Preseason Scrimmage of 08-09

The layout of the scrimmage was pretty similar to last season - the players all walk out and sit on chairs facing the crowd, and the crowd is limited to about 1/2 of the upper bowl. The players were talked to by David Locke (a radio show host here in SLC) and answered some questions from him. Then they went to stretch, run drills and stuff while the crowd watched. The event was free but moreso marketed for season-ticket holders, and plus it was during a religious event in SLC. They still had a great turnout despite the pouring rain. Me and my wife were soaked by the time we got in!

This year's scrimmage was a lot of fun, and better than last year's. They actually played 8-minute quarters instead of 10-minute halves like last year. The score was tied (76 each) by the end of the game and they did not play any overtime, and my wife was thankful because we were sitting by 5 guys that did nothing but yell out something about any player that got close to them (which was frequent since we were on the 5th row). Brewer had a chance to win it at the buzzer but was short on his jumper. CJ actually should have put his team in the lead with some FTs but he bricked the first one. Oh well, good fun. Now for the player-by-player breakdown!

Kyle Korver
He was shooting the ball very well, which I guess was to be expected. He looked like he was really trying hard to hit his shots, hustle and all that stuff that coach likes to see. I think he actually "gets" the system now and was getting a little annoyed with the scrubs that didn't swing the ball properly. I kept telling my wife that whenever he did anything you'd hear a blasting of female screams, which always happened. He was probably the most effective player tonight.

Kosta Koufos
After getting a chance to watch him in real competition, he is going to be a good player. He had a few posessions where he didn't look like a rookie to me. And damn, that kid can get up. I remember him finishing a dunk with the middle of his forearm over the rim by the time he threw it down, and I was totally blown away by the kind of athleticism he has considering his size. On top of that, he's already got a good jumper but a strange release on his shot. I guess you can't argue with the result though. This kid is going to be good once he gets some experience under his belt. He has all the tools to be a very good defensive player, and David Locke (radio show host here in SLC, who hosted the event), was saying how much Koufos loves to play basketball and loves to get time to make himself better. Give this kid time and he'll be a good/great player for us. He'll wind up being a surprisingly solid draft pick.

Kyrylo Fesenko
He actually looked good, which is a shock to those that watched him during summer league. He got a good couple of blocks on CJ today, but the second one was called a foul... looked good to me. He had a couple of good hooks in the lane and his jumpshot is not bad. I still don't think he'll pan out to give the Jazz any real production at any point in his career. He seems to lack motivation and maturity to get to that point. It's a shame because he is very gifted, physically.

Morris Almond
He seemed like he wasn't even there. Not a bad thing because he wasn't hucking up shots, and because he fits well with the team. He did miss the few shots he took, though. I think considering Brewer's improvement and CJ coming along, I'll be surprised to ever see him crack the rotation at any point in his career, as well.

Deron Williams
Oh man, he had a huge jam right in Millsap's face. It was seriously a poster right on him and everyone jumped out of their chair. Overall he played the majority of the game pretty lackluster and then took over when his team was down. He also seems to have noticeably slimmed down. He and Boozer took the game over late when their team (White) was down about 7 in the 4th quarter and they rallied back. One year wiser and one year better. It'll be a shame if nobody got that dunk on tape. It was awesome.

Ronnie Brewer
I was sort of worried about Brewer slowing down a little because of his extra weight (he apparently gained 20 pounds in the offseason), but it doesn't seem to have affected him. He played well, got some steals, a couple dunks, a couple 3's (..maybe only one, now that I think about it). He had the second-coolest dunk of the night during their warmups where Deron threw about a 35-foot lob pass and he emphatically threw it down. Coach Sloan also praised him for his hard work in the offseason, again.

CJ Miles
He did okay, too. He's definitely got the talent and ability but he needs to learn to settle down a little. He had two offensive fouls by charging straight into somebody planted in the lane. It was good to see Millsap and Memo take those charges though.

Mehmet Okur
He looks really good. His defense actually was not bad at all, he shot the ball well and was really moving well off the dribble. He was saying during the player introductions that he's finally healthy, lost some weight and he feels great to start the season for the first time in a long time.

Carlos Boozer
I think Jazz fans are starting to expect too much from him, but he was alright, too. He was definitely taking control along with Deron down the stretch. Those two on the pick and roll is a thing of beauty. It's automatic. I think everyone will forget about his disappointing postseason if he plays like he knows he can for a few weeks. He'll be just fine. Let's just hope he picks it up defensively.

Brevin Knight
This guy is a little firecracker, and he was definitely not ready for what the Jazz threw at him. There was a play where he was supposed to set a screen on Boozer to free up a big guy (just like the Jazz have always done with their guards) and Boozer didn't even get slowed down by it and knocked him silly. He seemed to get really pissed off about it, and after that point was getting on Deron's hip and bugging him. Probably just a competitive guy. He also had a really nice pass through traffic to... I want to say Millsap to finish a break but I could be wrong. It was right through a tiny window perfectly in my view so the pass was even more impressive. He's a smart guy and will definitely be a much more appropriate player in our system than Hart was.

Ronnie Price
He looked pretty good. He was hitting his jumpshots pretty well. Hard to pay attention to him when he's got our team's franchise guy opposing him the whole game. He didn't **** anything up, so that's good, right?

Jarron Collins
...is a doofus and will definitely not be back next season, unless the Jazz are thrilled with horribly unskilled, unathletic centers that do nothing but foul and flop. Koufos is much better and actually looks like an NBA basketball player. Collins' highlight of the night was during warmups when he was skipping across the court. When they got to playing he was horribly outclassed.

Matt Harpring
This was strange because Matt was there but wasn't introduced with the rest of the team. He didn't play because he was hurt, and said it'll take a while for him to heal from... whatever it was that he had, so that should give Miles and Brewer some proving ground to take some minutes, permanently. It's only a matter of time, from this point.

Paul Millsap
He was alright. He had a couple of post moves where he totally lost his defender, and knocked down a jumpshot or two. He also had a big rejection on Collins. He seemed to do what he always does and quietly go out there to do his job.

Andrei Kirilenko
AK looked like his regular self. He's still skilled at pretty much everything but won't ever stick out. He had some good baseline scores, but looked to be off on his jumper today. Not really all that much to say about him.

And the scrubs looked like scrubs. When they introduced those guys you could tell that nobody cared. I completely tuned out what McNamara was talking about and when Locked talked to the other two guys you could hear more crowd noise than anything.

And finally, Sloan went out of his way to say how prepared the players were, how hard they've worked and how wonderful of shape everyone was in. I don't think he could really have any complaints and has got this team to the point where they basically run themselves, police themselves, motivate themselves and play very well together. He's got to be one happy guy right now.


Overall I'm really excited to see what this team can do. Everyone looked great and there are tons of reports out there that Sloan is calling this the most conditioned and hard-working team he's ever had. You've got to think this team is going to do something special this year or it'll be disappointing.

First preseason game is on Tuesday!!


Edit: Here's a picture of Deron's dunk, but still no video...