UK-Portland 11/19/10

We started out 15-0 in a matter of minutes. That's all you really need to know about this game, but I'll go a little more in depth. We're gonna be giant killers this year.

Top Players:
1. Brandon Knight: 21 points (7-13 FGs, 2-5 3Pt, 5-5 FTs), 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks. Who cares if he didn't rack up Wall-like dime numbers? Knight is a scorer and will be against any player he opposes this season. I can't wait until he faces another top tier point guard and proves this point to everyone for good. His jumper is beautiful. Just plain gorgeous. And he's a fantastic layer-upper, too ... which real basketball fans understand. He plays all the angles perfect and seems to know exactly what he needs to accomplish with the basketball 95% of the time. People are discounting this kid's athleticism just because they don't think he'd match Wall's numbers at a football combine, but this Knight is a sneaky freak athlete in his own respect. I'd almost mark him down today as an All-American at the end of the season. As I said last time, his production's only going to go up from here.

2. Darius Miller: 15 points (6-7 FGs, 3-4 3PT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals, 4 blocks. Darius owned this game from the tip. He almost broke the stat sheet by getting close to an old Andrei Kirilenko/Shawn Marion 5x5. Add in the fact he only missed one of his seven shots, including three triples ... sickness. Nothing else to say besides that this is a perfect Miller game if there is one. Gave the team any and everything that they needed.

3. Doron Lamb: 13 points (4-5 FGs, 3-4 3PT, 2-2 FTs), 3 rebounds, 1 assist. In my opinion, our NY-representer didn't make a single mistake while he was on the floor. He filled in great once again as our spot-minutes secondary point guard and even better as our designated sharp shooter. Where he was taking his shots from in the exhibition games had fans scared that he wasn't the long ball shooter that everyone hyped him up to be, but Lamb made a statement against Portland, making threes look like lay-ups. He showed great restrain in picking his spots (that's how you wind up with 13 points on 5 shot attempts) and definitely didn't look like a freshman out there. Lamb can definitely be an X-factor all season as our resident "Microwave" off the bench if he proves his understanding of the game is already as developed as it's looked in the early going.

4. Terrence Jones: 12 points (5-14 FGs, 0-2 3PT, 2-5 FTs), 5 rebounds, 3 assist, 2 blocks. He made the first basket of the game and then struggled mightily after that. Foul trouble and an errant jumper plagued him, but he came back pretty nice in the second half to put up some highlights on both sides of the ball. He threw down a sick pump faking blow-by jam along the baseline, showcasing his bread and butter in being able to create unguardable mismatch situations on the floor at any given moment. TJ took the same kinds of shots that netted him 28 against ETSU, so you can't fault him in that department. He's just gotta make em from here on out against better opponents. Look for him to do exactly that. As a final note, his penchant for on-man shot blocking has been a notable surprise for me. Very few non-7-foot freaks can pull that off consistently.

5. DeAndre Liggins: 6 points (1-4 FGs, 0-1 3PT, 4-4 FTs), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Our resident Kobe-stopper wasn't any kind of aggressive in taking shots himself tonight ... prolly cuz he was 100% intent on destroying All-NCAA shooter Jared Stohl into missing 7 of his 9 shots. Owned. Dre really is the do-anything, unselfish-to-a-fault glue guy who fits into Coach's on-court philosophy brilliantly. All he needs to do is smack his teammates around a little more to get him some shots on nights where he's rendering the other team's best player useless.

6. Josh Harrellson: 6 points (3-4 FGs), 12 rebounds. After a foul prone start to the season, Jorts came into Oregon and fulfilled everyone's hopes for his best case scenario in production on a game-by-game basis. He grabbed every single board that he could have, he didn't turn the ball over, and he actually was aggressive on his limited touches and put back opportunities. We don't need Harrellson to be Enes Kanter and score any amount of points consistently. We just need him to be a big body on the floor that the other team actually recognizes as a big body. Here's hoping that the rest of Josh's senior year brings a lot more of these kinds of games.

