NBA TV Preview

It has been three years now since Malone and Stockton left the premises. Though the Jazz has struggled to find its identity, the team's resiliency has been remarkable under Jerry Sloan.

Sloan led Utah to a 41-41 mark in 2005-06, the 19th time in 20 seasons the Jazz has finished at .500 or better on his watch. Sloan enters the season only 16 wins shy of becoming the fifth NBA head coach to win 1,000 games.

Don't bet against another winning season for Sloan and the Jazz. For starters, point guard Deron Williams has a full season under his belt. While it would sacrilege to draw comparisons to John Stockton after one year, it's worth noting that the Hall of Famer produced numbers (5.6 pionts, 5.1 assists) no better than those Williams (10.1 points, 4.5 assists) put up last year.

This year, Williams has the additional benefit of a veteran mentor in Derek Fisher, acquired from Golden State. Fisher makes the Jazz an even better three-point shooting team, will hit shots in the clutch – just ask San Antonio! – and provides a much-needed veteran presence on a team that has only one other player, forward Matt Harpring, with more than five years experience in the league.

The Jazz is especially young at shooting guard, where rookie Ronnie Brewer, 21, could step in and start. The 6-7 shooting guard from Arkansas earned rave reviews at the Rocky Mountain Revue after averaging a team-best 16.0 points. C.J. Miles, 19 is even younger. Both are blessed with much-need athleticism on Utah's perimeter.

Up front, the imposing trio of Kirilenko, Boozer and Mehmet Okur offers a world of promise, though Boozer has yet to deliver with 80 games missed to injury in two seasons since signing his mega-deal. The versatile Okur had a breakout season in 2005-06 with 18.0 points and 9.1 points a game, while knocking down 80-of-234 three-point attempts. The value of Kirilenko is best illustrated by the team's 3-10 record in the 13 games he missed last season. He's one of the league's most indispensable players.

Harpring was re-signed to be the team's sixth man, and as insurance against an injury to Kirilenko. Jarron Collins is adequate and Rafael Araujo doesn't have to perform like a lottery pick in Utah; he just has to outperform Greg Ostertag.

As is customary, the Jazz will generate little buzz, garner almost zero national pub and, lo and behold, find themselves right in the thick of the playoff race as usual.
-- Bill Evans

2006-07 Jazz Mini Packages

Boozer

Sure, the Jazz would love it if Carlos Boozer lived up to the tremendous multi-year deal he signed before the 2004-05 season. At this point, they'd probably settle for seeing him in uniform for a majority of Utah's games.

Boozer went nearly a calendar year without appearing in a single game, thanks to a sprained right ankle and a balky hamstring.

When he finally returned in February after missing the first 49 games of the 2005-06 season, Boozer finally began to resemble the player that broke the hearts of Cavaliers fans upon his much-publicized defection from Cleveland.

Boozer started the team's final 19 games, averaging 21.3 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists while knocking down 55.8 percent of his shots. The Jazz was 11-8. That's production the Jazz could get used to, but he can't do it in street clothes.
-- Bill Evans

X&O STRENGTH

Sloan

He runs a precision type of offense designed by his top assistant Phil Johnson…Based on setting a lot of screens…Run their wings through in their early offense and get into their spots and just execute…Compared to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers, where you might know what play is coming but its hard to stop because the execution is so good.

X&O WEAKNESS
Jerry has been there forever but he has some youth in Deron Williams and Ronnie Brewer that will play key minutes but be expected to perform.

HEAD COACH PHILOSOPHY
The dean of NBA coaches…They run an intense defense and rely on very few gimmicks…They play the percentages and execute.
-- Dave Fredman (courtesy of the National Basketball Coaches Association)

You know they're going to play hard and defend every night.
Deron Williams is going to be better in his second year in the league. He's a good defender but he's not the quickest guy.
Who's going to score out of the two-spot for them? Gordan Giricek is really their only shooting guard.
Mehmet Okur is more of a four-man. I know they've got him as their center, but they don't really have, other than Boozer, a post-up threat.
Andrei Kirilenko is about as athletic as you can get in this league, but I don't think the team is that athletic. Jerry Sloan preaches defense. They'll execute offensively, but I just don't know if they have the athletes to compete night in and night out.
-- Eastern Conference Scout

Mehmet Okur: Okur is a great choice at center once the top guys at the position have been taken, and he's healthier than most of the top centers and averages similar numbers in scoring and rebounding.

Gordon Giricek: The addition of Derek Fisher and Ronnie Brewer will complicate Giricek's playing time.

More fantasy news

If the core of the Jazz can stay healthy, you can add another team to the ever-growing list of sleepers in the Western Conference. When healthy, Carlos Boozer is a dominant force in the paint and is a nice high risk, high reward player to consider in the fourth or fifth rounds of fantasy drafts. Other than Boozer, the Jazz have a little bit of everything for the fantasy crowd: a high risk, high reward superstar in AK-47 (even less risky after his hard work in the off-season), a super-sleeper at the point in Deron Williams and an underrated center in Mehmet Okur.
--Brian McKitish
Jazz Fantasy Preview

Play Video

10.8

2.4

4.5

10.6

1.9

1.7

15.3

8.0

4.3

16.3

8.6

2.7

18.0

9.1

2.4

2.3

2.8

0.3

--

--

--

5.3

4.2

1.2

13.3

2.6

4.3

12.5

5.2

1.4

Brazil

Croatia

Russia

Turkey

Draft

Draft

Trade

Draft

Trade

Trade

Retired

Trade

Free agent

18.0

9.1

4.5

1.48

3.19

92.4

(26th)

95.0

(9th)

.442

(25th)

.449

(11th)

+4.18

(2nd)