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In preparing for the upcoming season, we’re looking to fill several positions as contributing authors to the site:

• one season ticket holder from the lower bowl,
• one season ticket holder from the upper bowl,
• a college student,
• a housewife,
• a young working professional,
• a Jazz family,
• an elementary school class,
• a Jazz fan

“He (Korver) makes teams get out of the zone,” Williams added. “With him and Memo (Okur) at opposite corners, you’ve got to respect them. You’ve got to get out to those guys, and it opens everything up. They don’t pay attention to him and they fall asleep for a second, he makes you pay.”

 …

 ”D-Will had a terrific game in being able to get the ball to people for easy shots,” Sloan added. “(He) was able to get the ball up and get us in a penetrating area a lot of times. He did it against the zone, and made some great passes for inside baskets. I think that was the key to it.”

Sloan calling Deron ‘D-Will’?

 From the Desert News today:

NO GO: The trophy he earned at All-Star weekend in New Orleans for winning the skills challenge contest in record time was supposed to have been presented to Williams at Tuesday’s game, but there was no ceremony.

“It’s so whack,” Williams said. “They forgot to send it the next day. They sent it like two days (later), something like that.”

Asked if the ceremony would take place at Saturday’s game against Atlanta in EnergySolutions Arena, Williams said, “No, I think that’s all. That’s it. I didn’t want to do it anyway.”

This seasons has shaped up the highest powered Western Conference- atleast at allstar break- that the leagues as seen. And who is behind it all? The Memphis Grizzlies. With the Pau Gasol trade, which sent one one expiring contract with two question marks to Memphis in exchange for a 7 foot bigman who can score and pass, and can play some defense. This has spawned a multitude of blockbuster, high-money, high-risk deals that has made this the most interesting year of basketball for as long as I can rememeber.

As a Jazz fan I hate the Grizzlies. A healthy groups of players in Pau Gasol, Eddie Jones, Damon Stoudamire, and Shane Battier two years ago spelt tough, fierce competition for a young Jazz team that was still a big question mark itself. I remember a few barn burners, some wins some heart breakers.

Remember the Grizzlies made the playoffs with a good team two years in a row, but without one win. Blame whatever, poor coaching experience (Mike Fratello was always a solid regular season coach but has never made an impact in a playoff series), a soft bigman who can’t necessarily defend or rebound well as a centerpiece, whatever. It’s no wonder they’re bitter- look at the stupid logo the league gave them when their were added as a team.

Keep the aforementioned trade in mind, because it’s an interesting contrast to other moves that have generated by them. Either directly or indirectly they shot all their talent into an already volatile western conference. Damon Stoudamire ends up in San Antonio? Bobby Jackson- a solid shooter with playoff experience- in Houston, where I believe he will make a big impact. And to make the deal work, it involved Bonzi Wells whom can still rebound AND score, and Mike James whom is a scorer as well… going to the Hornets

For a conference whos first and eighth seeds are seperated by 4 1/2 games, there seems to be a lot of deals that the basement dweller Grizz seem to be getting their paws on. No wonder Greg Popovich, the best coach in current professional sports and completely out of character, spoke ill of the logistics of the LAL-MEM deal.

Though as a Jazz fan I like to think that the acquisition for Kyle Korver spurred a lot of the activity as well. 19 and 3 in the last 22 games, you can’t argue with the numbers.