... and Free Enes.

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UK-East Tennessee State 11/12/10

UKAA swirly green dots picture

We made 13 of 26 three-point attempts. What?!?! Hence the 88-65 final score thing we had going for us. Imagine if we hadn't have shot 9 of 23 free throws ... why does Coach still not make any of his guys practice freebies, again?

Top Players:
1. Terrence Jones: 25 points (10-19 FGs, 2-3 3PT, 3-10 FTs), 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 2 blocks. How do you miss that many free throws? Oh well. Jonesy put on what was probably up there with the best first game of any UK frosh ever. Especially considering that he could've notched a big 30 if he's just made 5 of those 7 missed freebies. When he wasn't busy getting fouled, he was knocking down threes, finishing off alley-oops, driving past his man to the bucket, and swishing midrange pull-ups that you simply never see college ballplayers even attempt. He looked every bit the tempo-pushing, mismatch-creating enforcer on opening night that most people expected to finally see from him around February. If we get this kind of effort from Terrence on a nightly basis, maybe the 2010-2011 season will be remembered for who was actually on the roster as opposed to the big Turkish-accented elephant in the room who wasn't.

2. Doron Lamb: 20 points (7-10 FGs, 3-5 3PT, 3-5 FTs), 5 rebounds, 3 assists. We all knew TJ had that kind of potential in him, but Lamb was the real opening night eye-opener. He only hit 70% of his shots, including three triples, and filled in valiantly in his first duty as falling down the position ladder as the resident back-up point guard when Knight takes a breather. My favorite shot was his late-game 18-foot pull-up jumper. Nobody does that in college basketball (as previously noted a paragraph up). Doron can get a little lazy with his handle, but when he's going full force he's bound to cross his opposition something hard. Be sure and double-knot those laces. He nearly dropped an ETSU guy who had tracked him down on a fast break runout, but instead settled for leaving him stapled to the floor and scoring on an uncontested lay-in. If we can get high-teen to twenty-point nights on a regular basis from our resident New Yorker, we've got a potential monster on our hands between all these stellar wing scorers.

3. Brandon Knight: 17 points (6-13 FGs, 4-7 3Pt, 1-4 FTs), 4 rebounds, 5 assists. In what easily could have been Knight's statement opener, our resident point guard sensation relinquished ball-dominating duties to the hot hand. Knight spent all of his time effortlessly setting the tone early by dropping jumper after jumper, and pretty much just handed over the keys after that. He could've gone for 30 and easily gotten it like he did pretty much every single game in high school, but Knight is taking the Cal-induced facilitator thing seriously. If he can be this efficient while trying to develop and understand his role on the squad, imagine how deadly he'll be once he figures everything out. I promise you that this is going to be considered quite tame in comparison with future college games by Knight.

4. DeAndre Liggins: 14 points (5-10 FGs, 2-4 3PT, 2-3 FTs), 3 rebounds, 6 assists. Dre was perfect for all intensive purposes. He tried to get his long-range stroke going a little late in the game, and if it wasn't for those jacks then he might've gone 100% on the floor. He got to the rim at will and showed off his superb vision and team-oriented nature in donating out a team-high 6 dimes. He was aggressive without ever forcing the issue, only attempting 10 shots, but look for that number to creep up and he figures out that he's mistakenly one of the last Wildcats that opposing defenses will be specifically be paying attention to. This game was a great sign of things to come from the new statistically adept DeAndre. Last year he fell into the category of impact players with no actual discernible box score contribution. Not now. Look for this man to be the Tayshaun Prince/Andrei Kirilenko-type stat filler as the team's most aggressive wing defender.

