The Mighty Charlotte Bobcats

The Upside of Injuries.
Ugly teams, uglier game. Ugh. The Jazz were missing half their team but they still should have had enough to beat Charlotte's sorry group. The Jazz lost another tight game in the final 2 minutes. We are going to have to reserve judgement on the Jazz for a couple of months as the team is still transitioning. All of these injuries might have a silver lining for a team that is used to being the model of stability in the NBA. Deron Williams wont be at full strength for at least a month and that gives Ronnie Price time to develop into a point guard. We are finding out how good Brevin Knight is. Harpring being injured has given CJ Miles a little bit more playing time. Even Okur leaving for personal matters has given Kosta Koufos a chance to show what he can do. Better that the Jazz experiment now and find out if their guys can play or if they will need somebody else by the trading deadline. Oh, and Collins being injured means that the team can keep him on the bench for the rest of the year.

Harpring was back for the game so that he can continue to run around like a crazy chicken. I love Harpring's energy but at this point he needs to retire. If they keep him, they can use him as "the enforcer." It would be like hockey where they keep a thuggish brute on the team to come in to beat up on the other teams best player. They can bring him in to pull a Robert Horry and hip check star players into the stands and then get thrown out. What else could he do for the team that would be more valuable?

Kosta Koufos got some minutes tonight and really played well for a rookie. He didn't exactly endear himself to coach Sloan by taking the first two shots of the game. Other than that, he was active, blocked shots and rebounded well enough to warrant some more time. He didn't look like a super mega stiff, just a regular stiff which is pretty good. He reminds me of a taller Kris Humphries. Now only if he learns not to shoot every time he touches the ball.

Ronnie Price had his first good game of the year. He was confident and shot well. CJ Miles didn't have good numbers but he did little things well. He doesn't take wild shots and knows how the offense flows. I can see him getting more of minutes through the year. I was happy to see Williams sitting out today, even if meant the difference between a win and a loss. A healthy Williams makes a difference in the last two games. The Jazz lost tonight's game in the last 2 minutes and that is when Williams is at his best. Williams is the one player on the team that can create his own shot, which is crucial when the offense breaks down. Having Williams play too early and risking injuring his ankle to get a couple of wins is shortsighted. I would keep him out for 2 months if his health depended on it.
Did you see that Boozer dunk at the end of the game?

Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas, great players, terrible front office personnel.
The road trip facing the NBA minor league ( The Eastern Conference) continued last night against the Charlotte Bobcats. Jordan has only been in charge of this team since the summer of 06 and so you can't blame everything on him, but this is a badly assembled team. Jordan isn't the GM, Rod Higgins is, but Jordan is the owner that has the final say on decisions. 3 drafts and so far the first 2 look drafts look like giant busts.

2006, 3d overall pick - Adam Morrison. Great college player but everyone questioned where he was going to fit in the NBA. For a shooter he isn't that great a shooter, he doesn't rebound and he doesn't pass so he is basically useless. He probably is the biggest bust of the '06 draft. The draft overall wasn't deep but they missed out on Brandon Roy(6), Rudy Gay(8), Ronnie Brewer(14), Rajon Rondo(21), Farmar(26). Contrast that with Portland who had three picks in the same draft and ended up with Lamarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Sergio Rodriguez. Of course, Morrison had a good night against the Jazz while I was writing this.

2007, 8th overall pick- Brandan Wright traded for Jason Richardson. 22d overall- Jared Dudley. Wright is young and athletic if he got some playing time in Golden State he might prove that he can play. I used to like Jason Richardson when he was an exciting dunker. Then he fell in love with the three pointer and now he is an inefficient scorer that has a huge contract. Why would you want to pay this guy 12 million dollars to jack up 3 pointers and not do much else? He is the second best player on a bad team, the third on a good team or the best on this team.
Jared Dudley is a hard working back up that will stick in the league somewhere and not a bad pick for late in the first round.

2008, 9th overall pick - DJ Agustin. 20th overall Alexis Ajinca. DJ had a lot of success at Texas and its too early to tell if he was a good pick. The problem is that they have Raymond Felton, the 5th pick from the Deron Williams/Chris Paul draft, who is still developing as a player. Basically they are giving up on Felton, waiting another 2-3 years for Augustin to develop and letting Felton walk at the end of the year. Point guards other than Paul and Williams take time to develop and it isn't fair to compare Felton to those two. Felton is a talented player that will end up being a starter somewhere else.
I don't know anything about Alexis Ajinca but anyone over 7 feet tall has a 90% chance to being drafted in the first round and a 1% chance of being good.

Signings
Why are all contracts five or six years? Even bad players get six year deals. How many players actually stay on their team for six years? Other than stable teams like the Jazz, players worry about a trade as soon as the ink is dry on their contract. There is nothing that handicaps a team more than bad contracts. Isiah's Knicks are a good example. Actually it started with Scott Layden but Isiah decided he could make it worse. If you have a bad draft, you have another lottery pick the next year. If you sign a dud, you have to pay him for the next six years and he goes against your salary cap thus limiting your free agent signings.

Gerald Wallace - 6 years, about 60 million in 2007. Wallace had been underrated for years until he signed this big contract. Now he is over payed. Would be a great player coming off the bench on a playoff team.

Matt Carroll - 6 years, 27 million in 2007. Why are you going to pay an undrafted 3 point specialist 5 million a year? Is the third member of the overpaid white trio along with Brian Cardinal and Brian Scalabrine. They fulfill the secret NBA clause that forces teams to have a scrubby white guy that the fans can get excited about. The Jazz have a reverse clause that limits them to eight or less black players on the team without paying a fine.

Emeka Okafor - 6 years, about 70 million in 2008. Centers are hard to come by Okafor is an intelligent, hard working guy that plays good defense so I can understand this signing. He was the first pick in Bobcat history and a solid citizen but he is going to be a millstone around the neck of this team. He has back problems and even if he averages 15 and 10 with 3 blocks for six years he still wouldn't justify his contract. The Jazz could use a player like him with a better contract.