As I watched the Jazz improve to 1-0 in the second half of the 2006-2007 season Monday night, one question formed in my mind that I couldn’t stop pondering:
Is this the best Jazz team that Utahns have ever watched? If not, is it at least the most fun, professional basketball team this state has been able to call its own?
Here are 10 reasons I said “yes.”
No. 10: The Jazz is putting out a better product.
As impossible as it is for anyone to make Jazz fans forget John Stockton and Karl Malone, the Jazz finally has a team that is helping fans accept their departure. The Mailman and Stock are not coming back.
Instead, the Jazz is starting to live up to its name. It doesn’t have the one-two punch of a pop song like it did in the ’90s. It has an eclectic arrangement of players that all bring something to the overall show.
No. 9: The Jazz’s triple threat.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone if Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Deron Williams all score 20 points in the same game multiple times this season.
Even when the Jazz had Jeff Hornacek, John Stockton and Karl Malone, it never had three guys who were more capable of scoring more than 25 points than Utah’s trio this season.
No. 8: Kevin O’Connor’s off-season acquisitions.
You’re more likely to find a chain-smoking LDS bishop than a Jazz fan that isn’t absolutely ecstatic about getting Derek Fisher for the likes of Devin Brown, Keith McLeod and Andre Owens.
Also, O’Connor basically got away with robbery at this year’s draft. To get the likes of Ronnie Brewer, Dee Brown and Paul Millsap–with the 14th, 46th and 47th picks–was a stroke of genius.
No. 7: Fewer 24-second shot-clock violations.
Remember during the last two years when the Jazz was good for at least 10 shot-clock violations per game?
Not this season. The team gets one if opponents are lucky, and it actually looks like it knows what it’s doing 85 percent of the time.
(Note: The majority of the time Jazz players don’t look like they know what’s going on comes when Gordan Giricek is in the game. Has he ever made ANYONE bite on his pump fake?)
No. 6: Greg Ostertag has yet to play a single minute for the Jazz this year.
There is no way I can be the only person that is happy I don’t have to watch a 7-foot-2-inch center fake 12 times under the basket before making a feeble attempt to score at point-blank range.
To be fair, I do miss Tag punting basketballs into the stands.
No. 5: The Jazz has turned lemons into lemonade.
Michel Redd, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen and Gilbert Arenas have all surpassed the 50-point mark in games against the Jazz this season.
The Jazz has lost three of these four games, so even when the Jazz loses, fans still get a treat. This balances things out, doesn’t it?
No. 4: Rocky Mountain proof.
It was impossible for any Jazz fan not to get goose bumps when looking at Deron Williams in the Rocky Mountain Review.
It was like No. 8 had a permanent “So you think Chris Paul is the best point guard to come out of the 2005 draft?” scowl tattooed on his face. This was in July.
I really can’t remember anticipating an NBA season more than this one, just because of Slick. October couldn’t come quickly enough.
No. 3: Did I mention that I don’t miss Greg Ostertag?
No. 2: Mehmet Okur.
Nobody in Jazz history–including Hornacek–has stuck more daggers in an opponent in one season than Okur. The anticipation is palpable every time he toes the three-point line, and that shot always seems to fall when the Jazz needs it most.
The guy is also seven feet tall. The Jazz has always needed to stretch the defense so it can operate Sloan’s offense. Okur does that and then some.
No. 1: The Jazz’s 27-14 record after 41 games.
The Jazz has equaled or bettered this record nine times before, but it has never done it the way it has this year.
The main difference is that this year, basically no NBA “expert” gave the Jazz a chance at having that type of record by the season’s mid-point. Some didn’t even think it’d win 27 games all year.
For that reason, the team’s 65.8-winning percentage means a little more than in seasons past.
