BDL's 2010-11 Season Previews: Utah Jazz

Last year's record? 53-29, lost in the second round to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Significant departures? Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Omer Asik, Taj Gibson, Bill Wennington. Wes Matthews.

Significant arrivals? Al Jefferson, Francisco Elson, Raja Bell, Gordon Hayward.

Projected record, as predicted three months ago in time to publish in Yahoo! Sports' NBA Preview Magazine? 52-30

Why I think that sounds about right?

Because the Jazz have already ticked off the two boxes that franchises sometimes go decades without being able to tick off. They've got a 20-and-10 big man, and a point guard that can win games by himself.

The rest of the roster isn't insignificant, but with Al Jefferson and Deron Williams on board, this team will have a fighting chance against anyone. In any game, and within any seven game series. All Williams does is nail jumpers, get to the line, and make perfect passes. All Jefferson does is score on either block, and finish with touch. Unless something goes terrifyingly wrong, that's 50 wins right there.

Why I think I might be terribly, terribly wrong?

The talent on this team is too good to assume anything too far removed from winning five games out of eight tries, but the overall rotation isn't strong enough to expect much more.

Andrei Kirilenko's rebirth last season after a few years spent in the wilderness was much appreciated, C.J. Miles seems to have taken in his basketball GED, Gordon Hayward looks like a solid fill-in-the-blanks kid, and they're telling us that Mehmet Okur will return in time to make it to Andrei's Christmas parties, but this still isn't a scintillating-enough rotation to have us wondering about a return to the NBA Finals.

Then again, Jefferson has always destroyed the Lakers ...

Dan Devine's Corner Three

Statrick Ewing

The Jazz finished seventh in the league in three-point shooting last year, making 36.4 percent of their total attempts from deep. That number, of course, was buoyed by the marksmanship of Kyle Korver, who knocked down a blistering 53.6 percent of his long balls to lead the league.

But Korver signed with the Chicago Bulls as a free agent during the offseason. And with Mehmet Okur (a 37.8 percent career three-point shooter) sidelined for the opening weeks of the season while he recovers from surgery to repair a ruptured left Achilles tendon, it's a question worth asking: Who's going to space the floor and hit outside shots?

The Jazz will be looking for a lift from free-agent acquisition Raja Bell, who brings a 41.1 percent career mark from distance to the team's starting shooting guard slot. (As the folks at NBA Graphs noted this morning, though, Raja's looked rough in Utah's first two games.) And as with all things in Utah, the onus will fall on Deron Williams, the team's primary creator and a 36.1 percent career three-point shooter, to take and make big shots when necessary. But beyond Bell and Williams, there's not much in the shooting cupboard -- nobody else on the roster has hit at better than a 34 percent clip for their careers, and rookie Gordon Hayward connected on just 29.4 percent of his threes at Butler last year.

Even with Korver's talents, of course, the Jazz weren't exactly looking to fire as soon as they stepped over half-court. Working Jerry Sloan's vaunted flex offense, Utah had the league's seventh-lowest three-point rate a season ago, hoisting 18.4 threes per 100 shot attempts, and given the roster's current makeup, you'd suspect that he doesn't see much reason to ratchet that number up. But if Bell doesn't find his stroke and Okur stays on the shelf for longer than anticipated, the lack of other floor-spreaders could allow opponents to pack it in, focusing more attention on preventing Williams' penetration and making life more difficult in the paint for talented frontcourt scorers Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap, which could cause problems for Utah's offense.

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Who is that enchantress?

In my many travels, hither and yon, I've never seen the like of her. Those penetrating eyes. Those sculpted cheekbones. That shimmering, flaxen, irresistible hair. I must go to her. I must have her. I must ...

*TWEEEEEEEEET*

"You only get 10 seconds to shoot a free throw, Andrei. Please stop getting lost inside the visual parlor of delights that is your own remarkable hair, which is being transmitted back at you on the Jumbotron."

Oh. I've allowed it to happen again, haven't I? My apologies, Monty McCutcheon.

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Kyrylo Fesenko is trying to get Kyle Korver's sexy movie of the Jazz position: A three-minute reminder

I don't care what he meant or what you all think he meant. He said it, and it's the best, and if you disagree, you can just sit on it. That's right: Sit on it.

Scottie Pippen Willis Reed Oscar Robertson David Robinson Bill Russell