From Deseret News archives:

Jazz woes: Readers weigh in on what's wrong with team

Published: Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005 4:41 p.m. MST
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Perhaps they brought in the inappropriate personnel: Memo is not a true center, cannot play defense and only once in a while can hustle for the rebound, still great free throw shooter under pressure. Boozer is a good offensive player and a swift rebounder with less than Jazz's kind of defensive abilities . . . yet his game doesn't make the other players improve their game.

Second, it is also apparent that there are several subgroups within the team, as the players have hinted lately. As for the general change of personnel: some of the now long gone last year's players who busted themselves every night, have been substituted by less aggressive players with less zeal for their team. The product is a warm and cold team, with a lot of internal problems.

It is curious how an incident with a close to average player can become Sloan's Waterloo . . . actually Arroyo means little brook in Spanish. How convenient!

Rinaldo J. Garcia,

San Juan, Puerto Ri


Time for Sloan to go

The coach has handled the point guard situation very poorly. Any coach in the NBA would have played Carlos Arroyo full time. Coach Sloan does not know how to communicate with today's young players. It is time for him to quit.

Tony Mercado,

Houston, Texas


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Get a good point guard

The ship is as good as its captain. In the sidelines the captain is Jerry Sloan, but at the helm is the point guard, who directs, feeds and decides the rhythm of the game. McLeod, Lopez, and Eisley will never do!! Solution!!!! Get a good point guard who'll demand and earn the respect from the other players and from his coach!

Rafael O.Morell,

Carolina, Puerto Rico


Jazz have no fight

The Jazz's woes began, I believe, with two changes in the lineup that triggered their fall like a row of dominoes: the return of Carlos Arroyo from his injury and the promotion of Raja Bell to the starting lineup.

Not only wasn't Arroyo ready for the minutes, but his slower-paced style was a great contrast to the up-tempo play of Keith McLeod, which had been a factor in their early success. It took the Jazz out of the groove they were in, and their offense began to stagnate.

Lots of people are saying that the Jazz lack toughness, and this may be true, if you apply the saying "when things get tough, the tough get going." Instead of standing up and fighting, the Jazz have seemed to back into a corner.

Tom Calarco,

Schenectady, N.Y.


Play Bell, Okur more

First of all, the Jazz shouldn't throw in the towel and hope for a good lottery pick. Most likely they wouldn't be among the top three picks, and if you're not there then you're nowhere. The teams that came away with good players in the draft are the teams that have been in the lottery for years. Second of all, Bell and Okur should be playing more minutes, like 35 minutes per game. Okur is a competent center, and Bell is important for our defense.

John Levy,

Maaleh Adumim (near Jerusalem), Israel

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A poll of 406 Utah residents was conducted Jan. 31-Feb. 3, 2005, by Dan Jones \\& Associates. It has a margin of error of +/-5 percent. Copyright 2005 Deseret Morning News / KSL-TV

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