1. What are they trying to accomplish out there? So far the biggest difference between this year's edition of the team is that it's hard to tell what kind of team they're trying to be. When it was Jerry Sloan's team, you more or less knew what to expect. Lots of picks, lots of cuts, lots of layups. This year, it looks like Church Ball. Wait, it's not even that organized. It looks like early morning pickup hoops at the Stake Center. You know what I'm talking about. Walk the ball up, pass once, jack up a shot. Last night against the Spurs, the Jazz tallied 11 assists as a team. Eleven. Only three of those came from point guards. It was every man for himself, and every man was settling for outside shots most of the time. This team is not going to win many games playing like that, especially when they're shooting as poorly as your Elder's Quorum President.
2. Why didn't they trade Al Jefferson instead of Memo? Okur gives you something none of the other Jazz bigs can-- three point range. Memo creates all kinds of mismatch problems for other teams. Right now, the Jazz are stockpiled with power forwards and centers that are good only out to about 15 feet on a good night. Al Jefferson is good for an occasional 20 footer, but so far he's been taking them way too often. Keeping Memo would really help open up the middle for the young guys. Even if you love Big Al's game, you have to wonder why the Jazz brass would want to keep so much of the same kind of player. Maybe the answer is they shopped Jefferson to the Nets but they weren't interested.
Perhaps the worst thing about the Okur trade is it leaves Paul Milsap as the only remaining guy on my Jazz "Five Player" t-shirt I bought a few years ago, which I will probably be giving to one of my kids, or maybe even a San Antonio thrift store, where the workers are likely to spit on it and toss it into the rag heap.
3. How long until Earl Watson becomes the starting point guard? Devin Harris isn't winning me over yet. Earl Watson is more of a pass-first point guard, and that's what the Jazz need right now to get more of a team effort. If you watch old Jazz clips from the Stockton days, it's amazing to see the team execute. Everyone on those teams know that if they got themselves open, Stockton would get them the ball. Deron Williams scored a lot more than Stockton, but he flirted with double-digit assists most of the time. Devin Harris just doesn't seem like the same sort of player, and while the SLC press recently ran a story saying the Jazz were just fine with that, we'll probably soon see that Jazz Nation is not. As a sub-question, I wonder if the Jazz even tried to get Chauncey Billups when the Knicks used their amnesty clause to cut him loose. The Clips ended up getting him from $2 million, an absolute steal. Maybe the Jazz tried and couldn't lure him aware from the prospect of playing with Chris and Blake, but I would gain some confidence in the front office if I knew at least they had tried. Who would you rather have as the starting point guard: Billups or Harris? It's a no-brainer.
4. When is Matt Harpring going to cut his hair? He looks like that Facebook app that lets you create a fake high-school yearbook photo. It's good for a few laughs, but it will get old pretty soon.
5. How long until Ty Corbin is on the hot seat? The Miller family is known for loyalty to employees, and I expect they will give Coach Corbin more time than most owners would to turn things around. I'm sure the coach wants the team to play a certain way, and I'm sure he's telling them how he wants things done. But when the team is actually on the floor, it's hard to see any sort of system in what they're doing. If he isn't successful in getting them to put his system, whatever it is, into practice, the Jazz should look for someone else. The only question is how much time he'll get. My prediction is that he will get the entire season, unless the team start's looking like last year's T-Wolves. I hope he's able to turn things around in time.
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