5. Darius Miller: 8 points (3-9 FGs, 2-5 3PT), 10 rebounds, 1 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. While he looked a little timid on offense (which I only hate because that was the egregiously regurgitated story line on the dude), but the truth is that UK really didn't need Darius to assert himself this game. All you really need to know is that he put in 2 threes and got double-digit rebounds. That'll definitely be the Miller stat to keep track of this season as he's our pseudo power forward. The guy needs to pull boards. Pat barely even did that with any consistency his junior year (only 11 double-digit rebounding games).

... and Free Enes.

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2010-2011 Utah Jazz

Deron Williams is still one of the top three point guards in the league with Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur consistantly by his side, but now he has to adjust to swapping out Carlos Boozer for Al Jefferson, Ronnie Brewer for Raja Bell, and Chris Matthews for Gordon Hayward. I think D-Will is gonna be able to handle it.

2010-2011 Utah Jazz

Point Guard: Deron Williams/Ronnie Price/Earl Watson
Shooting Guard: C.J. Miles/Raja Bell/Sundiata Gaines
Small Forward: Andrei Kirilenko/Gordon Hayward/Jeremy Evans
Power Forward: Al Jefferson/Paul Millsap
Center: Mehmet Okur/Francisco Elson

There's a very solid argument to be made that Al Jefferson will eclipse Carlos Boozer's impact on the floor with ease. I tend to vouch for that side of the argument. Jefferson is a monster. The point guards he's had over his career have been Delonte West, Sebastian Telfair, Marko Jaric, and Jonny Flynn. Taking in all that information ... I think AJ's in for a career year. He's mobile enough to be moderately effective in the pick-and-roll, but his main boost will simply come from Williams creating for him. With Jefferson's length, he'll be an easy target no matter where Williams is on the floor and he'll find him on target every time. This eliminates any excessive decision-making from Al's side (which is a good thing). Now he can just go in there to rebound and score. Okur's going to be giving him plenty of room to work as he'll be three miles down the road from the paint. Boozer already had a Malone-ish type build and game, but Jerry Sloan should be just as effective in finding Jefferson's best chance to put up All-Star numbers as an amazing second fiddle to his elite point guard.

Unless he's traded, it looks like Kirilenko will be back to full-time starting duties and have a more prominent role on the squad. He's never going back to most-underrated-player-in-the-game status, but he still possesses the capabilities to be one of the most feared defenders out. Assuming Raja Bell's fully recovered from his wrist injury, Bell will look to also help bring the Jazz's former elite defensive reputation back to the minds of competitors. C.J. Miles and Earl Watson are also capable of stifling any opposing wing on a given night, so I definitely see this incarnation of the Jazz being revitalized in their perimeter D.

Hopefully Mehmet Okur will be able to stay healthy for a little while after he gets back around Christmas, but Paul Millsap is absolutely (and desperately) ready to step into a full-time role regardless of Okur's status. The main value of Okur is that he forced a defensive shift that few teams can naturally adapt to with a big man on the 3-point line, but the Jazz will never be short on low post production between Millsap and Jefferson. They put the team together in a way where they really don't have that much of a falloff even though they lost three starters from free agency deflection. I do have them dropping five games off last season's win total and one seed back in the West, but that's mainly just from health concerns and the potential meteoric improvement of the Rockets and Thunder. They'll definitely be a threat come playoff time if Jefferson can fit in as great as I assume he will. Unfortunately for Utah, I got them running into the Oklahoma City juggernaut in the first round. And that means the Jazz will lose. Because the Thunder are gonna be better. Got it? Back to the drawing board if Jerry Sloan can still hold up his dry erase marker.

Prediction
Regular Season: 48-34
Playoffs: Eliminated in First Round

... and do the John Wall.

