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Utah Jazz: Team drafts big Buckeye

Jimmy thinks this guy will be the next Karl Malone in the city of Utah.

I approve.

I wish I could be as content as most Jazz fans are, but with what the Jazz actually NEEDED was defense, not a Memo 2.0. In Koufous, they get another lumbering softy center who can supposedly hit jumpers.
It's criminal the Jazz didn't pick up a athletic, DEFENSIVE-minded big. Robin Lopez, 2nd all-time in blocks at Stanford? Gone at 15, certainly coulda' been obtainable. DeAndre Jordan? People question his maturity level, but the dude can jump out of the gym and has a tremendous wingspan.
But as always, the Jazz picked three dudes, who coincidentally look identical and who we won't see for a couple years--if not ever.
Wow.

Koufos another Karl Malone? Not likely, but if he eventually develops into a player similar to Okur I won't be disappointed.

Still ... Koufos wasn't the player I hoped the Jazz would end up with.

Unfortunately, I have seen Koufos play, and he does not have the demeanor for Coach Sloan. He is slow and a bit lazy on defense, hence, the poor shot blocking.

I personally would have rather seen Plaistead than Koufos in this particular case. At least plaisted works hard.

Just my humble Ohio opinion.

"A red-blooded McDonald's All-American."

funny how you say that.. as if being from another nationality is somehow inferior.

if you have any sense of decency you will clarify or retract that remark.

especially the "Red-blooded" part.

Drafting a player you've only seen once, and whose agent would not even let come to UT to work out for the Jazz despite being invited is pretty much a leap of faith. I'm not sure I would want to pick a player who wouldn't even come to work out for the team pre-draft. I don't care that everyone thought he would be selected higher. We've all seen players slip in drafts and go to teams they never imagined (Brady Quinn). If you get invited by a perennial playoff team with three all-star caliber players and the NBA's best coach, you politely accept and work out for that team. Left unsaid is whether the agent didn't want his client going to the "black hole" of UT, like Derek Harper and others who just hate the state.

I hope this kid works hard and contributes. He has more skills than Collins and achieved more in college than COllins, so at the very least he is an improvement at that position. I suspect he will surprise us with his progress and will turn out to be a good pick. But it was a leap of faith for O'Connor.

Jimmy:
You may have put your sneakers on the wrong feet.
However, the next 'Memo' would be just fine!
Jazzaholic

Between Koufos & Tomic from this draft, and Fesenko from last year's... PLEASE one of them end up being an effective center for the Jazz, to back up Okur and maybe provide some interesting situational lineups. Koufos is probably most ready to make an impact fairly soon, but maybe Fes will surprise us with his level of progress. I reckon they would be two quite different centers, and assuming Collins will be gone after his last year under contract, maybe both will end up "sticking". As for Tomic... after he develops more overseas, who knows, but it sounds like he's done well so far for being so young. Only time will tell.

Jimmy thinks he needs to stop talking about jimmy. Cause jimmy can see jimmy soon.

So he's not a shotblocker YET. He's 7'1 and he's 19 years old. Can't he LEARN to be a shot blocker with those statistics? What are coaches for? Why can't he turn out to be a shotblocker AND a scorer? Lets look at the glass as half full.

Jimmy thinks that the Jazz need to take a lesson in drafting from Portland and learn how to move up and down in order to get the player you truly covet.

Jimmy likens this selection to the Curtis Borchardt pick a few picks back. While Doufus may not have the injury problems that Borchardt did, the fact remains that several teams passed on him for other big men, for a reason. Jimmy thinks that Doufus will be hard pressed to earn a second contract in Utah and will be angling to return home to Greece after year 2 in a Jazz uniform.

They try to tell me that people born in America are Americans. What is this dual Greek and American citizenship stuff? I hope this player lays off of the body adornments and grifitti. And what's up with all the drafting of alphabet players from across the pond? Why don't we call this league the International Basketball Association instead of the National Basketball Association? There are enough players (not skilled) but enough to have at least 50 teams worldwide. Let's do it now and have them play year round. For pete's sake, for all intents and purposes we have nearly year round play now. Let's just continue the playoffs and play right up to training camp. Then there is the Olympics; that's just a great concept for playing more basketball and burning out all the NBA players before the next season.


And how about cleaning up the, what do they call it? officiating in the league. It is atrosious. Many of the games smell to me....as in Las Vegas.

This will be another year of one or two rounds in the playoffs for the Jazz...no question. Too many games, too many injuries, and lack of focus. How about Jazz conditioning?

Jimmy would also like to add that Jimmy is really tired of writing in the third person. Jimmy also recognizes that everyone else it tired of this third person smelly shoe speaking act.

Koufos will be a highly skilled center. His problem will be going inside. He has highly developed offensive skills, weak defense(by NBA standards). He is a fairly bright guy from what I've seen. Should be coachable. Needs to hit the weight room.
Probably won't get arrested.
I think you got a good player at 23 in draft. Good luck.

Buck Fan

More of the same in the Jazz picks. It won't lift them out of their current defensive funk. Look for the Jazz to excell in mediocrity. Oh and BTW, Jimmy's comments are a welcome change from the smash mouth dribble of most bloggers.

Jimmy realizes the Jimmy is moron. Jimmy finally realizes that there are only players with holes in their games at pick 23. Jimmy and his stinky shoes also finally have realized that it takes someone to trade with to make a trade.

The Jazz needed to get quicker and tougher in the middle, but these picks make us even slower and weaker (at least for the next 3 years).

I hope we'll be more aggresive about filling this need through free agency or some kind of trade, because clearly we didn't address it in the draft.

I want to bid farewell to Jimmy's Sneakers, who has done very little to advance the intellect of the sport of basketball.