Five burning questions as the Utah Jazz head into training camp
2 HRS AGO - In the marathon of the NBA season, training camp is barely longer than the sound of the starting Expand
2 HRS AGO - In the marathon of the NBA season, training camp is barely longer than the sound of the starting gun.
And yet for the Utah Jazz, camp will draw intrigue thanks to new faces, new roles and a host of new dynamics. The void Gordon Hayward left has been filled — now the Jazz start to find out if it’s for better or for worse.
It’ll take the whole season to find out the answers to some questions. Here’s some that we’ll likely learn about sooner rather than later:
Do the Jazz get contract extensions done for Rodney Hood and/or Dante Exum?
There are compelling reasons for the Jazz to lock both up early. Hood can be an offensive savant at times, able to effortlessly knock home 3-pointers and get to the basket off the dribble. But injuries, inconsistency and confidence issues have plagued him in the past. Exum is less polished, but younger, extremely athletic and has an elite physical profile for an NBA point guard: 6-foot-6 floor leaders don’t come along every day, even at this level.
But Collapse
Examining the Utah Jazz's strengths and weaknesses heading into the 2017-2018 season
2 DAYS AGO - As the Jazz get set to open training camp next week, what will all the offseason moves mean in the Expand
2 DAYS AGO - As the Jazz get set to open training camp next week, what will all the offseason moves mean in the win-loss column this season? Collapse
‘A new musician that is the sum of us,’ Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes, will open 2017-18 JazzSLC series
3 DAYS AGO - There’s an unconscious intimacy that comes with longtime relationships — the teasing of inside Expand
3 DAYS AGO - There’s an unconscious intimacy that comes with longtime relationships — the teasing of inside jokes, completing each other’s sentences, knowing which arguments to avoid.
Of course that connection carries over into music, which raises the prospects of a unique opener for the JazzSLC series this Saturday when piano duo Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes take the stage. It’s not so much the couple dynamic that’s unusual — there was last year’s pairing of chanteuse Stacey Kent and her husband, Jim Tomlinson, or Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, for that matter.
This time, it’s the instruments that make this coupling unique.
Rosnes and Charlap have been playing together since the 1990s, but made it official when they married in 2007.
“When we first played together, the chemistry was there right away,” Charlap says. “It’s mutual respect. But then you have the added intimacy of how much you care about each other. It’s a nice [musical] conversation.”
For the couple, the connection is innate Collapse
Do you know which 16 Utah pro sports teams have won championships?
4 DAYS AGO - While Utah hasn’t won a title on its biggest sports stage — darn that Michael Jordan Expand
4 DAYS AGO - While Utah hasn’t won a title on its biggest sports stage — darn that Michael Jordan — the Beehive... Collapse
Jazz podcast: Are there shades of Hayward in the Rodney Hood extension talks?
4 DAYS AGO - Their top scoring option on the perimeter is both promising and, in some ways, unproven.
He also Expand
4 DAYS AGO - Their top scoring option on the perimeter is both promising and, in some ways, unproven.
He also is eligible for a contract extension.
Sound familiar, Jazz fans?
In our first “Weekly Run” podcast of the season, Tribune reporters Tony Jones and Kyle Goon take a look at Rodney Hood’s upcoming season, his expanded role and the similarities and differences between his contract situation and the one the Jazz faced when Gordon Hayward was negotiating an extension in 2013-14.
Other topics of discussion include: Kevin Durant’s Twitter usage, Ricky Rubio’s Eurobasket and the Vivint Smart Home Arena remodel.
You can listen on iTunes.
Or via SoundCloud: Collapse
Utah Jazz must cut one player before season begins
5 DAYS AGO - The Utah Jazz have 16 players on their roster, but the NBA doesn't allow more than 15. Quin Snyder Expand
5 DAYS AGO - The Utah Jazz have 16 players on their roster, but the NBA doesn't allow more than 15. Quin Snyder has to cut at least one... Collapse
Rudy Gobert’s contract has defensive rating incentive
6 DAYS AGO - Wanna get an idea of how big the analytics movement has gotten in the NBA? Advanced stats are now Expand
6 DAYS AGO - Wanna get an idea of how big the analytics movement has gotten in the NBA? Advanced stats are now being written into player contracts.
According to a recent feature by ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Rudy Gobert’s contract extension with the Utah Jazz, which kicks in this coming season, has a unique incentive written into it. If his defensive rating, the number of points a team allows per 100 possessions when a player is on the floor, is below 100, Gobert will earn an extra $250,000. The Frenchman will also earn bonuses if he is an All-Star, makes an All-Defensive Team, and meets a certain rebounding mark.
For Gobert, who had a career year in 2016-17 en route to All-Defensive First Team honors and an All-NBA Second Team nod, qualifying for the incentive shouldn’t be too much of a problem — he has posted a defensive rating under 100 twice in his career and checked in right on the fringe at 100.6 last season. Utah’s plans to build around him next season should definitely help as well.
