Category: Utah Jazz Blog

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Jerry Sloan is forever

Mike McGraw of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald reports:

Jerry Sloan is entertaining

Jerry Sloan was asked how he’s lasted 22 years with the Jazz when most other NBA coaches seem to lose touch with their players within a few seasons.

“I tell our players, ‘I’m going to be here and you may not,’ ” he said. “I’ve been real fortunate that our owner gave me the opportunity to say that when he first started out. Coaches are going to be here and players are expendable. – If you don’t have support, you don’t have a fighting chance.”

Someone asked Sloan what he thought about his 1970s-era photo on a mural honoring Bulls legends that went up outside the locker room this year. He hadn’t seen it.

“I don’t think it affects me in any way,” Sloan said. “Like my friend said, ‘I’ll still eat hamburgers.’ “

Jazz re-assign Kosta Koufos to D-League

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today that the team has re-assigned second-year center Kosta Koufos to the Utah Flash of the NBA Development League (D-League).  Koufos appeared in one game for the Flash during his first assignment this season, posting 16 points, seven rebounds, two steals, one assist and one block vs. the Maine Red Claws on January 25.

In 25 games for the Jazz this season, the 7-0, 265-pound Koufos has averages of 1.2 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.2 assists in 3.4 minutes.  Koufos has been inactive 12 times this season and DNP-CD 22 times.  He last appeared in a game on March 6 vs. the Los Angeles Clippers, playing two scoreless minutes, and prior to that on February 27 against the Houston Rockets, totaling two points and a rebound in three minutes of action.  The center has notched a season-high six points twice this season and also picked up a season-high eight rebounds vs. the Clippers on October 30.

Selected by the Jazz out of Ohio State in the first round (23rd overall selection) of the 2008 NBA Draft, Koufos also appeared in 10 games (all starts) while on assignment with the Flash in 2008-09, averaging 16.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and 2.0 assists.

Jazz to sign Othyus Jeffers to 10-day contract

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today that the team will sign guard Othyus Jeffers (pronounced oh-THEE-us) of the NBA Development League’s Iowa Energy to a 10-day contract, pending the outcome of a successful physical.  Jeffers becomes the 18th D-League Call-Up to the NBA this season, and second by the Jazz (Sundiata Gaines).  Following the transaction, the Jazz roster now stands at 13 players.

Jeffers (6-5, 200, Robert Morris University – Chicago) is currently averaging 14.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting .510 from the field through 22 games (16 starts) with Iowa this season.  Jeffers has led the Energy to a D-League best 30-9 record in his second season with the team, reaching double figures in scoring 18 times and registering a double-double in four games.

He began the 2009-10 campaign with NGC Cantu of the Italian League, the same team current Jazzman Sundiata Gaines played for during the 2008-09 season.  The 24-year-old averaged 9.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.7 steals in nine games with Cantu.

A native of Chicago, he was originally selected by the Iowa Energy in the third round (47th overall) of the 2008 D-League Draft.  In his first year with Iowa (2008-09), Jeffers led the Energy to the playoffs and was named the 2009 D-League Rookie of the Year in addition to being a D-League All-Star selection.  Jeffers was also chosen to play for the D-League Select Team in the 2009 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where he averaged 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds.

Ronnie Brewer out 3+ weeks with hamstring injury

Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports:

Grizzlies swingman Ronnie Brewer will miss at least three weeks with a partially torn right hamstring.

Brewer, who was injured Friday during the Grizzlies’ 100-87 double overtime loss to Miami, had his condition confirmed this morning after a magnetic resonance imaging exam.

Brewer did not travel this afternoon with the team to New Jersey where the Griz will face the Nets on Sunday evening. The Grizzlies are officially saying that Brewer will be out indefinitely and a timetable for his return will be set in a week.

Deron Williams dislikes Ronnie Brewer trade

Tim Buckley of the Deseret News reports:

He doesn’t like it, but Deron Williams knows trades come with the territory.

“It stinks that these things happen in the NBA,” Williams said Friday, one day after the Jazz dealt close friend and starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer to Memphis for a protected 2011 first-round draft choice.

This particular trade, however, left Williams particularly offended — so much so he questioned the team’s thinking and suggested it could influence the length of his future with the franchise.

The All-Star point prefaced Friday’s remarks by saying, “I haven’t really got nothing much good to say about the trade, so …”

Mehmet Okur father of new baby boy

Utah Jazz center Mehmet Okur and his wife, Yeliz, welcomed the couple’s second child, a baby boy – Yigit Mehmet Okur (21 inches; 8 lbs., 2 oz.) early this morning in Salt Lake City.  Memo, Yeliz, daughter Melisa, and new addition Yigit are all doing well.

Okur, who left the team in Oakland to be with his wife for the birth, will miss tonight’s Jazz game at Golden State.

Okur this season is averaging 12.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, shooting 43.5% from the field.

The 34-19 Jazz are currently the no.3 seed in the Western conference.

Jazz trade Ronnie Brewer to Grizzlies

Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports (via blog):

Jazz trade Ronnie Brewer to Grizzlies

In a deal completed five minutes before the NBA’s 1 p.m. MDT trade deadline, the Jazz sent Ronnie Brewer to Memphis for a protected future first-round draft pick, general manager Kevin O’Connor said.

