What the "H" are the Jazz doing?

[Brayden Green]

I agree with Spiff. Here is the Jazz first round draft history since 2000 ... (please don't read within a half hour of just eating )

00 Deshawn Stevenson (pick 23)
Notable picks after 23: Primoz Brezec @ 27, Eddie House @ 37, Eduardo Najera @ 38, Michael Redd @ 43
01 Raul Lopez (pick 24)
Notable Picks after 24: Gerald Wallace @ 25, Samuel Dalembert @ 26, Jamaal Tinsley @ 27, Tony Parker @ 28, Gilbert Arenas @ 30, Mehmet Okur @ 37 (drafted by Pistons. We would come in a few years later to pay him unholy sums of money so he can wear civillian clothes during games.), Earl Watson @ 39 (noticing a trend here? We miss them in the draft, so we pick them up as FA's after their good years are all gone), Jamario Moon (undrafted), Andres Nocioni (undrafted)
02 Ryan Humphey (pick 19) - traded w 2nd round pick for 18th overall Curtis Borchardt (because, apparently we really missed out on him...)
Notable picks after 19: Tayshaun Prince @ 23, Nenad Kristic @ 24, John Salmons @ 26, Roger Mason Jr @ 31, Carlos Boozer @ 35 (pattern, anyone?), Matt Barnes @ 46, Luis Scola @ 56
03 Aleksander "Sasha" Pavlovic (pick 19)
Notables after 19: Boris Diaw @ 21, Travis Outlaw @ 23, Carlos Delfino @ 25, Kendrick Perkins @ 27, Leandro Barbosa @ 28, Josh Howard @ 29, Jason Kapono @ 31, Steve Blake @ 38, (we didn't need a pg, though - we had Raul Lopez starting, and Arroyo backing him up...), Zaza Pachulia @ 42, Matt Bonner @ 45 (poor mans Mehmet Okur, anyone?), WE ACTUALLY DRAFTED Mo Williams @ 47 (but then we released him - good call there...), Kyle Korver @ 51 (We'd bring him in a few years later and pay him a lot of money to look good and "Sam Perkins" it around the 3 line.)
04 Kris Humphries (14th)
Notable Picks after 14: Al Jefferson @ 15 (pattern, anyone? - tell me you see it now...), Josh Smith @ 17, J.R. Smith @ 18, Dorrel Wright @ 19, Jameer Nelson @ 20, Delonte West @ 24, Tony Allen @ 25, Kevin Martin @ 26, Sasha "The Machine" Vujacic @ 27, Beno Udrih @ 28, Anderson Varejao @ 31, Chris Duhon @ 39, Trevor Ariza @ 44.
05 Deron Williams (3rd) - Great Pick!!! (although a no brainer). Let's hope we can surround him with talent!!! Remember, we had the 6th pick and we traded the 6th, 27th, and our 2006 first rounder.
Notables after pick 3: Chris Paul @ 4, Raymond Felton @ 5, Charlie Villanueva @ 7, Channing Frye @ 8, Ike Diogu @ 9, Andrew Bynum @ 10, Danny Granger @ 17, Gerald Green @ 18, Hakeem Warrick @ 19, Nate Robinson @ 21, Jarret Jack @ 22, Fransisco Garcia @ 23, Jason Maxiell @ 26, David Lee @ 30, Brandon Bass @ 33 (we picked CJ Miles @ 34 - now watch who goes after), Ersan Ilyasova @ 36, Ronny Turiaf @ 37, Monta Ellis @ 40, Ryan Gomes @ 50, Marcin Gortat @ 57
06 Ronnie Brewer (14th)
Notables after 14: Rajon Rondo @ 21, Kyle Lowry @ 24, Shannon Brown @ 25, Jordan Farmar @ 26, Daniel Gibson @ 42, Jazz pick Paul Millsap @ 47 (then proceed to pay him WAY too much money as a FA for a 30 point game every 30 games or so.)
07 Morris Almond (25th)
Notables after 25: Aaron Brooks @ 26, Aaron Afflalo @ 27, Tiago Splitter @ 28, Carl Landry @ 31, Glen Davis @ 35, Marc Gasol @ 48 (we traded future draft considerations and our 55 for the rights to fesenko @ 38), Ramon Session @ 56 (one pick after we picked "Herbert Hill" who we then packaged to get Kfez.)
08 Kosta Koufos (23rd)
Notables after 23: Serge Ibaka @ 24, Nicolas Batum @ 25, George Hill @ 26 (man we could have used a shooter like him this year...), Luc Mbah a Moute @ 37, Goran Dragic @ 45
09 Eric Maynor (20th) - why do we let all our "good" picks go...
Notables after 20: Darren Collison @ 21, Rodrigue Beabious @ 25, Taj Gibson @ 26, DeJuan Blair @ 37 (rebounds, anyone?), Chase Budinger @ 44
10 Gordon Hayword (9th) - obviously this chapter isn't over yet,
Notables after 9: Cole Aldrich @ 11, Xavier Henry @ 12, Pattrick Patterson @ 14, Luke Babbitt @ 16, eric Bledsoe @ 18, Damion James @ 24 - possibly others.

[Schmoe]

Aaah, but what about our other picks? Did any of those turn out to be good second rounders? (This is a rhetorical question, because obviously they did, it seems you left them out so that your argument would look stronger. Also, KOC is more in control of draft picks than Larry H. was).

[Brayden Green]

Yeah, KOC is for sure.

Did you read the picks, schmoe? I focused on just first picks made by the jazz, but I did give them credit for quality second round pickups. Like here:

WE ACTUALLY DRAFTED Mo Williams @ 47 (but then we released him - good call there...)

and here:

we picked CJ Miles @ 34

and here:

Jazz pick Paul Millsap @ 47

Ahhh, but didn't I give them credit for picking up talent in the 2nd round? (This is a rhetorical question, because I obviously did. It seems you left that out so that your argument would look stronger.)

[Schmoe]

So, you agree with Spiff that Larry was a lousy owner because KOC made bad draft picks?

[SpiffCoug]

KOC has been a poor GM, but LHM was giving bad contracts to players who didn't deserve what they paid. Part of that is the problem of doing business in Utah. Your "average" NBA player (single, mid-to-late 20s, African-American, male) is going to fit in better in myriad NBA cities before SLC, so you have to overpay them. And then by overpaying them, you limit your ability to sign other quality players. There's a reason the Jazz seem to have more success hanging on to foreign and white players.

Jazz are in a tough spot and their recent ownership decisions are easy to question whether they want to make money (the business side of the equation) or win championships (the reason the fans follow teams).

[Mars]

I'll be honest, I don't want the Jazz to pick Jimmer. I would hate to see him mismanaged that badly.

Ditto. I think he'd be great with the Suns or the Clippers.

[Brayden Green]

Ditto to Spiff. You can't say the Jazz have been great in the "contracts" or "free agent" market in the last 5-10 years.

They are just following the "Dodger" remedy to non-sucess. Pick up older players and pay them way too much. Only they have extended that to guys that don't have a lot of talent or intangibles, but "try real hard." (Harpring, Millsap)

[SpiffCoug]

I do hope the Jazz are sending a big thank you to BYU bball and Real Salt Lake. With Jimmermania and RSL playing as well as they are (I know it's soccer, but they're doing the unprecedented and are getting good coverage) they're taking away a lot of attention that could have been focused on the Jazz, their implosion and dysfunction.

[YBrit]

More importantly, can we get jazz tweets taken off in the box to the right? Those drive me crazy.

[hawkwing]

More importantly, can we get jazz tweets taken off in the box to the right? Those drive me crazy.

The problem is that the same reporters who cover the Cougars cover the Jazz too.