The Season Can Start

The leaves have changed color, the air is crisp and cool, and the SLTrib has thrown out another article telling the reader how crucial Matt Harpring will be to the team's success. Yep, time for the season to get going.

Harpring's experience needed more than ever

Nice title, eh? And in fact, I'm inclined to agree. Now that his knee explodes like a party favor every time he takes more than two steps, I would suspect his experience is one of the only things he has to contribute.

Even with the playoff experience from a year ago, the Utah Jazz are still a fairly young team, which makes Matt Harpring and his creaky knees that much more important to the team's success.

Nothing like adding three modifiers to a sentence that undermine your first point: "even with the playoff experience from a year ago," "fairly young," and "creaky knees." Though, to be fair, I guess "Matt Harpring" works, too.

Whether he is playing or not, Harpring is recognized as being Utah's steadying force in recent seasons. Now that Derek Fisher is gone, and the team's two key players in Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams are still growing into their roles, Harpring's presence on the team is viewed as more important than ever.

Whether he is playing or not? Seriously? I need to dig up some of those post-game interviews from when Harpring was injured and fine where Deron claims, "We were struggling out there on the court, but I felt as if a presence lifted me and the team, and we did soar like eagles. Surely, this was the work of Matt Harpring's steadying influence." And I find it hard to believe that the team's "steadying influence" is a guy that can't stay on his feet for more than a minute and a half at a time.

And I agree, the team will miss Derek Fisher's steadying influence. Nothing like a guy that shoots around 40%, gets lit up by opposing SGs, and once blew a 3-on-0 fast break in a crucial playoff game to steady a team. I guess he did bring his suck with consistency.

"If you look at all the teams that have been successful in this league, the most successful are the ones with guys who are 30 years old," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "He is one of the few for us who has been through some tough games and experience. He gives us great minutes off the bench, and I'm sure there are times he'd like to play more, but he doesn't complain and he knows his role."

Oh dear. Where to begin.

First, Coach Sloan, I'd like to propose that the thirty-year-old rule is somewhat skewed by the fact that those 30+-year-olds have tended to be Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal. I know, I know, they're grizzled veterans and all, but I think a minimal amount of research might show those players had a good deal of success before turning 30.

Then again, that All-Star Lakers lineup of Malone/Shaq/Kobe/Payton would probably prove me wrong. All kinds of grizzled leadership on that team. Too bad they were defeated by the Detroit Pistons, who ran out:

Chauncey Billups, age 27
Rip Hamilton, age 26
Rasheed Wallace, age 29
Tayshaun Prince, age 24
Ben Wallace, age 29

Huh. That doesn't make sense. Perhaps, just perhaps, the success of teams has less to do with veteran leadership and age than, oh, talent?

Of course, good ole Jerry didn't stop there. What in Pleiades does "He is one of the few for us who has been through some tough games and experience" mean? Have the rest of the team not been through those tough games? Haven't AK and Collins been through pretty much all of those tough games "for us" too? After all, AK's been around longer with the Jazz than Harp (I wonder if the SLTrib writers even realize that). And how is he one of the few that has "been through...experience"? I don't even know what that means, so I can't even attack it. Of course, that has been an approach often taken by Jerry in past years.

He doesn't complain, and he doesn't say much about anything else either. Harpring prefers to let other teammates be the vocal leaders, handle the media interviews or create controversy. He prefers to show up and simply play basketball, and play it hard.

First "Harpring plays hard" media reference for the year: check.
First "he's a great leader though he doesn't lead" argument: check.
First "he doesn't complain" though he's been the point man in whining about players not passing him the ball for years: check.

"The coach is there to coach, and if I see something on the court, obviously I'll say something, but I'm not one to just talk to talk," Harpring said. "For me, to play at the level of play I want to play at, I need to stay on my own focus. Besides, you can get caught into a lot of trash talk too if you're out there talking."

I hope the younger players are learning from the experience Harpring has gone through. First, leave everything to the coach. That way, there's no negative repercussion from other players or the coaching staff. Second, to play at a high level, keep your own focus, don't worry about a team. Third, make bizarre non-sequitirs about trash-talking when the question is obviously about talking to your own players. Fourth, get articles written about how the preceding three in combination make you the team leader.

