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Utah Jazz: A step forward? There's still lots of room for improvement

I think the Jazz should set a goal for 20-25 road wins this upcoming season. With this and a strong record at home (again).......better off in playoffs and maybe homecourt advantage.

That would be the first step in the right direction. Get a post player who can play defense.

The Jazz had a great season. The fact of the matter is they blew road games they should have won. The could have, would have , should have had the homecourt advantage in the Western Conference; no question. Injuries and not playing focused cost them in the playoffs. Couple that with the fact that when you analyze the rosters across the league, the Jazz do not have the athletically gifted players that the other contenders have. The NBA needs to tighten up the screws on the 'bong' usage, alcoholism, and other drugs. It is appaling what is going on. Hopefully the Jazz are not part of it. I agree with Jerry Sloan, when he says the team is making progress. What I don't understand is that the players that need to improve their skills aren't doing in the offseason. This is troublesome. As well as the players on the roster who may be playing on U.S.A. national teams. This leads to too much play, and will impact the next season, i.e. Williams, Boozer, Okur, Kirilenko; the latter two Russia, and Turkey. The Olympic basketball competition is impacting the league adversely. I think the Jazz braintrust is on the right track.

This team will win a championship. They were not a bad road team. They had road wins over Boston, Orlando, Detroit, Washington, Philly, Toronto, Phoenix, Denver, Golden State, and Houston. If they win 5 of the games they lost to pathetic teams, teams whose level they played they would have won the west by 2 or three games and had homecourt throughout which is the tremendous mental advantage they will have next year.

This was a small step back in order to achieve something great. I am as disappointed as the next and I hate LA with every fiber of my soul as well but let them have their one year of fun because the Jazz will be the #1 seed next year and LA will not be able to stay with them.

(One final thought to Laker fans saying how good you will be when Bynum returns. First he has to return. That is not a guarantee. Second can he play at a high level for an entire year?? Who knows. Good luck.)

We probably all can be critical of the Jazz....lack of defense, players not showing up for some games, lack of killer instinct, and did I mention lack of defense?...but they were mostly entertaining. Did anyone seriously expect they'd beat the better coached and more talented Lakers, especially after acquiring Fisher? My one big question remains...why didn't the Jazz insist on a no-compete clause when they cut Fisher loose? They should have insisted he go to an eastern team. Oh well, as Sloan said, they're a young team and can only get better. I'm looking forward to next year.

Harpring is not the problem.The Jazz Brass have no clue as to what it takes to build a championship team and actually achieve that goal. Ask the Lakers despite all the hate against them; ask the Spurs, they might show the Jazz how to build a championship team. The Jazz, year in and year out repeat the same mistakes.How about recognizing the glaring deficiencies and finding solutions for them?1. Sloan has never won the big ones and never will. He gets outcoached everytime over the years when it matters the most.
2.Jazz front court is the least effective among the Western powerhouses. No defense, no intimidation, slow, soft with average firepower.
3. False expectation on internal growth. Claiming the team is young and needs a time to mature is so unrealistic. Do you think the rest of the conference contenders will seat on the laurels and wait for the Jazz to mature?
4.Since there will be no changes during the summer, as it's to be expected, there will be similar results come the playoffs next season: another failure.

what is the contract situations of players on the jazz?

Another Jazz season. It was like watching a TV rerun when you know the plot and the ending--and you've seen it too many times before.

If coach Sloan returns, it will free up my Jazz watching time next year. Maybe I'll exercise.

Is Boozer another Malone??? Played exceptionally during the regular season, come the playoffs "choke time." AK still does not seem happy here in Utah, has done a good job this year, but maybe time to trade him. This is a young team, but I don't see us beating the Lakers in playoffs anytime Kobe hits the floor. Bad decisions were made when they released Fisher, but you know what they say about hindsight! Have a great summer, Jazz players and come back ready to hit the boards. Thanks for a great season!

It's obvious from Jerry's comments that he wants to be back next year. He likes the fact that this team is young and has room to grow. That's the key for any coach--being able to do better each year. Why do you think coaches who win several championships with a team go to another team, making people wonder if they'd lost their minds? Well, once you're at the top for awhile, it gets boring. The Jazz won't be boring for a few years, at least.

BTW, I think the many slow starts rests squarely on a young point guard who has yet to mature. Deron's upside, in spite of being one of the top points THIS year, is very high. Talk about a keeper!

