Some thoughts on the Utah Jazz schedule:
- Of the 66 games, they play 11 on national TV. Not bad for a small-market lottery team whose biggest draws are Al Jefferson and its rookies and sophomores.
- Their opening game is against the Lakers, but for the Lakers, it's their third game in three nights.
- Deron Williams will come home on January 14. By the way, when you look at the flurry around Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, it's clear that the Jazz did the right thing in trading D-Will. At least they got Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter and the Warriors' 2012 first-round pick for him. And the Nets will sweat all year that they've done enough to have Deron re-sign.
- Jimmer's coming to town twice. I expect it will be the loudest ovation since Derek Fisher showed in the third quarter to help advance the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals.
- The Jazz have plenty of home games to start off. For such a young team, it'll be good for them to get that experience in front of friendly crowds.
Current Roster:
PG - Devin Harris
SG - Gordon Hayward, Raja Bell, Alec Burks
SF - CJ Miles
PF - Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors, Jeremy Evans
C - Al Jefferson, Mehmet Okur, Enes Kanter
Likely re-sign: Earl Watson
That's 12 right there. I'm intrigued if they can work out a mutually beneficial deal to bring Andrei Kirilenko back. My guess is not. So they'll see who gets amnestied, which free agents will get ridiculously overpaid on the first day of free agency, and if they get a trade offer worth making.
Tyrone Corbin wants to win, but the future of this teams is the Fresh Four (Hayward, Favors, Kanter, Burks). If they're somehow good enough that this team can get to the playoffs, I'm shocked and impressed, but for this 66-game season, it may be more beneficial in the long run to develop the youngsters, and take advantage of two lottery first-round picks in the deep 2012 draft (the Warriors pick is Top 7 protected, but I see them being about 11th in the West.)
I'm intrigued, intrigued, intrigued.
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