Dec. 1, 2006 -- Jazz, as America’s greatest musical art form, is about improvisation, tempo and reacting to sudden shifts in composition that take the players and their audience to uncharted sonic spaces, while at the same time maintaining enough of the original construction to hold the whole thing together.

In order to achieve this paradoxical state of structure within apparent chaos, an ensemble needs a leader capable of understanding his own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of his band.

The Jazz, as the surprise story of the Association’s opening month, are about all these things, too.

If ever there was a team in need of a turnaround, it was the Utah Jazz, one of the NBA’s most consistent franchises for the previous two decades.

After making the postseason every year from 1984 to 2003, Utah lost John Stockton to retirement and Karl Malone to Hollywood and failed to make the playoffs in each of the last three seasons.

However, just as Miles Davis set the standard in 1959 with Kind of Blue and returned to form in 1969 with In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew (two rhythmically groundbreaking jazz records I recommend highly) after a 10-year stretch of mostly mediocre material, the Jazz are mounting a prolific comeback of their own.

They started the season 4-0 and followed their first loss of the season (Nov. 8 at New Jersey) by winning eight straight, sprinting to a franchise-best 12-1. The last three victories during the run included second-half comebacks of 16, 16 and 21 points, respectively. They were so hot not even 57 points from Michael Redd could stop them. In November, nothing seemed to matter.

Much of their success can be attributed to the emergence of Carlos Boozer, who is posting career highs of 22.2 ppg and 12.4 rpg, but sophomore point guard Deron Williams deserves his share of the credit, as well.

Steadily improving from his rookie campaign, Williams is averaging 16.7 points and nine assists per game, up from 10.8 and 4.5 a season ago. He and Boozer enabled Utah to flourish despite missing jack-of-all-trades forward Andrei Kirilenko for five games.

As vital as they have been, though, the real secret to this success story lies in 19-year head coach Jerry Sloan, who became the first coach to win 900 games with one team when the Jazz defeated the Raptors on Nov. 20.

Like any great band leader, Sloan has guided his players with a steady hand, instilling in them the same intensity and discipline that brought the franchise to back-to-back Finals a decade ago. His teams still play lockdown defense, and he has Williams and Boozer running the pick-and-roll like Stockton and Malone in their primes.

But Sloan has shown a penchant for improv this season, uncharacteristically playing rookies Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap, so far the steal of this year’s draft, in big situations. Clearly, the duo is paying dividends.

At month’s end, the Jazz sit atop the Western Conference at 13-4. They have positioned themselves for a return to the playoffs, and, if they get there, more than a few people will be surprised.

Think another team was more impressive than the Jazz? Think something else was November's top story? Is jazz not the nation's greatest musical art form? Drop me a line and tell me what you think.

These Guys Are Pretty Surprising, Too The Jazz aren't the only team turning heads in the early going. The Magic (12-4) are leading the Eastern Conference after finishing November with nine wins in 10 games. Over the last three seasons the Magic have averaged 31 wins. They’re one pace to double that. If you saw this coming, you’re a liar. Yeah, I said it. There’s no way anyone could have predicted Orlando would be this good this fast. With the exception of Dwight Howard, who is a beast, the Magic don’t have a player who even closely resembles an All-Star. Yet they’re winning night after night. If you don't want to admit it, I will. I’m shocked.

At Least One Looks Poised to Repeat After dropping their first four games of the season – this following a four-game Finals skid that saw them go from controlling the series to wondering how it slipped away – the Mavs hardly resembled the team that tied a franchise-record with 60 regular-season wins in 2005-06. They turned things around in a hurry, though, finishing November by rattling off 11 straight wins by an average margin of 11 points. Dirk Nowitzki is having another MVP-caliber campaign. The ship has been righted, folks. Western Conference, beware. The Heat, on the other hand, closed the month below .500, leaving the East wide open.

Does This Guy Have Something to Prove? I'm not writing this because I'm a Syracuse guy, and I'm not writing this because I was a sophomore in the Salt City when Carmelo Anthony single-handedly made my decade. I'm writing this because Melo has been downright filthy this season. Actually, he's been filthy since August when he was consistently the best player on the court during the FIBA World Championship. He's carried his success into the Association's early going, averaging 31.5 ppg, dropping 30-plus a league-best 10 times (in 13 games), and making himself a lock for his first All-Star appearance after a ruder-than-rude snub job last year.

Big Men: The Next Generation The Association is seeing a new crop of big men redefine the five. Emeka Okafor, the aforementioned Dwight Howard and Yao Ming are young, athletic and talented on both ends of the floor. More big forwards than true centers, the trio are blossoming before our eyes. Okafor is a gifted defender who uses superior agility to out-athleticize opponents, while Howard – he of the back-to-back 20-20 games (Nov. 18-20) – is freakishly strong and freakishly quick. And Yao … well … Yao’s really tall. All three play the position like Russell or Kareem, rather than Wilt or Shaq. It’s graceful. It's effective. It's a pretty thing to watch.

There's No Place Like Road This would have been a bigger story had the Spurs finished how they started. San Antonio began the month with seven consecutive road wins and nearly became the first team in 10 years to open a season with eight straight victories away from home. But they lost a pair in the month's final week, first in Golden State and then in Utah, a loss that kept them behind the Jazz in the Western Conference. Since 1996, San Antonio remains an NBA-best 230-173 away from the River Walk.