We need to get into a problem. Everyone hates and disrespects the Jazz. You don’t get the same recognition on the Jazz as you would a bigger market team and it’s not fair. I’m going to tell you how I see the Utah Jazz players, why you don’t see them the same way, and what that has done to them and you can’t argue because you know I watch more Jazz basketball than you. This would be consensus for these players and was until they became Utahn. Let’s get into it.
1. KEYONTE GEORGE
How can people not see a superstar’s load of talent? You think he’s gonna stagnate in his third year? Why?!? Let me give you third year SGA stats to show you the comparison. 23.6p 3.7r 6.1a. Does that seem good? Well yeah, it should! That’s the stats from the year Keyonte George just had! Shais was actually 23.7p 4.7r 5.9a. Shais is just a little better still but cmon. You see the resemblance. Keyonte is going to be the jazz’s franchise player and it won’t be close. Top 3 guard in the league in his prime. You guys just see bad defender and that’s not even true. He’s not good but he’s about slightly below average.
2. ACE BAILEY
Ace Bailey was very hyped when he entere the draft. A lot of great buzz around him to be a superstar. He had a great year and suddenly he’s lost his superstar potential and is getting rumored in trades by casuals? How?!? Let me tell you his full story. He was projected to be the consensus third overall pick to the 76ers and talentwise that never changed. Mentality though, that’s a different story. All the sudden we hear he doesn’t want to play for 3 teams. 76ers, Hornets, and Jazz. Well, those three teams had the 3-5 picks in that draft and that’s when we learned, he wanted to go 6 to the wizards. Fast forward a month to draft day, cooper flagg is a mav before the draft starts. Spurs should take Dylan Harper, but they could take ace Bailey at 2. If not, ace slips to 6. Well the draft plays out. Ace slips like he wanted, but not as far as he wanted. At 5 ace gets a phone call that he will officially be a part of Jazz Nation. Now I don’t know how he reacted to this at first but once he got on the stage he was cheesing. I’d never seen someone so happy. Gets his hat and takes the picture and right before the picture, he switches to his game face. Now which part of that entire experience do you think fans talked about? The picture. “Oh, Ace is crying. Ace doesn’t want to be here. They banished Ace to Utah.” Well I may have believed that if it weren’t for the fact that as soon as he got to Utah he fired his agent who tried to push him out! Ace may have wanted to go to Washington at first, and maybe he still does but right now? He’s a proud Utahn. I haven’t even talked about his stats. The entire year, he averaged 13.8 ppg. Post All-Star break he averaged 18.3 ppg. That’s what we call progression. When it’s a Jazz player we ignore progression. When it’s Dylan Harper averaging a whopping 14.1 in the postseason, he’s a superstar. Make it make sense.
3. DARRYN PETERSON
This one is a little different because he hasn’t gotten a chance to be subjected to Utah bias. Or maybe not… why is he getting dubbed DNP? I know the answer to that but here’s one I don’t know. How wasn’t Darryn Peterson all summer league first team?!? Give me one solid reason besides “he was on the Jazz” seriously. I want you to look at today because Darryn Peterson is regarded as a future superstar by most. People watch him play and say how he doesn’t look like a rookie at all. Next year he’s going to put up amazing numbers and he will be regarded as a bust and fs won’t make first team all rookie.
Please understand that this team is a play-in team at worst. Next year we’re even better, in two years we’re a top seed. In three years we’re a legit contender. In 10 years we probably have a title to show for this team. I’ll debate anyone who’s disagrees with any of this.
This took me so long to do and I’ve been working on it since before the miserable Kessler trade. Please be respectful. It’s good to be back. Love you Fanspo!