Reader comments
Jazz Olympians shouldn't have any lingering fatigue

Pretty sure Denver's two best players are Anthony and Allen Iverson, not ... Linaz Kleiza?

JCH is right, although Rock didn't say that they were Denver's two best players. That reference was for the Lakers.

Brad referred to the Lakers "two best players", but he only referred to Denver's players by name...he didn't call them their two best.

Only if you don't take into account: jet lag, opposite sleeping schedules, LeBron's snoring on the bus, late nights in Shang-Hai doing who knows what, Carmello's loud music in the Hotel rooms, and coack K's insistence on 6 AM practices.

It wasn't the best-worded sentence, but I think he stopped the "two-best players" thing after the Lakers, and was just naming other teams with two players in the Olympics. It's not like Kidd is better than Howard either.

I dunno.....did you see what Kleiza did to the Jazz last year? I bet old man Sloan would argue that Kleiza's one of Denver's two best players.

I agree and I think Sloan would too. He probably hates that these guys get more than two weeks off between seasons. And I would argue that playing for the U.S. is not as taxing as it would be in some local college gym playing against college players and other NBA players like most do in the offseason. Particularly with as little time each is putting on the floor and the teamates they have around them.

Carmello isn't in the top 3 players on his team. The Nuggets will continue to loose in the first round as long as that black hole in on the team!! Kleiza, A.I. and J.R. Smith are all more betta. And Camby used to be more valuable but they traded him away for a lousy 2nd round pick. The Thuggets are the joke of the NBA!

Boozer is only getting 5 minutes a game. He is actually going to have to step up his conditioning after these games to come into Jazz camp in top shape. Sloan would make him ride the stationary bike after games if he only got this amount of time on the floor. I'm sure in reality the rest helps but burn out is definitely not an issue for Boozer. I'm guessing D-Will and AK are getting just about enough time on the floor in these games to stay in shape. What I'm really hoping is that CJ Miles is somewhere working his tail off to meet his potential and justify his new contract.

Steve-o, you're embarrasing yourself. Melo is the Nuggets second best player, and you could argue that he's the best. He's a 2 time Olympian, and one of the premier players in the league. All this being said as a loyal anti-nugget fan :)

Way to go STEVE-O I could not have said it better myself.

I think his argument is ok for the players on team USA, who are on a deep team, but for other players, like Manu and Yao, who are expected to carry their teams with thin rosters it might be a different story.

don't you have anything better to do than to talk semantics. you pompous idiots should be drinking a beer and watching team handball or field hockey. you're all an embarrassment.

I think this experience will be very valuable for D-Will and Boozer. They get to see first hand what makes the other super-talented players around the league tick and that will certainly carry over into the Jazz' next season.

D-Will will come back stronger than ever. I remember last summer he was playing hard as well and he came into the season in far better shape than the previous year and was outplaying everyone on the court. Add this time around all that important stuff he's learning about defense from another source (Coach K), and fast-break offense (from D'Antoni), which he will then help to apply to our team in the coming year. Let's just hope Boozer gets it into his thick skull too!

But--look for an exciting year for Jazz B-Ball!

i think it could also be more important than just learning X's and O's, maybe the prospect of playing with an olympian or 2 could make utah a more attractive destination for an elite player

The Jazz could really help themselves and hurt Houston if they would make a decent offer to Mutumbo. Even if he eventually signed with the Rockets at least they would make the Rockets pay for him.

Mutumbo is still very good on both offense and defense for limited minutes and if (when) Yao gets hurt Mutumbo is crucial to the Rockets. Mutumbo could put the Jazz over the top in the West. The Jazz still have both of their exemptions. A couple of mill would make a big difference at back up center.

Just think about how good the 2nd team would be with Mutumbo playing center, Sap/Koufos at PF, Harp/CJ/Korver at SF/SG and any of the PGs. That line up could beat half of the starting teams in the NBA.

Mutumbo can be had for 2 to 2.5 mill. It is kind of dumb to not make the move.

Mutumbo is also about 50 and plays 7-8 minutes a game on average. 2.5 million for 640 minutes a year is a little much wouldn't ya say?