David Aldridge:Rating the offseason

Utah won 42 games last year with out Harping for most of the season. They added Boozer, they added Okur(more than replace Ostertag), they added Humphries, they added Snyder who both are 1st round picks that will help back up the PF and SG postitions. They kept Arroyo. Sloan is known for getting the best out of what he's got, and the Jazz could win 50 games this year easy imo.

 

I am not sure it would be easy, but they have the potential to be there. I have alot of respect for the Utah Jazz franchise, since I am not infected by the lingering bitterness most Rockets fans have toward them, because I wasn't even a basketball fan back in the 90s, let alone a Rockets fan.

Jerry Sloan is a coach that produces miracle results but not by miracle ways. His way is to work hard, execute well, and win. I really wish JVG can develop into a Jerry Sloan type of coach, although it would be almost impossible.

JVG is a very good coach (I am his fan, BTW), but I thik he coddles player alittle two much. Last year, he had to give much credit/praise to SF all the time to keep him happy. JVG is a politician type of coach. This would never happen to Sloan. He is a no nonsense general, and he would have killed SF last year if he were our coach...

Just some random thoughts.

 

BTW, I am not sold on Okur either. From what I watched, I know he's a good player(kinda reminds me of Divac, somehow) but he has to prove he's worth 50mils for 6 years. If he doesn't pan out, Utah will be suffering from this bad contract for a long time.

 

Well, they won 42 last year. We won 45 and were 7th seed.

So you replace Ostertag with Okur.
Then you replace Collins or whoever they had with Boozer.

That's a MAJOR upgrade right there.

Then you have Kirk Snyder becoming the backup SG and I REALLY think this kid will blossom into a damn good player.

You also have Harpring coming back.


They will easily win 4 more games, and that will translate into 46 wins, better than we did last year.


As for the Grizzlies, if they want to remain 6th in the West, that's fine. The problem is, Houston and Denver have clearly overtaken them. The Spurs and Wolves will be better. Sacramento will also be up there - Songaila is not a major drop off from Divac anymore, and I think we'll see that next year.

So now Memphis becomes pooled with Phoenix, Dallas, LA, Utah, and to a lesser extent Portland. So, at best, they're looking at 6th. But, honestly, I don't think they're better than Utah. Regardless of where they finish anyway, they're not going to be better than last year in the regular season or the playoffs. They still don't have that marquee player. I see it like this:

Spurs
Wolves
Sacramento
Houston (Assuming we add PG and C as expected)
Denver (Very close, may even resort to a tie-breaker with us)
Utah

Where LA, memphis and Dallas will fight for the last two spots. If Memphis lose Swift, they'll struggle. Dallas and LA will struggle too if they stand pat. If LA bring Malone back and get a good C (using Butler or any other SF), then they are a lock for the playoffs. Dallas just screwed everything up, I think they'll drop. IMO, LA for 7th, Memphis for 8th.

But really, it doesn't matter for Memphis where they end up, because unless they face Dallasor Utah, they'll lose to everyone else in the playoffs.

No disrespect MemphisX, it's just how I see things shaking out. I'm very big on star power, and as far as superb team play goes, I can't see Memphis better than Denver or even Utah anymore. If I were Memphis, I'd bank on tremendous internal improvement. Gasol adding some size, J-Will and Watson improving their repective shots, etc.... Then there's always Dampier, which would give them a big boost.

 

If Divacs stays healthy LA will finish top 5.

Rudy is a good coach.

 

What does he mean "if" Tracy McGrady is a great player.? He is a great player. Not all great players get to play for championship teams.

 

Kind of reminds me of Doc Rivers' Magic the years after Shaq/Penny and before they got McGrady, Hill, etc...They barely missed the playoffs thanks to the gutsy play of their role players(Essentially the whole team), so everyone expected them to blow up after the additions of Hill and McGrady.

There's no way to tell this early, but it's no guarantee that the Jazz will be immensely better.

 

Anybody remember where the Jazz were being predicted to finish at the being of last season?

They lost Stockton and Malone and they were going to crash into the cellar.

 

Well Houston and Utah haven't overtaken us IMO. Denver, maybe. Also, Dallas is still better than you guys are especially as far as winning regular season games. I think Denver is slightly better than last year and the Lakers are a little worse. I think the playoff teams will be the same as last year with Denver being #4, Dallas #5, Memphis #6, Lakers #7, and Houston #8.

 

Guys, Boozer did equally well against the Western teams as he did to the Eastern ones last season.

Go check his stats yourself.

Malone was 6'9".

 

Yup. 20/20 game against Dirk... 30/20 against Utah... 30/20 against Seattle... 20/15 against Amare... 16/18 against the Rockets... 25/15 against the Lakers... And 20/14 average against Detroit...

 

I think you are seriously underestimating the Jazz.

You also seem to think the Rockets are not going to make anymore upgrades this off season. If we pick up the right pieces we could overtake you.

 

1. Spurs
2. Minnesota
3. Kings
4. Houston
5. Denver
6. Memphis
7. Portland
8. Pick a team (Lakers, Mavs, Suns, Jazz)

 

hey as much as I hate the Jazz, I'm pretty impressed by Sloan. The poor man lost his wife and is now rebuilding a team pretty well. He looks like he's got the numbers but let's see how well he does.

 

Memphis was good last year. This year remains to be seen. Will Hubie's deep rotaion work agian? Can he make Bonzi, Gasol buy into his no start system? I predict a major collapse of Griz followed by a major overhaul next offseason. Dont forget Hubie is 70 years old now.

 

I don't know how we can predict how Memphis will fare this season. It's obvious that West is stockpiling talent to make a major move. What it is I have no clue, but he has something up his sleeve. Until then, I would be hard pressed to figure where they will end up.

 

I certainly wouldn't give the Lakers a high offseason grade after losing Shaq, but considering they added Divac, Grant, Odom, and Butler, to go along with the return of Kobe and GP, I think the Lakers are being seriously underestimated. That's a pretty deep team, certainly not lottery-bound.