nothing left to say

i guess DHC isn't really that punk rock. but their song came on shuffle this morning and it got me thinking. plus it gave me the opportunity to put deron's face on this classic image of a chubby bunny/rude girl that's been surfing atop google's "skanking" image results for around a decade now. note the horror of the onlookers - it's not unlike what my expression has been since that january loss to the wizards.

almost a week has passed since sloan and johnson called it quits; 49 hours from the time i start writing this will mark the week exactly. i've been reading lots of good blogs from other jazz fans in the interim, including a great thought-provoker from jazzbot shauna brock and a walk down memory lane from utah jazz 360's paul silotti.

if i had to pick out a single trend of fan reactions from the last day or two, it would be one of resignation. the shock of last thursday has worn off. the hope of a corbin-coached jazz blowing out steve nash and the suns on friday night was shattered. even the dreams of watching the jazz pull it together for the final 20-something games of the regular season and make a run at home court advantage in the first round is getting pretty distant as more and more players get (or stay) injured.

so what is left to say? it's safe to assume that those of us who care enough about our egos the jazz to blog, tweet, and talk about the team all day aren't going to be content with shutting up as the season enters that weird few weeks between the all-star game and final playoff-position jockeying. given that us amateur writers don't have access to shootaround interviews or halftime insights in the tunnel/locker room like the professional* infotainers do, we're left to pick up the pieces until the middle of march.

i haven't been enormously successful at keeping a consistent theme through my posts since i started doing this back in november. but i think i've got an idea to carry this blog through until the jazz start winning in a way that suggests they're a contender to reach the western conference finals.

i don't want to get hung up on retrospectives. i don't want to pretend i know how to break down numerical data in a way that illustrates the jazz's chances to win this or lose that. what i want, and what i know, is that the most exciting thing to watch within the jazz organization is going to be who is stepping up during this rift in leadership and status; everybody could be doing more.

obviously, most eyes are (and should be) fixed on d-will and coach ty.

my focus, for the remainder of the season, is going to be on who is getting after guys that are slow moving around screens. who is still working while deron's being interviewed after practices. who is fiery during timeouts, who is hustling to get back on D, who is crashing boards, who is sprinting on fast breaks.

this should be pretty easy to catch on individual plays, and if i can manage to keep a notepad on me while i'm watching games at home (instead of a handle of dewar's), it should only take a week or two (well, three, given that all-star weekend looms) to determine who is proving they want to remain relevant in the NBA, if not with the jazz brass.

after all, there's not much left to say about jerry that hasn't already been said. there's not much left to ponder regarding the jazz's future that hasn't been hashed over in excruciating detail, either. the only thing left to talk about is what's happening now.

isn't that the only thing that really matters, anyway?


*to me, a "profession" includes some sort of self-regulating ethics body. given that deron has been pretty insistent on the press making up a lot of the "rumors" surrounding his relationship with sloan, i've got to assume that there was at least some inflating of truths going on last week, if not flat-out lies. given that the guys in the locker room after the game seem to have the same standards of accuracy as publications like the national enquirer and l. ron hubbard, i'm growing hesitant to continue calling reporters "professionals." in particular, the newspaper day-to-day coverage guys seem to be presenting impressions and conclusions as facts; i do still have enormous respect for the bulk of the jazz's TV and radio coverage, whether official or not.