***Utah Jazz Thread ***

That Cotton alley oop was phenomenal!!! Little dude has hops.

I hope Cotton stays next year. He has been fun to watch the last few games

Cotton is awesome! I cant believe how well we're doing without 3 of our main scorers. These guys are really stepping up!

Most Improved Player
1. Rudy Gobert
2. Jimmy Butler
3. Klay Thompson

Ah, the award 50 players could win depending on your preferred criteria. Some voters lean away from first-round picks in their second and third seasons, since those players should improve as they gain experience and move up in the rotation. But Gobert's leap from afterthought to one-man defensive wrecking crew, with some ball skills thrown in just for kicks, is among the biggest one-season jumps we'll ever see. The record of 7-footers who logged fewer than 500 minutes in their rookie seasons, as Gobert did, was not encouraging. It is mostly a list of stiffs who flamed out fast.

Gobert instead played five times as many minutes, tripled his assist rate with some nifty passing on the pick-and-roll, cut his turnovers, and improved his shooting from both the field and the foul line — all in addition to emerging as the league's scariest rim protector. You know how teams in practice have assistant coaches hold up huge pads to simulate the presence of shot-blockers at the rim? Multiple teams have casually mentioned to me that they refer to those pads as "Gobert" — as in, "LOOK OUT FOR GOBERT!" The French Rejection got better at everything at an astonishing rate. What a story.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-awards-ballot-part-1-in-praise-of-the-individual/

Originally posted by JustinMT:
Most Improved Player
1. Rudy Gobert
2. Jimmy Butler
3. Klay Thompson

Ah, the award 50 players could win depending on your preferred criteria. Some voters lean away from first-round picks in their second and third seasons, since those players should improve as they gain experience and move up in the rotation. But Gobert's leap from afterthought to one-man defensive wrecking crew, with some ball skills thrown in just for kicks, is among the biggest one-season jumps we'll ever see. The record of 7-footers who logged fewer than 500 minutes in their rookie seasons, as Gobert did, was not encouraging. It is mostly a list of stiffs who flamed out fast.

Gobert instead played five times as many minutes, tripled his assist rate with some nifty passing on the pick-and-roll, cut his turnovers, and improved his shooting from both the field and the foul line — all in addition to emerging as the league's scariest rim protector. You know how teams in practice have assistant coaches hold up huge pads to simulate the presence of shot-blockers at the rim? Multiple teams have casually mentioned to me that they refer to those pads as "Gobert" — as in, "LOOK OUT FOR GOBERT!" The French Rejection got better at everything at an astonishing rate. What a story.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nba-awards-ballot-part-1-in-praise-of-the-individual/

Awesome right up and thanks!

Edit *write up whoops

RT@utahjazz: Only 30 NBA players on track to play all 82 games this season, Gobert and rookie Exum are among them.

13 more wins than last year. Thats some awesome progress. Playoffs next year!

I really hope Snyder gets some serious consideration for Coach of the Year. He was fantastic!

SHOTS FIRED!!!! BOOK!!!!

Originally posted by JustinMT:

SHOTS FIRED!!!! BOOK!!!!

I LOVE IT!! This team really gets along. it'll be interesting to see what changes are made this summer. I really am starting to love the way this team plays together, and only want to see small changes. however if they we're able to land someone like Jimmy Butler I'd also love it

Any of you guys going to the Rocky Mountain Revue? I'm thinking about heading down for it.

Originally posted by JustinMT:

Any of you guys going to the Rocky Mountain Revue? I'm thinking about heading down for it.

I went as a kid once. Sat 4 rows behind the basket and saw a 17 year old Jermaine O'Neal dominate. I dont think he had even made his NBA debut yet. I think it was 1996?

Originally posted by JustinMT:

Any of you guys going to the Rocky Mountain Revue? I'm thinking about heading down for it.

I may go check out a game or two but I doubt it. Depends on who we get.

I was going through my old s**t at my parents house and found these. They came to my rec. center for a basketball camp. Damn this seems like ages ago.

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:

I was going through my old s**t at my parents house and found these. They came to my rec. center for a basketball camp. Damn this seems like ages ago.

I have a Jr. Jazz story.

I played in the Jr. Jazz league for 3 years from ages 7-10. Every year the league included a uniform, group tickets for your team to go to a Jazz game, and a meet and greet with a random Jazz player.

For the meet and greet, all the teams in our specific league went to a local High School gym. You would never know who the player was going to be until the showed up. One year it was Felton Spencer, another it was Chris Morris.

So this specific year, all the kids and their parents are waiting in the gym bleachers. The gym doors open, and in walks Karl Malone with a couple team reps. Were all flipping out, because it was who every kid hoped it would be, but knew it probably wasn't something the stars would go do.

Malone then gives this super awkward, inappropriate lecture about how he has had to deal with racism in his life. Almost like hes scolding a room of white people, and trying to make sure us kids knew better when we got older. He even said (as a joke), "I know how it is, some of you probably have some sheets hanging in your closet" to the crowd.

At the end all the kids were asking him to dunk a ball, but he didnt. Also didnt sign any autographs, even though there were maybe 100 kids there.

At the time I was just thrilled to see him in person, and didnt expect an autograph or anything. But looking back I kind of realized he just did the bare minimum.

Still my favorite player of all time either way. Hes not the brightest guy. I dont hold it against him.