The NBA Offseason: Brooklyn

2012 Picks: (41) Tyshawn Taylor, (54) Tornike Shengelia, (57) Ilkan Karaman
2011 Picks: (25) Marshon Brooks, (36) Jordan Williams

PG - Deron Williams, Tyshawn Taylor
SG - Joe Johnson, Marshon Brooks
SF - Gerald Wallace
PF - Kris Humphries, Reggie Evans
C - Brook Lopez

Things are looking up for Jay-Z's team.  Deron Williams signed the big contract, they got Joe Johnson, and now there's still a decent chance they get Dwight Howard, since Dwight's making sure all other teams understand he won't re-sign with them.  They overpaid to keep Wallace, but this roster is already good enough to make the playoffs.

Jazz suffocate D-Will's Nets

D-Will shot only 3-15
from the field.

- Really hated that Deron Williams got more boos than cheers at his intro. Mehmet Okur got a big cheer so at least there was some class on display.

- The Nets' offense is indecipherable. Lots of iso's, 1-on-1's. The strategy seems to be Deron Williams breaks down the defense. If he can't make something happen, he passes out for someone else to shoot a long 2, if they miss then Kris Humphries tries to grab their rebound.

- Raja Bell is getting better with every game. This was the type of output Kevin O'Connor was hoping for when he signed him.

CJ Miles shoots over his former teammate Mehmet
Okur.  Miles finished with 17 points off the bench.

- Deron Williams' shooting has been off ever since he got traded. Is it his wrist injury? Is it the offensive scheme? Is it the fact that defenses can focus on him because he does have talented teammates to pass to?

- Was hoping Devin Harris would have a bigger game, but here's a key stat: Harris finished with 6 assists, D-Will had 5.

- Nice to see Gordon Hayward rediscover his range. He was 2-2 from 3-pt land. It was also interesting how much D-Will and Hayward guarded each other. It was as thought Coach Corbin was teaching Hayward to overcome his fears.

- Two years ago today, Sundiata Gaines hit the game-winning 3 to beat LeBron's Cavaliers. Sunny D hit two three's in tonight's game, but they didn't have near the impact.

- Derrick Favors needs more time, but it's hard to take it away from Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson. The Jazz are 7-4 because of them.

- Rookie Enes Kanter had 8 rebound in under 19 minutes of play.

In other sports:

- The 49ers-Saints playoff game has to go down as one of the all-time great playoff games in history. I was very happy for Alex Smith and Vernon Davis.

- The Patriots-Broncos game was exactly the blowout I expected.  Tom Brady can try to get to his fifth Super Bowl, and Tim Tebow can go home and wonder if John Elway will use this as an excuse to find a different quarterback.

My Top 5 Utah Jazz memories

5. Deron Williams' debut game - There was general shock around the fanbase when Jerry Sloan decided Keith McLeod would be his starting point guard, and the #3 pick in the draft was going to come off the bench. Williams came into the game with a chip on his shoulder, and the highlight was in the final second of the third quarter, he put up a 3-pointer from 60 feet away and nailed it. It was a sign of perennial playoff-appearances to come.

4. The first game after Stockton retired and Malone left, the Jazz were predicted to be the worst team in the NBA. Jerry Sloan had a patchwork team of Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Carlos Arroyo, DeShawn Stevenson, Jarron Collins, and a bunch of other leftovers and scraps. They opened against the Blazers, and this rag-tag group played as a team and won, and went on to an imporbable 42-40 season. It's the closest Sloan's come to winning Coach of the Year.

3. The Jazz are down by two in the final seconds to the best team in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James and company are providing lockdown defense and the only guy who can get a little space is D-League signee Sundiata Gaines. At the buzzer, over LeBron's outstretched fingers, Sunny-D nails the 3. Most players can go their whole careers without feeling that burst of joy Gaines felt.

2. The Jazz's two point guards are both in foul trouble in the third quarter in the playoffs against the Warriors. We keep hearing that Derek Fisher is on a plane heading back to Salt Lake, and Jerry Sloan left an active roster spot for him in case he made it back to the game in time. CJ Miles and Andrei Kirilenko are valiantly assuming point-guard duties, but it isn't really their position. I was at that game, and I'll never forget the ovation we gave Fisher when he showed up at courtside and entered the game. Combine that with him drawing the crucial offensive-foul on Baron Davis at the end of the game, and it was magic.

1. The Shot. That's what we call it in these here parts. Stockton-and-Malone have been a power duo for over a decade, but the Utah Jazz had never made the NBA Finals. I can still hear Greg Gumbel's call when John Stockton hits the game-winning three over Charles Barkley to finally get them there. The usually stoic Stockton jumped in the air for joy.

NBA Owners Deserve Most of the Blame

I acknowledge that the players may have become too powerful.  You look at how LeBron James left Cleveland in tatters, and how Toronto received nothing for Chris Bosh's departure.  Carmelo Anthony held Denver hostage while pushing for a trade to New York, and Utah traded away Deron Williams for fear he'd bolt in 2012.  Better get something for him now.  And the fanbases of New Orleans and Orlando have to be depressed about the odds of keeping Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, respectively.

But the primary reason there are no NBA games on tonight are the owners.  This is a lockout.  They are the ones forbidding their players from competing.

Here's a few columns I've found I agree with:

Money quote from the Boston Globe:

"In his memo to NBA players imploring them to make a deal, commissioner David Stern asked players to focus on the compromises owners have made. Then he mentioned backing down on a hard salary cap, roll-backs of existing contracts -- you know, the ones owners negotiated -- and the abolition of guaranteed contracts.

"How can you concede something you never had? It’s logic more twisted than a bread tie.

"NBA stars such as LeBron, Kobe, D-Wade, Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose aren’t just employees. They’re the product, and that’s the irony here. The NBA is trying to slay a monster it created."

Money quote from Sports Illustrated:

"If Jerry Buss, Jim Dolan and other big-market owners had been willing to share their revenues earlier and more comprehensively for the greater health of the league, could the division among owners have been headed off?

"Or look at it from the other side of the owners' room. If so many of these small-market owners had operated their teams more wisely and efficiently, might the bigger-market teams have been more willing to share money with them on good faith that they were investing in the health of the league?

"And then could the owners together have not inched forward on a few points of contention here and there in order to ensure agreement with the players?"

There's still time to get a shortened season, while the majority of the remaining fans don't hold the players to equal or greater blame (which was not true in the shortened 1999 season).  But the owners are willing to lose a full season, and many of them are, then they need to be prepared for the NBA to fall behind the NHL and MLS in attendance averages.  Do they really want that?

Jazz trade away Deron Williams

In the end, Greg Miller felt like Deron Williams was going to bolt for a bigger market in 2012, so he pulled the trigger, sending away the best player the Jazz have ever had since Stockton and Malone.

The Jazz get in return Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, and two 1st round picks from the Nets.

The numbers:

D. Williams 37.9 mpg 21. ppg 9.7 apg 3.9 rpg 1.2 spg .23 bpg .458 / .345 / .853

D. Harris 31.9 mpg 15. ppg 7.6 apg 2.4 rpg 1.0 spg .11 bpg .425 / .300 / .840
D. Favors 19.5 mpg 6.3 ppg 0.4 apg 5.3 rpg .32 spg .71 bpg .511 / .000 / .612

In the long run it might pay off. In the short run it sucks.