H/T Collapse
Utah Jazz assistant Igor Kokoskov leads Slovenia to FIBA Eurobasket championship
6 DAYS AGO - Jazz assistant was the head coach for Slovenia during the 18-day tournament. Slovenia beat Serbia Expand
6 DAYS AGO - Jazz assistant was the head coach for Slovenia during the 18-day tournament. Slovenia beat Serbia 93-85 on Sunday afternoon... Collapse
Utah Jazz: 'Statement' jersey will be gold for upcoming season
9/16/2017 - The rumors are true: The Jazz are going for gold next season. A long-trafficked whisper among fans Expand
9/16/2017 - The rumors are true: The Jazz are going for gold next season. A long-trafficked whisper among fans was finally confirmed for sure on Friday night as Nike and the NBA revealed “Statement” uniforms for all 30 NBA teams — one of four new varieties for each franchise under the terms of the sports outfitter‘s deal with the league.
While Utah’s first two uniforms looked a lot like their last redesign, the new uniform — donned by Rodney Hood — takes a color that hasn’t played much into past Jazz looks and brings it to the forefront: gold. It is Utah’s first-ever uniform with gold as the primary tone, rather than an accent note. Utah’s particular shade of gold is unique to the team throughout the NBA.
Hood, who was in the unveiling in Culver City, Calif., said he liked the look in a statement provided by the Jazz: “They’ll be a nice change from our white and blue uniforms. Our fans are going to be impressed when they see these in person.” The jersey, which was leaked in screenshots for th Collapse
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20 years ago: Utah Jazz hook a big one, re-sign Greg Ostertag
6 HRS AGO - Every Sunday, the Deseret News takes a look back into our archives.
J.P. Gibson, a 7-year-old who signed a 1-day contract with the Utah Jazz in 2014, has experienced a recurrence of leukemia.
2 DAYS AGO - Of all the basketball players who have signed a contract with the Utah Jazz over four decades, Expand
2 DAYS AGO - Of all the basketball players who have signed a contract with the Utah Jazz over four decades, J.P. Gibson is the only one who ever used a purple crayon.
Back in 2014, the then-5-year-old leukemia patient captured the hearts of the organization and its fans when he signed a one-day contract with the Jazz. In the years since, he’s developed relationships with players and team officials who celebrated his gradual recovery and apparent remission earlier this year.
Then in July, a tough blow to stomach: Josh Gibson, J.P.’s dad, told the world through social media that his son was going through another bout with cancer. Another Jazz fan, who had never met the Gibsons before, felt that he had to do something.
“I don’t know why I felt impressed to do this — I’m usually the kind of person who tries to stick to himself,” said Steven C. Diaz, designer who lives in the Salt Lake Valley. “But I saw a need, and I wanted to see if I could help in some way.”
Diaz decided to put his talents to work, Collapse
Rudy Gobert faces full-court press during humorous/hard-hitting Q&A with elementary kids
3 DAYS AGO - Foxboro Elementary students got a chance of a lifetime to ask the Jazz center, in English and Expand
3 DAYS AGO - Foxboro Elementary students got a chance of a lifetime to ask the Jazz center, in English and French, about everything from... Collapse
Utah Jazz to sell 'JP Strong' T-shirts to benefit 'former Jazzman' battling cancer
4 DAYS AGO - The team announced Wednesday that the shirts will be sold online, at the team's store at Vivint Expand
4 DAYS AGO - The team announced Wednesday that the shirts will be sold online, at the team's store at Vivint Arena and during the Jazz's... Collapse
J-Note Unveil & Public Open House
4 DAYS AGO - After more than 25 years as the premier sports and entertainment venue in Salt Lake City, a new Expand
4 DAYS AGO - After more than 25 years as the premier sports and entertainment venue in Salt Lake City, a new era at Vivint Smart Home Arena Collapse
Who is being arrested in Operation Rio Grande? Many have felonies or lengthy records, though few appear to be the promised ‘worst of the worst’
6 DAYS AGO - Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and House Speaker Greg Hughes have used the phrase “worst of the worst” Expand
6 DAYS AGO - Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox and House Speaker Greg Hughes have used the phrase “worst of the worst” to describe people arrested during Operation Rio Grande, portraying them as wolves who prey upon the homeless near Salt Lake City‘s downtown shelter.
But records that The Salt Lake Tribune requested from the Salt Lake County jail show only a handful of those arrested in the operation’s first month are the “dangerous criminals” sometimes described to justify the $67 million crackdown, though the data support officials’ assertion that few have been booked for public nuisance crimes like jaywalking, intoxication or camping.
Of 1,106 bookings as of Sept. 13, only three involved new first-degree felony charges, the most serious in Utah, while one 37-year-old man was booked five times on charges like public intoxication, open container, disorderly conduct and providing false information to police.
