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The Utah Jazz are 2-1 since sewing up the meaningless Northwest Division of the Western Conference, which includes a close win in Houston and a butt-kicking by the San Antonio Spurs. Should the Jazz keep winning two for every one loss over the course of their remaining nine games (a reasonable conclusion), they would end up with a 54-28 record. That would be better than all but seven of the great Jazz seasons of the past, and should cement this team’s place among the all-time Utah lineups.
It won’t, of course, because one year doesn’t really prove a thing to these stoic fans. Besides, this team has done very well without significant contributions from one of their All-Stars (Andrei Kirilenko), a tendency toward poor defense, and the most comebacks of 10 points or more of any team in the league. There seems to be a lot of room for improvement, which should be encouraging for Jazz fans and downright scary for the rest of the NBA. I cannot say for sure whether Utah will ever run through the league like Dallas is doing this year, but I see no reason why they could not be a legitimate title contender within a few years.
That having been said, I cannot imagine it happening this year. Not even in my wildest fan dreams. Beyond having to get out of the brutal Western Conference (Utah will struggle with any of the potential first round matchups), they have no playoff experience and a tendency to turn the ball over. I think this team has a chance to be pretty good if they can keep the core together, but that will ultimately require a lot of money. Deron “Slick” Williams only has one more year on his rookie contract, and he is bound to require some significant financial compensation when the big market teams call. They will need to find or develop a better shooting guard, and maybe even a backup big man who can play a little defense in the paint. We, as fans, complained for years about the complete lack of offense at the center position, and that has been nicely resolved in the form of a sweet-shooting, hot-handed baller named Mehmet Okur. Now it would be nice to see some defense when Memo is getting his rest. Keeping this meteoric rise going will test the flexibility of Larry H. Miller’s wallet, I’m afraid.
The Florida Gators won the National Championship, which I think is the exact same thing I wrote about two months ago. Two teams have never met for the football and basketball championships in the same year, and Florida dominated both games. Maybe there is something to drinking all that Gatorade, after all. I am glad that Florida earned this one on the court, rather than having it voted on for the length of the year. It does make me wonder what the national basketball championship would have looked like if left to the press and the coaches. Probably quite similar, given both Ohio State and Florida were highly ranked. But imagine all of the March Madness being replaced with a single game, as decided by heavily biased vote. The system needs to be changed.
There is much more in the podcast, including a bit of discussion about the Utah Blaze and Real Salt Lake. We even mention Spring Football, which is exciting, but only serves to remind me we have five long months of baseball until the season starts.
The Top Three in Utah looks like this:
3. Siaha Burley
2. Deron Williams
1. Carlos Boozer
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