible, but as huge Jazz fans, they may have a Jazz-bias at times as well as be less knowledgeable about some of the lower 15 NBA teams.

Along with the Power Rankings, also look out for a The Jazz Junkies original, Utah Jazz Player MVP Rankings. We will be ranking each Utah Jazz player from 1-15 on how important they have been to the Jazz so far this season. Taken into account will be stats, leadership, impact with them on the floor, durability, consistency, etc.

We will try our best to release each of these every Sunday. So stay tuned…. and if you haven’t signed up for The Jazz Junkies newsletter – do it! Go Jazz!

  Sorry loyal Jazz fans about the 2-month drought of Jazz commentary!  I (Jay) was busy moving, then busy working and other miscellaneous events [like flag football ].  But Jazz news has been pretty slow up until now with the regular season less than 2 weeks away!

  To catch everyone up on Jazz news that they should already know…….. Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the days Ben and I were at the Rocky Mountain Revue, I took a couple photos.  We were just kickin’ back in the nose-bleed seats, so they’re not that great.  The photographer for NBA Photos was sitting next to us, but I don’t have a $20,000 camera like she did, haha.  Mine fits in my pocket for convenient carrying. 

Ben and Jay (me) at the game

Local Utah State kid Jaycee Carroll tore it up

 A few more pictures of Jazz players at the Revue.  Check ‘em out!

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The Rocky Mountain Revue was a blast!  I only was able to go for two of the nights (hopefully next year I’ll be able to go to more), but I also have been able to watch plenty of the games/highlights on t.v.  That being said, I have many comments and opinions about many of the rookies/second year players that played for the Jazz and also a couple opinions about other teams’ players.  Because I have several notes and analysis, I am going to break the posts up my on this blog into a few segments…  So here is part 1of Ben’s Rocky Mountain Revue analysis. Read the rest of this entry »

I know that I will be criticized by many for believing this, but I am truly glad that the Jazz matched the offer that C.J. Miles was offered, and that Miles will be staying with the Jazz.

Yes C.J. is Read the rest of this entry »

Jason Hart from the Jazz was traded to the L.A. Clippers for Brevin Knight, a straight one man for one man trade.  To be really honest, I could not be more thrilled!  Jason Hart was not very helpful to the Jazz team, as we obviously know.  He was a backup to a backup which, to me is quite worthless. Aside from that minor point, he was not very good on defense and a very inconsistent player.    He really had nothing to add to the Jazz franchise.

As for receiving Brevin Knight..  Yes his stats are not that great, and he has been traded to almost half of the NBA teams in the league, but the thing that I like most about this guy is Read the rest of this entry »

The Utah Jazz and Deron Williams agreed to a 3 year/approximately 50 million dollar deal with the possibility of extending to a 4 year deal for another 20 million.  We as Jazz Junkies could not be any happier, especially with Boozer and Okur becoming free agents next year.  Williams has expressed his excitement to be with the Jazz and hopes to win the Championship in the near future.

As much as I would have liked to see him sign for a little more time, I believe that this signing was smart on Deron’s part.  I really do believe that the Jazz have a chance to win the next NBA championship, and possibly go two year consecutive.  If I were Deron, I would Read the rest of this entry »

The Utah Jazz inked their first round draft choice Kosta Koufos to a deal today.  The terms were not released yet, but this is good news, simply because that’s one less thing to worry about for the Jazz AND Koufos, who can now begin practicing with the Jazz Rocky Mountain Revue team next week.

Also of interest, Deron Williams and the Jazz have met to discuss his contract extension, and I believe the two sides are very close, but D-will is just concerned with Read the rest of this entry »

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To recap some of the summer’s happenings, The Jazz Junkies will take a look at contract situations for Paul Millsap and CJ Miles; Deron Williams’s future with the Jazz, The Jazz’s approach to free agency, Kyle Korver’s charity work; the blog of a NuSkin Jazz Dancer, and lastly, whether Carlos Boozer will opt out of his contract after next season.

First, The Jazz have, as we all expected, exercised the team option on Paul Millsap for the last year of his rookie contract. After they sign D-will to an extension, I hope they begin negotiations with Millsap, and of course Boozer and Okur – who could all be free agents next summer. More on that in a second.

Second, the Jazz also extended a qualifying offer [1 year $1.2 million] to CJ Miles making him a restricted free agent. That means he is free to sign with another team, but the Jazz have the option to match any offer. Personally, I would love to see us keep CJ. He barely ever gets to play, but when AK or Brewer is injured, now all of a sudden he’s a starter, putting up 30 points in one game. Besides Ronnie Brewer, CJ Miles is the most athletic player on the Jazz. I know there isn’t room for him at the 2 spot, so maybe they could try rotating him in at the SF position. I know coach Sloan has said Read the rest of this entry »

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Finally, the Utah Jazz have set up an official Youtube Channel to submit video clips of player interviews, post game analysis, shoot-around interviews, the Bear Mascot stunts, Dancer tryouts and Routines as well as “anything else they can get their hands on!” For the link, continue reading below… Read the rest of this entry »

Although most people were pretty optimistic that the Jazz’s stars Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer would be named to this summer’s USA Olympic roster, on Monday, it was made official.

As a Jazz fan, this is very exciting for many reasons. First, and least important, it reminds us of the “glory” days back when our very own Stockton and Malone were a big part of the original Dream Team in 1992, and again on The Dream Team 2 in 1996. Second, we all know how Read the rest of this entry »