One thing that will help next year is if the Jazz can have someone step up and be a consistent trey man. Losing Fisher to L.A. hurt the team because you could generally count on him to shoot well from long range, as he did against us this year. Korver disappeared in the playoffs, for whatever reason. He or the coaches need to figure that out. Maybe Almond will step up next year.

Frankly, I'm tired of sloan and the rest of the franchise telling me how young this team is; the jazz are not that young; Boozer, AK, Korver, Okur are in their prime and Harpring is past it. Williams and Brewer are young but when they hit their prime, Okur and AK will be past it. The jazz didn't lose this series becasue they are young, the lost it because Boozer really struggled and they got out coached every single game.

heck yes!! Harpring really doesn't do anything for the jazz. you may say that he husltes but who cares he can't make a shot he can't play defense and all he does is flop any way. get rid of harpring. he's almost as bad as giricek......Sheeeesh!!!

We should appreciate the fact that the Jazz gave the people of this area the opportunity to see more home wins than any team in the NBA. Give em a break. Next year will be even better.

Here's the bottom line: Nobody wants to come to Utah. Using the phrase of the decade: Your team "is what it is". So don't expect too much.

It has been a fun team to watch except December.
O'Connor himself said defense has to be addressed that probably means one of the big three are subject to trade.(AK,Booz,Memo)
The other problem is and most of the teams left in the playoffs have it and that is the Jazz have no one who can take over a game besides Dwill. Boston has Pierce, Allan, Garnett. Spurs have Ginobli, Duncan, Parker. Pistons have Billups, Hamilton, Tayshon. All those players above are capable of taking over a game especially when someone struggles but again Jazz only have Dwill. AK for sure cannot take over a game. Carlos can only score when Dwill is in the game. Brewer is not there yet but is best when the ball pushed. The best the Jazz at having being that other person is CJ. Why CJ? because he is the only one that has shown he can get around his guy to the hole and is capable of hitting the three. He has the outside and inside skills but lacks the experience.
Should be an interesting off season to see what happens. For Jazz to compete in the west now some trades are needed.

I'm shocked at the comments from Jazz magt and players. Of course, a lot of "breaks" the other way would have put us in the next round. But, that is championship basketball in the NBA. Everone cannot always be "be "up" This just happened to be Boozer's turn (for whatever reason) However, the Laker series made it clear "to me" that we will never win a championship until we get a strong, big man to anchor the defense. Can anyone remind me of a champion w/o a big man in the middle on defense?

What happened to the Jazz against the Lakers is easy to fiture out......too much Kobe ....too little Carlos!

Josh keep hating the Lakers from every fiber of your body, that focus on the Lakers will be what keeps the Lakers above the Jazz every year. The negative energy you and fans like you give out will power the Lakers to victory every time. Laker fans don't care about the Jazz, that's why they win.

Sick of people on here telling us who have been fans since the Jazz moved to Utah to be happy with mediocrity and be happy with what you have. If the Jazz players and management only have visions of mediocrity then I will cheer for teams who want to win it all and keep moving forward to do so.

That being said now you know the players and coaches want a championship as much as us fans who supposedly "expect to much". So please don't post your stupidity of feel lucky and be happy with mediocrity because teams build, sign, and trade to get better. The Jazz do need to get better and if they don't look to get better then we will have to live another twenty years with mediocrity and we as true fans deserve more as well as they players who have the passion and a dream of a championship.

If your happy with mediocrity thats fine but don't tell me and other people on here to be because your world is mediocre.

We can expect a lot. The team has already done a lot, and it can do better.

True, most NBA players don't want to come to Utah, and that's a handicap. Most of the players who do give it a chance like it, though. It's a matter of finding the right fit. This team is close to being able to win it all. Very close.

Harpring doesn't do anything for the Jazz? You people are nuts. He couldn't guard Kobe, sure--but nobody really can. He does, however, play with hustle and grit, plays good team defense, moves without the ball which helps keep the offense moving and gets him easy baskets, and is actually pretty good at hitting those open midrange shots. Didn't hit a lot of them this series, but neither did Korver, Kirilenko, or Boozer.

Just think--the Jazz gave the Lakers a pretty tough 6-game series with half their guys misfiring. We were only in this one because of Williams and Okur.

Sloan is a great coach. He's taken his team to the finals before, and he'll do it again soon.