Season of the tank!-2013-14 regular season

[Xiao Yao You]

NBA general manager: "I'm not one of those GMs that subscribes to the tanking theory. You can lose all the games you want, but you're still not guaranteed to get the top pick. Not since 2004 has the team with the most losses won the top pick. The moment you intentionally start trying to tank, and that philosophy gets in your building, it's hard to get it out. Teams that have done that over the years in trying to get the top pick have ended up being in the lottery for nine, 10 years straight. It's one thing if you're doing that in the NFL, where if you've got the worst record you're guaranteed to get the first pick. I could go along with that a little bit.

This next draft it's not necessarily about one pick though. The first few picks all could be studs from the hype anyway.

[Xiao Yao You]

"It's hard to tank, though. It's one thing if there wasn't a lottery like the NFL. But because there's never anything guaranteed, tanking is a hard thing to do. It's easy to say you're going to do it, but when you're going through the dog days of January and you're 5-30 and there are 4,000 people in the stands, it's painful. The other thing is that while Andrew Wiggins is a good prospect, he's not the next LeBron -- or even Kobe when he came out back in '96. He's not that. He's a very good player, but it's not like when Tim Duncan was coming out of college.'' ESPN.com

As Jazz fans seem to be realizing after getting what they wished for.

[Xiao Yao You]

While Burke has yet to see regular season action due to his finger injury, fans are excited to see what he will add to the youthful core the Jazz have assembled.

Excited? I'm anxious to see if he's not a complete bust and better than Lucas and Tinsley.

[QUOTE]They next traded into the last first-round, snaring French center Rudy Gobert. Reports have circulated that the Jazz liked him so much that, had they kept their initial picks, might have considering using the #14 pick to draft him. It is already apparent what they saw in Gobert. It is early yet and the 7

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[QUOTE]5. Andris Biedrins. With one year and $9M remaining, Biedrins represents the Jazz

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[QUOTE]4. Richard Jefferson. This is probably more intriguing than Biedrins if Jefferson shows the world he can still play basketball after an off year. If Jefferson can prove he could still help a playoff team, he could get some extra attention, but otherwise, he

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]3. Marvin Williams. If Marv made a little less coin, I

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[QUOTE]Now we arrive at the two guys I think are most likely to be traded. This is because they

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[QUOTE]Shooting guard Brandon Rush is expected to see limited action against the Bulls. He sat out the loss Wednesday in Boston after playing 10 minutes in Brooklyn

[Xiao Yao You]

Jorge Sierra: Free agent guard Lester Hudson has signed with Xinjiang of the Chinese League, agent Brad Ames tells *********. bit.ly/1bjFGh9 Twitter @*********

Jorge Sierra: You might remember Hudson averaged 13 ppg with the Cavs late in the 2011-12 season. But no guaranteed deal anywhere afterwards. Twitter @*********

13 ppg might have been nice.

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]Rudy Gobert got our only Jazz note. He battled and plays fearlessly. When I saw him after the game the first thing he said was free throws. He knows where he needs to improve and he is getting better at a really high rate. The kid works hard. He didn

[Xiao Yao You]

[QUOTE]In another reversal, shooting guard Brandon Rush did not play Friday as Corbin had said he might during his shootaround interview. Rush hasn

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Aaron Falk: Asked Kanter if he'd ever lost this many games in a row. "Probably not. That's like my first time

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[QUOTE]It

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I was impressed with Gordon Hayward leadership tonight. Gordon is learning leadership. Tonight I saw him go out of the way numerous times to guys who had just made mistakes to try to prop them back up. This is how you lead. It is better to be by example and supportive. Gordon has played hard every night so far and he has the numbers to back it up. He is gaining respect and now he is showing that he supports his guys. At some point he can be harsh and push them forward right now he is being supportive

He's stepping up. It's especially nice to see because he's started slow every year and finished strong. He should only get better. Burks, Kanter and Favors need to do it consistently now. Favors has the least amount of excuses. Burks has been in and out of the rotation and Kanter didn't play for 6 months coming off his injury.

The not winning is wearing on this group. It is 14 straight if you count the pre-season while it doesn’t it still has been a really long time since they have taken the floor and left with a good feeling. It is not fun to come to the arena right now. These guys are not feeling good about themselves and that has an impact. Once they get one it will be different. They won’t suddenly be a super team but there will be a freedom to their play that doesn’t exist right now.

That's one reason why tanking isn't a great idea. It's ridiculous for them not to have one NBA rotation qualified pg on the team.

This is the season of discovery and we starting to learn some things. Kanter is not doing a good job as a defensive rebounder. The lack of defensive rebounding is really hurting this team on both ends of the floor.

Yeah not sure what the deal is? He looked like he would be elite as a rookie and appears to be on the offensive end.

Derrick Favors offensive skills are still not complete. The Jazz want him to be a rebounder and a defensive player but as the team struggles offensively you can see him trying to pick up the slack. This may not be the best for him. His self-worth as a player needs to be based on defensive and rebounding performance . This was a not a good road trip for his offense we need to appreciate him for what he does well and let the other stuff come.

Will it come though?

This team is not going to do much when the shooting % of the non 4 youngsters are 34%, 34%, 43%, 27%, 13%, 21% and 13%. Those are the options beyond the young 4. Not much help for these guys.

And Ty gets the blame!

[QUOTE]But this year is for Hayward, Favors, Kanter and Burks and Trey once he plays and for them to learn the difficulty of this league. This week they learn how hard it easy. Hopefully, next time they go through this they understand it better and perform better./[quote]

Trey should already have an idea after not getting it done against D-Leaguers and fringe NBAers in summer league and pre season.

Jazz Notes tonight from Thurl for Richard Jefferson for being a pro and an example and I gave one to Gordon Hayward for his consistent effort and his development of his leadership,

See you Monday at Energy Solutions

Posted in Emptying the Noggin

[Xiao Yao You]

Jazz forward Marvin Williams, who returned from a right Achilles injury Friday, went scoreless in 15 minutes, missing his three field goal attempts.

He's back in all his glory! At least he plays D.