BLOG ONLY: Northwest Division Champs!
Due to some illness and unfortunate circumstances, Zach and I were unable to get together to record the Utah Sports Cast this week. However, the world continued to turn, and there was plenty of interesting stuff worth mentioning.
To begin with, the Utah Jazz won the most meaningless division championship in the history of the franchise last night. The combination of a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves and a loss by the Denver Nuggets sewed it up for the Jazz, who won their first division title since the year 2000.
I call it a meaningless championship because the NBA has taken the luster out of winning the division title. With the new seeding rules in place, all the division crown basically does is guarantee a spot in the playoffs, and does not assure any form of home court advantage to the victor. Gone are the days when the Jazz would win the
To be honest, I am just fine with that rule change. I don’t have a problem with the teams being seeded according to where they finished in the conference, instead of just as division champs. Granted, it may hurt the Jazz this year if they collapse to the point where the Houston Rockets catch them, but it also has the potential to help in future seasons, assuming they continue to improve.
In addition, while there is still potential for movement in the playoff seedings, all evidence points to a first round matchup between the Jazz and the Rockets. The winner of that series would play the Dallas Mavericks, in all likelihood. This is a thoroughly frightening road to the Western Conference Championship, if I am being honest.
But, even at this early point I feel safe in declaring it a successful season. They reached the playoffs, grabbed a Division trophy (even if it is meaningless), and should end up somewhere north of 50 wins. If the Jazz can continue to build on this success they should be solidly among the top teams in the league next year, rather than just crashing the party like they are now.
The other big news of the week came when the
I am intrigued by the new coach, and interested to see what he can do with the program. He has coaching experience in both the NCAA and the NBA, and came across as very passionate about the game and about developing the players. Again, what else do we expect a coach to say during his introductory press conference? But, it’s encouraging to us as fans, and should spark some renewed interest in the team. He is clearly on a pretty short leash, if the events of the past few years are any indication. As an added plus, and no disrespect intended to the former coach, but Boylen is a lot easier to spell than Giacoletti.
The top three in
3. Jim Boylen
2. Andrei Kirilenko
1. Carlos Boozer
Now, I didn’t really discuss this with Zach, and he may be impelled to submit his own top three, which would be cool. I chose the new coach because his acceptance of the position and his encouraging words roused some immediate interest and life into the program. I went with AK because his play has been much improved of late, and he has been a significant contributor to the Jazz winning four of their last five. Boozer was my top guy because of his return to earlier season form, including the Malone-esque 41 point performance against
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Thanks for reading! We will be back with the podcast next week.
posted by Nate and Zach @ 1:08 PM
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