Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Changes on the Jazz
Time for a Jazz post, even though this is still the offseason. Monday was media day for the Jazz (and a lot of other NBA teams), so a lot of new articles are popping up about them. I read the Deseret News and ESPN.com religiously to keep track of the Jazz (and BYU), and they all say the Jazz will probably be better this year than last year, when they narrowly missed the playoffs.
But the articles always cite the arrival of Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur, the newfound All-Star status of Andrei Kirilenko, and Carlos Arroyo's fabulous run with the Puerto Rican national team at the Olympics. Glaringly absent is much mention of the Jazz's best player last year, Matt Harpring. He went down with a knee injury and missed the second half of the season. True, Kirilenko blossomed in Harpring's absence, but when they were both healthy, Harpring was the emotional and athletic leader of the team. He scored more points than Kirilenko. He was Coach Sloan's darling. This is the guy who was outscoring Karl Malone regularly the year before. And now he's recovered from his injury and ready to play again and no one thinks he's going to be a factor on the team? True, with the arrival of Boozer and the improved play of Kirilenko, he might not even start at first. But there has to be room for him.
Kudos to the Salt Lake Tribune (which I don't read quite as regularly) for an article featuring Harpring. However, the tone of the article was that Harpring was the undisputed leader of the team before he got hurt, and now his role is in question. How about commenting on the impact he's going to make on the team?
I like this team's chances. I'm fully expecting them to make it to the playoffs and be seeded higher than the evil Lakers.
While I'm on the subject, I'll just say I don't mind the new uniform design, but I don't like the fact that they took purple out of the color scheme. I mean, you can't have EVERY team in the world change to a dark blue because it's "wearable." Sometimes you just have to stick with a color because it's your color. Look at Tennessee.
But the articles always cite the arrival of Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur, the newfound All-Star status of Andrei Kirilenko, and Carlos Arroyo's fabulous run with the Puerto Rican national team at the Olympics. Glaringly absent is much mention of the Jazz's best player last year, Matt Harpring. He went down with a knee injury and missed the second half of the season. True, Kirilenko blossomed in Harpring's absence, but when they were both healthy, Harpring was the emotional and athletic leader of the team. He scored more points than Kirilenko. He was Coach Sloan's darling. This is the guy who was outscoring Karl Malone regularly the year before. And now he's recovered from his injury and ready to play again and no one thinks he's going to be a factor on the team? True, with the arrival of Boozer and the improved play of Kirilenko, he might not even start at first. But there has to be room for him.
Kudos to the Salt Lake Tribune (which I don't read quite as regularly) for an article featuring Harpring. However, the tone of the article was that Harpring was the undisputed leader of the team before he got hurt, and now his role is in question. How about commenting on the impact he's going to make on the team?
I like this team's chances. I'm fully expecting them to make it to the playoffs and be seeded higher than the evil Lakers.
While I'm on the subject, I'll just say I don't mind the new uniform design, but I don't like the fact that they took purple out of the color scheme. I mean, you can't have EVERY team in the world change to a dark blue because it's "wearable." Sometimes you just have to stick with a color because it's your color. Look at Tennessee.
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