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Part Eight: Stagnant Additions

And I can’t lie; we actually flipped some nice pieces. After jumping ship on the expired Clippers, we signed our first kinda high profile free agent in Vladimir Radmanovic. The last couple of seasons he’d been lighting it up, albeit purposelessly, in Seattle before being traded as an expiring contract. But we booked him on a full midlevel exception contract (over $5 million a season), even though we had an all-too-similar player at the same position in Brian Cook. Oh well. Then we got the uber-athletic wingman Maurice Evans for a second round pick which was used on one of those 7-foot, 180 pound prospects from like Malaysia or Zimbabwe who is never heard from or mispronounced ever again. While those were at least psyche updates for the fans as we were desperate for any kind of visible on-court difference makers, the city of Los Angeles got a hometown boost in the form of drafting the diminutive and ethnically confusing (plus super-eared) UCLA legend Jordan Farmar. While tons of teams passed him off with little regard, the Lakers saw in him an underrated athlete who could play at the right pace for a triangle offense team with an improving jump shot. Moreover, he was a born winner who nearly led the Bruins back to another championship even though the shadow of John Wooden has left them irrelevant to the rest of the basketball world since the ‘70s. Sorry L.A., I’m a diehard Laker fan but the lures of the city aren’t even a fraction of what it would it would take for me to avert my gaze away from the innately better Kentucky Wildcats. That’s just not happening. No dice.

A sucky, yet somewhat convincing, plea had erupted out of the Laker faithful after the unfortunate loss to the Suns this past offseason. People retroactively were disgruntled that Caron Butler was well on his way to becoming a perennial All-Star contender while we were stuck with “Butterfingers” Brown (the least profane nickname I could think of) and the seemingly inconsistent and underachieving Lamar Odom. Everyone appreciated LO’s insane skill set, but it was almost unbelievable that he’d never accomplished a single All-Star bid. It downright pissed some people off. Lamar could literally do anything on the basketball court (besides hit his free throws). His handles were something of legend, probably better than any player ever given a 6’ 10” body frame to work with. He was the most willing and deftest passer of any forward the league had seen since Chris Webber in his prime. His three-pointing shooting (even if only to me) had become a statistical victory cigar as a hit from long range was darn near a guarantee on a “W”. He had even become the most underrated dominant rebounder in the game. Even if it were simply out of necessity because of the lack of any other frontcourt presence, Lamar would regularly record rebounding stretches of 16 to 19 boards a game. He could lead a fast break, he could take nearly any defender off the dribble, he was deceptively strong, he was beyond agile, he was no longer a troublesome locker room presence, and people genuinely liked him. Yet somehow he managed to attain such a level of inconsistency and passiveness that he had no individual accolades to show for it and people were willing to trade him.

The common names that came up in trade discussions were the then hot-commodities Peja Stojakovic and Ron Artest. Dreams of Kobe drawing countless defenders and kicking it out to Peja every other possession for an always-swishing three ball ruled fan’s fantasies. Just as soon as the doomed 2004 season, Peja was in the MVP discussion due to his visually dominating floor game, something Lamar was never envisioned to fill out and attain. And then there was the case of Ron Ron. The regularly crowned Defensive Player of the year was cementing his reputation as an uncontrollable head case just coming off of his season-long suspension for inciting and street fighting in the brawl at the Palace. But basketball fans have short memories and are very forgiving when it comes to adding potential assets to their team. Dreams were equally filled with visions of Kobe & Ron creating the strongest defensive presence on the wing since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen or even the tandem of Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars when they were called on to frustrate the opposition beyond recognition. Even an alternate trading candidate was mentioned in Andrei Kirilenko, but the equally versatile Utah swingman was held in such high regard at the time that it was seen as impossible to ever pry him from the Jazz’s fingers. In the end, even though rumors were never quelled and new scenarios were concocted on the regular, the Lakers wound up sticking with Kobe’s current sidekick. No one knows if it was because of the front office’s never-ending faith in the curious forward or if trade partners never accepted a deal or even if there was a super secret snag in ongoing negotiations, but regardless, Lamar was retained. Stojakovich and Artest were indeed later traded (for each other, in fact) and subsequently left both of their respective new teams after free agency once dealt anyways, so the respective pairings are forever to be relegated to “what ifs” and dream scenarios. [Insert from the future: *wink wink*]

[to be continued]

... but do take my word for it.

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