The All-Mormon Basketball Team

The list of Mormons who have done well in basketball is not as impressive as those who have done well in football or baseball, but there are a few who have done well at the professional level:

Danny Ainge - Remembered for the most famous play in BYU basketball history. He also played in the NBA with the Boston Celtics.

Thurl Bailey - He played for the Utah Jazz and several other NBA teams.

Tom Chambers - Was a key offensive part of the Phoenix Suns in the late '80s and early 90's. He played for the Jazz for a couple seasons as well.

Kresimir Cosic - He played for BYU and then returned to Yugoslavia where he was a four time olympian and he got a silver medal in 1968 and a gold in 1980. He was a national hero in Yugoslavia.

Shawn Bradley - Played for BYU. Drafted 2nd overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1993. Many thought he was soft and a bust, but he was a great shot blocker.

Owner - Larry H. Miller Saved the Jazz from leaving Utah and has owned a team that has been one of the winningest teams in the NBA since he took over, including two trips to the NBA finals.

General Manager - Danny Ainge. Ainge is the current Boston Celtics GM. He was thought of being a poor general manager until last season, when he brought in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and the Celtics ended up winning the NBA championship.

Former Sonics vs Jazz

-Jerry Sloan becomes the first NBA coach to have 1,000 wins with one team. That, my friends, is impressive.

-I had to laugh when Sloan was asked in the postgame interview if any wins over the 1,000 stood out to him. He said no, the games that I remember are the ones we lose. Classic Sloan.

-Easy victory for the Jazz tonight. They fell behind 8-0 early but they cruised most the game.

-The Jazz are ridiculously talented and athletic. They seemed to be toying with the Thunder most the game.

-The Thunder probably have the worst team in the NBA, the worst nickname, and the worst logo. Their unis are okay.

-Towards the end of the game you could hear the crowd chant Jerry Sloan. No big celebration though.

-It is off for a 5 game road trip that will be the first real test this season for the Jazz. Unfortunately it sounds like they might have to do it without Deron Williams.

-Knight had 11 assists in 26 minutes. I think he should be starting soon.

-After a Korver dunk, Williams teased him by clapping with a sarcastic oh wow face. D-Will likes to have fun.

-Looking around the league the Suns and Hornets lost, putting them at 4-2 and 3-2. The Spurs also lost while losing Parker to injury, their record is 1-4. Good to see the Jazz getting early ground on everyone while remaining tied with the Lakers while D-Will is out.

Jazz/Celtics Finals?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=playoffpredictions-080418

John Hollinger, ESPN's stats dude thinks so. It is a good article with statistical evidence. I'm a big stats guy, more so in baseball than in basketball but I like basketball deep stats too. Some things Hollinger says:

Utah has the best chance of coming out of the west at 31 percent.

Jazz played amazingly well over the last fourth of the season. They had an offensive efficiency rating of 116.0, which over a full season would have made them easily the best offensive team of all time.

Jazz were 37-12 after Jan. 1. They had tons of blowout wins over quality teams. Here are some blowout wins this season:

Beat Boston by 18 at their place, the Celtics' worst loss of the season.

Beat New Orleans by 28 and 22, two of Hornets worst losses of season.

Beat San Antonio by 26, Spurs worst loss of season.

Beat Lakers by 24, Lakers worst loss of season.

Beat Phoenix by 22.

Beat Denver by 27 two times.

He points out Utah won 18 games by more than 20 points. The only loss by 20 points for the Jazz was the last game against the Spurs. But can you really think that last game matters, Deron Williams was injured and the Jazz probably lost on purpose, not wanting to face the Spurs in round 1.

Great article by Hollinger, nice to see the Jazz get some love from ESPN. It is about time.

By the way he predicts the Jazz to beat the Rockets in 6, the Lakers in 6, the Hornets in 6, and finally losing to Boston in 6 in the Finals.

2008 NBA Playoffs

The Jazz lost in convincing fashion last night against the Spurs, proving that it would be better to not have home-court advantage rather than have to face the Spurs in round 1. The difference is that the Jazz will definitely beat the Rockets in round 1 while they only can beat the Spurs.

Here is my NBA predictions
FIRST ROUND
Lakers vs Nuggets - Lakers in 5

Jazz vs Rockets - Jazz in 5

Spurs vs Suns - Suns in 6

Hornets vs Mavs - Mavs in 6

Boston vs Atlanta - Boston in 4

Detroit vs Philadelphia - Detroit in 6

Cleveland vs Washington - Washington in 7

Orlando vs Toronto - Orlando in 6

SECOND ROUND
Lakers vs Jazz - Jazz in 6

Suns vs Mavs - Suns in 5

Boston vs Washington - Washington in 6

Detroit vs Orlando - Detroit in 6


WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Jazz vs Suns - Jazz in 6

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Detroit vs Washington - Detroit in 6


NBA FINALS
Jazz vs Detroit - Jazz in 5


There will definitely be more posts later about the first round match-up between the Jazz and the Rockets, but for now, if they beat them last year with Yao Ming, why wouldn't they beat them this year without Yao Ming?

2008 NBA Playoffs

I thought it would be interesting to rank the Western Conference playoff contenders from the best to the worst matchups for the Jazz.

Golden State: The Jazz dominated them last year in the playoffs and have scored 123 points on average against them this season beating the Warriors all three times.

New Orleans: The Jazz are 2-1 against them this season. Williams seems to really play well against Christ Paul. Paul has only beaten the Jazz twice.

Phoenix: Utah has played well against Phoenix as they usually do with small-ball teams. The Jazz usually overpower those type of teams inside with Boozer. Shaq is too old to help and Amare and Nash are the worst defenders in the league.

Houston: Now that the Rockets won’t have Yao Ming for the playoffs the Jazz should be able to beat them out in a 7 game series, like last year.


Denver: These two always get physical against each other. But the Jazz are more disciplined and more clutch.

Dallas: Jason Kidd is no match for Deron Williams, as evidenced by William’s 17 point 20 assist game against the Mavs. This series could go either way.

L. A. Lakers: The Jazz won’t be able to slow down Kobe at all. Their game at the Staples Center in December was terrible. This would be a tough series to win.

San Antonio. The Jazz haven’t won at the Spurs place since 1999. Ginobili always kills the Jazz. Utah lost to them 4 games to 1 in the Western Conference Finals last year and the Jazz would be lucky to be able to beat them this year.

Ideally the Jazz would face New Orleans in the first round, then Golden State, then Phoenix in the Western Conference Finals. Then they would beat the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals. I honestly can’t remember the last time when the Pistons beat the Jazz.

Unfortunately the Jazz probably won’t be that lucky. To get to the Finals they will most likely have to beat either the Lakers or the Spurs. I’m not so sure the Jazz will.

The key this year will be getting as much home court advantage as possible. The Jazz haven’t lost at Energy Solutions Arena since December and have the best home record in the NBA, only losing 3 games this season. Having been at ESA last year during the playoffs I know firsthand how loud it can get there. It’s tough to imagine the Jazz losing more than one game at home in a series. But, for example, if we have to play San Antonio in the playoffs with the Spurs having home-court advantage, the Jazz would definitely lose the series. Who said the regular season doesn’t matter??