Harpring developed his quiet style by following the veterans at Georgia Tech and then in the pros as a rookie.
"I always respected the ones that didn't just say stuff," he said. "They said stuff when they needed to but weren't yapping all the time. As a young player, when you look at guys you want to emulate and respect, you look at the ones who work hard, and when they say something, it's meaningful. That is how I approached it too."

First "Harpring Self-Referential Works Hard Comment": check.

Have to say, he sure is a coherent talker. "I always respected the ones that didn't just say stuff." How true, Matt. How true.

Sloan considers Harpring valuable for two areas - his immediate impact on the court and his impact he has on the younger players in the Jazz organization. Second-year forward Paul Millsap said he studied and tried to make the same kinds of cuts and screens Harpring did.
"You learn from watching the way he is aggressive, and it makes you want to go out there and do the same thing," Millsap said. "Last year I was grouped together with him as one of the bangers, and that was good, it's a good role. It says you are out there being aggressive."

Well, Paul, don't get too caught up. For one thing, you were grouped as a banger because you also did something we called "playing defense." You see, it's possible to be aggressive in ways other than "cutting and screening so someone will give me the damned ball." But then again, if preseason is any indication, Millsap's learning his lessons from Harp. I think all of his assists came from accidentally dropping the ball in the direction of a teammate.

Harpring averaged 11.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 25.5 minutes last year. But more important than the stats he brings is his solid, consistent play.

Which, arguably, would be reflected in those stats.

*smacks forehead*

And as far as consistency goes, Harpring's month-by-month splits from last season in FG%:

.440/.487/.506/.481/.451/.586

Nice and even contribution.

"He is the banger," teammate Andrei Kirilenko said. "He can shoot too, but he fights hard on the floor and is a great quality banger, always aggressive and always puts pressure on the offense. Even though he doesn't score all the time, he is around the basket and being aggressive to the basket. In the NBA you need those kinds of players."

Translated: "GET ME OUT OF HERE *sob*"

Really, though, this is a straightforward little quote, though I do love, "Even though he doesn't score all the time..."

How much banging he'll be available to do still is questionable, as he sat out the preseason games because the recuperation from offseason knee surgery has gone slower than expected.

I guess someone could always ask Mrs. Harpring how much banging they expect him to do in the next few weeks, if she's not busy helping some other pregnant mother have a traumatic birth experience.

And, of course, no one in SL seems to want to ask why Harpring chose right at the end of the off-season to have his surgeries (and yes, it's plural).

Harpring, who had knee surgery before the 2005-06 season too, knows it's easier to push a defender around the court than rush his return.
"Hopefully I can come back sooner rather than later," he said. "I don't think it will hurt me much once I'm back. The biggest thing is getting my strength up so I can do what I like to do."

Yes, Harpring knows all about pushing defenders around the court. He also knows all about being the defender pushed around the court. But, jeez, there's a wealth of information in that last quote. I'll try and provide a brief explanation for each chunk.

"Hopefully I can come back sooner rather than later": Harpring would prefer to return to the team early, not late. This counters those that thought he didn't want to return until the end of the season.

"I don't think it will hurt me much once I'm back": Once his knee is healed to the point that he can play, he expects it won't hurt to the point he can't play.

"The biggest thing is getting my strength up so I can do what I like to do": This one's a bit complicated. First, he has to get his strength back "up" so his knee won't blow out like an old set of tires. Second, he want to do so because he would like to do whatever it is he likes to do. Though that is yet unclear, I expect it involves jogging halfheartedly downcourt on defense after blowing a layup, transitioning to a full-blown shuffle when he realizes his "man" has the ball open from 15 feet, pinwheeling his arms and falling down 10 feet shy of the player as he shoots the ball, not boxing out as he leaps to his feet and sprints to his basket, standing under the basket yelling "woo!" as the other players scramble for the rebound, giving whichever player has the ball the stinkeye when they don't throw him the full-court pass, prancing around the basket while slipping screens and posting up, "woo"ing until given the ball, blowing the open layup, and then giving the stinkeye, again, to whoever threw him the ball.

Get well soon, Matt. We need you.