The Deron Williams Debacle and jazz blog round-up

Despite the fact that the Harpring Sucks writing staff has long been relatively in ageement with one another on how we feel about most issues facing the Jazz (i.e. Harpring Sucks, Sloan is borderline senile, Boozer's forehead acne is funny, etc.) we are finally facing a major area where there's a substantial amount of disagreement: Is Deron Williams a good point guard?

I know, for the Jazz faithful the fact that this is even questioned is shocking and bordering on blasphemous. Despite this our own tatermoog and Capt. Sig are taking a run at the "contrarian of the year" award by arguing that he's a "chucker" and is always looking for his own shot first. As Sig argued while letting out the sails to puff himself up, "he's a great player, just not a good point guard." The arguments I've heard against Deron are as follows:

Claim 1. "When he hasn't shot on offense 3 or 4 times in a row, you can just tell he's going to put it up."

Status: True, at least on average.

Deron Williams takes 16.8 shots per game for the jazz this season and plays slightly more than 75% of the game. The Jazz as a team take 83.5 shots per game, which means (assuming pace of the game is constant when Williams is in and when he is out of the game) that Williams is on court for an average of 64 offensive possessions that end in a field goal attempt. This means Deron is taking one shot for every 3.8 shots attempted by the Jazz while he is on the floor. That does seem like a staggeringly high percentage of shots taken for a point guard. By comparison, the Utah Jazz gold standard for point guards, John Stockton, took one shot for every 5.2 shots on the floor in the year in which he attempted the most field goals. The first year the Jazz made the NBA finals, Stockton took one shot for every 6. In both those seasons Stockton's field goal percentage was above 50% and consequently comparable to Deron's current shooting percentage, nullifying any argument centering around the notion that "Deron should shoot because he's hitting them."

Claim 2. "He's a chucker, takes way too many shots and isn't looking to pass."

Status: False

Deron's FGA/A (1.8) ratio is very comparable to other elite NBA point guards like Steve Nash (1.89), Baron Davis (1.72), Chauncy Billups (1.78) and substantially better than a number of guards such as Tony Parker or Gilbert Arenas. The only guards who have noticably much lower FGA/A ratios are Chris Paul and Jason Kidd. Saying "he's not one of the top two" isn't exactly a damning argument against Deron.

Claim 3. Capt. Sig. made the claim "I know he's not a good point guard because I've been watching basketball for 35 years."

Status: Ridiculous.

Sounds a lot like "I know Harpring is a good player because I appreciate good basketball" to me. If I ever have children I'm going to fine them allowance money if they ever say something as unsupportable as that. For making such an argument I award Capt. Sig. one whammy.

Needless to say, I think tater and the pearl are trying too hard. Deron shoots a lot but he distributes enough and shoots at a high enough percentage that it doesn't seem to indicate he's affirmative hurting the team. Maybe in 3 to 5 months Capt. Sig. will write an article defending his position, he should be due to write something by then.

Old News: Annie Whittaker bemoans the fact that travelling isn't called often enough in the NBA. Next she'll be telling us about this new fangled contraption called the three point line (which actually would be news to Jerry Sloan's defensive schemes) and informing us that you're allowed to draft black players now.

Bad Math: Laurie Nyland blames the Jazz loss to the Rockets on the Jazz missing nine free throws. Of course the Jazz lost by 11. Must have taken math from Jackie Corbridge.

All-Star game bashing, already?: Cameron Hansen argues that the All-Star game features low quality play. You mean players don't play hard when the game doesn't count? I'm stunned. Next he'll be telling us that players sometimes don't try their hardest on losing teams that are out of contention or in pre-season games. I know that in school I've always tried my hardest on ungraded assignments.

On the positive side, he includes this classic picture where Carlos Boozer reveals a strong affinity for Miami Vice. Harpring Sucks' crack investigative team is currently attempting to determine if he was Crockett or Tubbs for Halloween.

Blatant attempt for the "awwww factor": Not content with relying on 4th and 6th graders to provide meaninglessly cute moments, Jazzbots is now openly soliciting pictures of babies to be put on the site each week. Harpring Sucks anxiously awaits the announcement that the team is seeking picutres of ultrasounds.

Overcompensating much?: After the first Jazz loss, Jazzbots suddenly got a new writer: the director of marketing. His message: "Don't panic! It's only one loss." Just imagine what will happen if the Jazz actually start losing lots of games. With that kind of focus on keeping the public confident in the team, Larry Miller might start making Boozer and Kirilenko start selling tickets door to door like girl scouts.

An unrelated football aside: I've never actually been much of a football fan but it was a lot of fun watching the Patriots-Colts game yesterday with a crowd of law students that were generally very anti-Patriots. The most common complaints seemed to be of the "Brady's hair looks too perfect," "I'm so angry Brady sleeps with supermodels," "He keeps throwing to Randy Moss, that's not even fair," and "They're so arrogant" ilk. The Madame and I gleefully staked out our position as rooting for the Patriots on the basis that everyone had cast the game as a battle of good vs. evil and it's always more fun rooting for evil. We were disappointed in only three things.

#1. They really need to have an option for broadcasts where you can do a picture-in-picture screen with a camera that only focuses on Bill Bellichick. His reactions to every play that doesn't go perfectly are priceless. I estimate that I would pay upwards of $50 personally for this feature every year.

#2. Stephen Jackson should have played football. In a sport where routine tackles lead to a "scream, flex, dance, and kiss bicep" routine, I can only imagine what sort of trouble a guy like Jackson could get up to. Furthermore, the Madame and I want the touchdown dance tradition to be transferred to baseball. I won't be satisfied until there's a dance so elaborate that a home-run trot takes at least 3 minutes.

#3. When did Bellichick start dressing respectably? He looked like one of my father's engineering firm friends in his pressed polo. Besides the fact that Bellichick's classic look should never be modified, because who doesn't love this look?,

any time Bellicheck wears something nice it needs to be horribly wrinkled. As a future rule, any polo worn by Bellicheck should be at the bottom of his closet for a minimum of one month.

Non-Sequitur Blogoetry: I challenge anyone to decode or make sense of this poem. I'll even offer a prize. If you can advance any potential meaning of this poem, tatermoog will come to your house and cook you dinner.

Needed updates: Our sister site Retire Sloan updated....oh wait, that was in June.

Bill Simmons' Inconsistent on Jazz predictions: Basketball John points out that Bill Simmons has given contradictory positions on the Jazz fate for the current season. Next he'll be telling us that he overrates Boston players and teams. While Simmons is entertaining I don't think anyone would accuse him of being horribly consistent in his opinions. The number of times he flipped on Drew Bledsoe has been truly incredible.

Back on Thursday with a discussion of the issues facing our times: Rosie O'Donnell reportedly joining MSNBC and the decline of the Price is Right.