Morning Jazz 05-14-14

There was some good stuff on the web yesterday regarding the Utah Jazz, that was sure to fill your appetite. If you missed any of that content, or even if you want to read it again, you can find it all here in one place. Check below for today’s edition of the “Morning Jazz”.

Utah Jazz: Free agent fits (via The J Notes)

The Utah Jazz will need some quality veterans and 3-point shooters to help fill out the teams roster for the 2014-15 season. Here is a list of a few guys I think the Utah Jazz will look at it in the upcoming month(s).

Restricted Free Agents:

*The Jazz could throw some money at these guys to see if the home town team will match.

Mike Scott: Similar to what Portland did to Utah with Wesley Matthews, the Jazz could do to the Hawks with Mike Scott. Mike is a great three point shooter and has a lot of upside after just one year in the league. (Continue reading here)

NBA releases OFFICIAL NBA draft combine list (via The J Notes)

Some fans were a little bit upset on Sunday when they found out that some of the top prospects in the upcoming NBA draft were not going to participate in the upcoming NBA draft combine. Those names included Jabari Parker from Duke, Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins, both from Kansas. On Monday, the NBA released it’s full official list of the prospects who will be participating in the upcoming combine.

A few more names that won’t be at the combine include Adreian Payne, the big man from Michigan State who has been diagnosed with mono, and Michigan’s Mitch McGary won’t be there due to his back not being 100% yet. (Continue reading here)

Utah Jazz will get close look at prospects at combine (via Salt Lake Tribune)

They’re at the top of every NBA Draft list, except for one.

The college basketball stars expected to be taken with the first three picks this June have removed their names from the list of participants at this week’s pre-draft combine in Chicago.

That means the Jazz won’t get Jabari Parker’s measurements.

They won’t get to examine Joel Embiid’s back.

They won’t get to sit down and interview Andrew Wiggins.

But general manager Dennis Lindsey says that shouldn’t leave the franchise with a draft-day blind spot as front office leaders prepare for one of the biggest drafts in team history.

“We’ve been building a profile on all the best players over multiple years,” he said, “in anticipation of things happening and not being able to get guys in for workouts or them not showing up in Chicago.” (Continue reading here)

Utah Jazz unveil downtown Salt Lake City community art mural (via Salt Lake Tribune)

The Utah Jazz and AT&T unveiled a community mural Tuesday on the exterior of the Artspace Bridge Projects in downtown Salt Lake City.

The 12-by-5-foot mural, titled “All Hands In! Together We Can Make a Change,” includes more than 200 ceramic tiles created by local residents and youth from The Road Home shelter, with an assist from Jazz forward and artist Jeremy Evans.

Art Access, a nonprofit organization that offers arts programming for Utahns with disabilities and those with limited access to art, helped with the project and received a $10,000 donation through the Jazz and AT&T’s “Assisting the Community” program. (Continue reading here)

Becoming a head coach (via Utah Jazz)

What does someone need to be a head coach? If someone says he is ready to be a head coach, what does that mean? Over the last few weeks, I have identified 42 successful current and former NBA head coaches.

These 42 coaches have each been a head coach sometime in the last 30 years. Almost all of them have won at least half of their games and won more than 200 games. The exceptions are those coaches who are still too early in their careers or those who quit too early (e.g. Larry Bird, Danny Ainge) to have won 200 games. In addition, I included Bill Fitch and Dick Motta—both of whom won less than half their games but also won more than 900 games.

Each of these coaches, with the possible exception of Jerry Sloan, were successful in his first stop as a NBA head coach.

Looking at the path of these 42 coaches, who on average won 58 percent of their games and nearly 600 in their careers … (Continue reading here)

Burke gives Jazz fans a taste of the future (via Utah Jazz)

He entered the NBA as the reigning college player of the year, broke his finger during the preseason, and then worked his way back to finish third in the Rookie of the Year voting. Along the way, Trey Burke put together one of the best rookie seasons in Jazz franchise history and, perhaps more importantly, became one of Utah’s most beloved players in recent memory.

How, exactly, did this happen? Let’s go over a few of the reasons.

Great Expectations
The Jazz traded two picks (No. 14 and No. 21) to the Minnesota Timberwolves to move up and select Burke at No. 9 in the 2013 NBA draft.

In his final year at Michigan, Burke won the 2013 John R. Wooden Award and was named the Naismith College Player of the Year. He also guided the Wolverines to the 2013 NCAA championship game.

It was only the second time in franchise history that the Jazz drafted the NCAA Player of the Year (the other was Darrell Griffith in 1980). (Continue reading here)

Be sure to check back with us tomorrow for another edition of the “Morning Jazz”. Also, be sure to browse around and check out our coverage of the NBA Playoffs.