The Jazz’s starting shooting guard for the past three seasons, Brewer first was linked to Memphis in trade talk last month. The pick the Jazz will receive belongs to the Grizzlies and  first can be conveyed beginning in 2011.

By trading Brewer, the Jazz will ease their logjam of wing players, freeing minutes for Wesley Matthews, C.J. Miles and Kyle Korver. The Jazz also will ease their luxury-tax burden, with the Grizzlies having the cap space to absorb Brewer’s $2.7 million salary.

Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports (via blog):

The primary reason for the trade, of course, is that Brewer plays the same position as Kyle Korver, C.J. Miles, Wesley Matthews and — to a lesser extent — Andrei Kirilenko.

Coach Jerry Sloan was having a difficult time finding minutes for everyone, so somebody had to either be traded or buried on the bench alongside young “bigs” Kosta Koufos and Kyrylo Fesenko.

Heat tried to trade for Carlos Boozer

Marc Stein and Chad Ford of ESPN report:

Heat tried to trade for Carlos Boozer

The Miami Heat spent the final hour-plus before the NBA’s Thursday afternoon trading deadline trying to convince the Utah Jazz to surrender Carlos Boozer, according to NBA front-office sources.

The Jazz, though, would not relent before the trade buzzer sounded, one source close to the process told ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher.

One source with knowledge of Utah’s thinking told ESPN.com from the start of Thursday’s discussions that a trade was “unlikely,” but the teams were still talking entering the last half-hour before the deadline hit.

ESPN.com reported earlier Thursday that the Heat and Jazz had opened discussions on a Boozer deal. Yahoo! Sports reported that the Wizards were recruited as a third team to try to help facilitate the deal, but one source told ESPN.com that the Wizards were no longer involved in the talks.

Utah Jazz are red hot

The Utah Jazz have come alive, winning 11 of their last 12 games and seven straight, and playing like a legitimate championship contender for the first time in recent memory.

A huge reason why has been the play of Andrei Kirilenko, who has moved into the starting lineup.

In his last five games, AK-47 is averaging 18.0 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.6 apg, 2.0 spg and 2.6 bpg.

Tim Buckley of the Deseret News reports:

Utah beat Portland 118-105 on Wednesday night at sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, doing so behind a season-high 28 points from center Mehmet Okur and a collective season-high 62.7 percent shooting from the field aided by Okur’s 10-for-13.

It was the seventh straight win and 11th in their last 12 games for the 30-18 Jazz, who also got 22 points and a season-high eight assists from Kirilenko, a 13-point and 13-assist double-double from Williams and 16 points off the bench including 6-for-6 field shooting from rookie Wesley Matthews.

Meanwhile, Carlos Boozer has been out. Yet the team is winning.

More from the Deseret News:

He said he felt “a little too tight, a little too sore” to play in Wednesday’s win over Portland.

But Carlos Boozer, injured one week earlier at Portland, continues to eye Saturday’s home game against Denver for a return from his moderately strained and slightly torn right calf muscle injury. “I’m feeling good. Feeling good,” the Jazz’s usual starting power forward said Wednesday. “I’m working out, getting better.

“There’s still a little tightness in it,” Boozer added, “but it’s gotten a lot stronger in the last couple days. It’s still on course.”

Aside from AK-47’s play, Paul Millsap has been terrific in Boozer’s absence.

Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune reports:

 Although  Paul Millsap  has opened eyes with his play in the past week while  Carlos Boozer has been out with a strained right calf, his teammates insist that nothing about Millsap’s improved game has come as a surprise to them.

“I saw that this summer, just given the chance, given the time,” Deron Williams said. “I’ve been a fan of Paul Millsap all along so I’ve always been one of his supporters. He’s just getting the chance to show what he can do right now while Booz is out.”

For now, the Jazz are worth taking very seriously out West.

Jazz recall Kosta Koufos from D-League

Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today that the team has recalled second-year center Kosta Koufos from the Utah Flash of the NBA Development League (D-League). Koufos is expected to be in uniform when the Jazz hosts Sacramento on Friday, January 29, at 7 p.m.

In one game with the Flash, Koufos scored 16 points, pulled down seven rebounds and had one assist in 29 minutes against the Maine Red Claws on Monday night.

In 21 games with the Jazz this season, the 7-0, 265-pound Koufos has averages of 1.3 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.2 assists in 3.6 minutes. Koufos has been inactive six times this season and DNP-CD 13 times. Koufos last appeared in a game on January 23 against New Jersey, grabbing three rebounds in a 116-83 home win. The center has notched a season-high six points twice this season and also picked up a season-high three rebounds vs. the L.A. Clippers on October 30.

Selected by the Jazz out of Ohio State in the first round (23rd overall selection) of the 2008 NBA Draft, Koufos averaged 14.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 0.5 assists in his only season with the Buckeyes. The Canton, Ohio native was also named the postseason NIT MVP after leading Ohio State to the 2008 title. Koufos, who holds dual American and Greek citizenship helped lead Greece to a silver medal in the 2007 UMCOR U18 European Championships after averaging 26.5 points, 13 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots.