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Stephen A. isn't sold on the Jazz being a real threat to the Lakers | First Take

The things that could happen between now and the playoffs are truly a worry.

There's talk about:

* Bradley Beal and Rajon Rondo joining the Lakers.
* Andre Drummond joining the Nets.

So, the Jazz are playing great but having really proven anything yet is actually a healthy attitude. I'm glad the big media are around to help our players keep that chip on their shoulder.
 
Joncolton said:
The things that could happen between now and the playoffs are truly a worry.

There's talk about:

* Bradley Beal and Rajon Rondo joining the Lakers.
* Andre Drummond joining the Nets.

So, the Jazz are playing great but having really proven anything yet is actually a healthy attitude. I'm glad the big media are around to help our players keep that chip on their shoulder.
Click to expand...

What assets exactly do the Lakers have to get Beal? Zero chance of happening.
 
I’m not exactly convinced that the Jazz are going to waltz to a championship this year, either, but I have to say that lending Stephen A. Smith, Lebron James’ personal hype man, any credibility is not something I am prepared to do.
 
I'm not a fan of Stephen A. but I don't take issue. The Playoffs are what matter. If we're not in the WCF I see it as an underachievement.

In some stats we're great: We're 6th in scoring and 2nd in points allowed. We're 4th in 3pt% and 6th best in opponent 3 pt %.

13th in FG% and 2nd in opponent's FG%.

What needs improvement: dead last in opponent turnovers and 21st in team turnovers.
 
Guis, we’re missing the mark here. It’s not about him not thinking we can get past LA. He laid out a number of arguments that many of us here have. It’s that he’s talking about us maybe getting into the conference semi-finals. We were a literal inch on a buzzer shot from going to the semis without our second leading scorer and we’ve now added Favors back, we’re finally playing to our potential, and we’re in first place with some really wonky/historical stats.

Yeah, we could flame out in the first round. But he’s talking like hitting the semis is our ceiling.
 
infection said:
Guis, we’re missing the mark here. It’s not about him not thinking we can get past LA. He laid out a number of arguments that many of us here have. It’s that he’s talking about us maybe getting into the conference semi-finals. We were a literal inch on a buzzer shot from going to the semis without our second leading scorer and we’ve now added Favors back, we’re finally playing to our potential, and we’re in first place with some really wonky/historical stats.

Yeah, we could flame out in the first round. But he’s talking like hitting the semis is our ceiling.
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I think he's more talking about like our ceiling COULD be the semis, but not flat out saying that's as far as we go. Again I think it's a fair take thinking we just won't have the playoff fire power to overcome Lebron and/or Kawhi
 
I am a complete homer, and I have trouble believing that we're going to sustain this level of excellence over the rest of the season. If we played a 7 game series against the Lakers right now, we would smoke them completely. But the season has a ways to go.

The good news is, the Lakers are the oldest team in the league, at an average age of 29.2 years old. While the Jazz are... well, older than I thought, at 27.2 years old. But that can make a big difference down the stretch. Especially when you consider the age of the big 2 on each team, Rudy (28) & Donovan (24) vs Lebron (36) & Davis (27).
 
Man, the single fact that the Jazz has to feature on this show is something else

We know they'll not know much of what they're talking about, as they may be worse at recognize who even actually are our players than Boler, but they have to talk about us.
 
kabenac said:
I'm not a fan of Stephen A. but I don't take issue. The Playoffs are what matter. If we're not in the WCF I see it as an underachievement.

In some stats we're great: We're 6th in scoring and 2nd in points allowed. We're 4th in 3pt% and 6th best in opponent 3 pt %.

13th in FG% and 2nd in opponent's FG%.

What needs improvement: dead last in opponent turnovers and 21st in team turnovers.
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We need to turn the ball over less for sure. I don't care at all about the opponent turnovers though. If our defense is good it's good. No reason to gamble on turnovers more if we play good team defense.
 
That's okay. I'm not sold on Stephen A. being anything more than a loud mouth, among other things.
 
I have a Lakers friend who loves to hate on the Jazz. Beat Bucks without Holiday. Beat 76ers without Embiid. Will play Clips without Kawhi. After he watched a few Jazz games (probably to give him research to hate more) he said he did not know the Jazz were so fun to watch.
All I know is the Jazz are beating all the teams we are supposed to beat even if Spida is concussed. Or Conley is hammy. The team is deep and built for the modern NBA. This team reminds you of the GSW before KD came. Sure Mitchell is not Curry but we are far deeper than them.
 
Ron Mexico said:
We need to turn the ball over less for sure. I don't care at all about the opponent turnovers though. If our defense is good it's good. No reason to gamble on turnovers more if we play good team defense.
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Playing positional defense and running people off the three point line will not generally generate a lot of turnovers. It does, however, generate a lot of bad shots which work almost as well.
 
It's obvious why everyone's not sold about the Jazz not being the best in the west. They just haven't proved themselves in the playoffs yet. I too am not sold. The regular season and the playoffs are two separate things. The Fakers proved themselves and are currently the nba champs while the Jazz, well I just hope they're not pretenders again this year. At least make it to the western finals for god damn sake! It irritates and frustrates me that the Nuggets and Trailblazers accomplish this recently and the Pretenders, I mean Jazz haven't got near that.
 
I'm not sold on Stephen A being a legit journalist or analyst.

Guy's a total hack. His opinions are baseless hot takes based on 1-2 little nuggets that he Googles before going on-air and it takes him 15 minutes to say what others can say in 15 seconds.

That said, I'm not sold on the Jazz as title contenders/favorites either. Lol.
 
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