Players lack will to win

To make this short and sweet and not some long drawn-out theory, I don't believe the majority of the Jazz players are committed to playing defense. Either that or they don't have the talent it takes to play defense. Kirilenko would be a good example of what all the players should be trying to do, whatever it takes to win.

Ferron Sonderegger

Rexburg, Idaho

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Jazz need leader at point guard

The biggest problem on the Jazz is the lack of a point guard who can be a leader on the team. Lopez is good, but the team doesn't get behind him. Eisley is the perennial backup point and doesn't play with the energy a leader has.

Arroyo had the qualities but didn't want to play Jerry Sloan basketball.

Adam Larsen

Salt Lake City

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Jazz need to take some big steps

And everybody thought that it was going to be so easy!

Forget last season. It was a year in which it took almost the whole season for some teams to take the Jazz seriously. And some never got to the point of taking them for anything more than a warmup game. And most paid dearly for it. But those same surroundings and/or circumstances could not be expected this year. Especially with all the signings. Having said that;

1. For such a young team with so little experience, Raja Bell and Matt Harpring were the worst co-captains, leaders, examples (you can call it anything you want) for a team of such structure. They resent the younger guys with the contracts, and they are basically playing not for the Jazz but for themselves.

2. Looking at last year and deciding that Gordan Giricek and Carlos Arroyo were lasting solutions was a misread due to the reasons I listed above.

3. Paying two second-rounders (Carlos Boozer-Mehmet Okur) that type of money was a gamble. They had both just played two season (Okur's total playing time probably equalled a rookie's) in the league, and although they turned some heads from time to time, they were not anything resembling a sure thing by any means.

4. The draft choices although undeniably talented were not suited for Sloan's system. Kris Humphries quickly became known as the most selfish player in the Big 10 a quarter of the way through his freshman season. Kirk Snyder was a big fish in a small pond, who was not used to being second paddle to none.