A total of 222 bookings involved some level of felony charge, though. And many offenders were Collapse
Utah Jazz closing in on finish line for Vivint Arena renovation
9/16/2017 - The renovation of Vivint Smart Home Arena has entered the final and most difficult phase: The race Expand
9/16/2017 - The renovation of Vivint Smart Home Arena has entered the final and most difficult phase: The race against time.
With less than two weeks before a scheduled Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concert, 500 construction workers through all six levels of the Arena are pulling 18-hour shifts. Every detail is carefully planned, as many work assignments are not only on a specific floor of the arena, but down to the specific room that needs work.
Utah Jazz President Steve Starks acknowledges the pressure of the start date and that there have been a lot of late nights. Starks took The Tribune on a tour Friday morning detailing the $125 million renovation.
Key Dates for Vivint Smart Home ArenaSept. 21: A concert for employees, workers and Jazz players, featuring Rachel PlattenSept. 26: Open houses beginSept. 27: Faith Hill and Tim McGraw concertOct. 2: Jazz preseason opener vs. Sydney KingsOct. 18: Formal opening ceremonyOct. 18: Jazz season opener vs. Denver Nuggets
The arena is still crawling with Collapse
Utah Jazz unveil new gold 'Statement' jersey
9/16/2017 - Jersey was unveiled Friday night at Nike event in Los Angeles along with 'Statement' jerseys for Expand
9/16/2017 - Jersey was unveiled Friday night at Nike event in Los Angeles along with 'Statement' jerseys for the 29 other NBA teams Collapse
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Brad Rock: Dear Rudy, Jazz fans have some questions
23 HRS AGO - Jazz fans have some questions, but the team's center isn't really one of them.
Jazz to Hold Scrimmage at Hill Air Force Base
3 DAYS AGO - The Utah Jazz announced today that they are taking their annual intrasquad scrimmage to a military Expand
3 DAYS AGO - The Utah Jazz announced today that they are taking their annual intrasquad scrimmage to a military base. Collapse
Rudy Gobert gets star reception from French-speaking elementary students
3 DAYS AGO - Nearly 200 children were clamoring for Rudy Gobert before he set foot in Foxboro Elementary Expand
3 DAYS AGO - Nearly 200 children were clamoring for Rudy Gobert before he set foot in Foxboro Elementary School, chanting his name. He smiled as he ducked his towering frame in the door, causing the crowd sitting in the cafeteria to erupt.
The 7-foot-1 Jazz center was also excited that for half of his visit, he got to speak in his native tongue.
Gobert answered questions for two groups of children at the North Salt Lake elementary school on Wednesday afternoon — including one session for French immersion students who asked questions in French. Sitting back in a chair, Gobert looked comfortable conversing in his first language, fielding questions from when he started playing basketball (three years old) to his favorite movie (Space Jam). Many nerve-wracked students only managed to ask him how tall he is, or how old he was.
“I’m still 25,” he said cooly when one asked him his age for the umpteenth time, never losing his patience.
“It’s always fun,” he said afterward. “It just makes me remember when Collapse
Proceeds from JP Strong to Benefit Gibsons
4 DAYS AGO - A special edition “JP Strong” T-shirt is available online and will be featured at a Utah Jazz Expand
4 DAYS AGO - A special edition “JP Strong” T-shirt is available online and will be featured at a Utah Jazz preseason game to benefit the fa Collapse
Atlantic Division offseason review
4 DAYS AGO - Boston Celtics
Additions: Kadeem Allen, Aron Baynes, Jabari Bird, Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Expand
4 DAYS AGO - Boston Celtics
Additions: Kadeem Allen, Aron Baynes, Jabari Bird, Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Shane Larkin, Marcus Morris, Abdel Nader, Semi Ojeleye, Jayson Tatum, Daniel Theis, Guerschon Yabusele
Subtractions: Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Gerald Green, Demetrius Jackson, Jonas Jerebko, Amir Johnson, Jordan Mickey, Kelly Olynyk, Isaiah Thomas, James Young, Tyler Zeller
2016-17 Cap Space: None. Over Salary Floor. Under Luxury Tax.
2017-18 Maximum Cap Space: $1.4 million
Analysis: After finishing first in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and reaching the Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics took the logical course of blowing up the roster. Wait…what? You read that right. Boston will return just four players from the squad that won 53 games last year. Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier make up the returnees. A good deal of roster turnover was expected, as the Celtics primary offseason goal was to land Gordon Hayward in free agency. In order to do so, Collapse
Rock On: The real Rudy Gobert; GameDay going to ... New York?
5 DAYS AGO - Also, putting a name on BYU's loss to Wisconsin.
Boris Diaw opens up about decision to leave NBA for France
6 DAYS AGO - Boris Diaw surprised many this offseason by leaving the NBA to return to his native France, and Expand
6 DAYS AGO - Boris Diaw surprised many this offseason by leaving the NBA to return to his native France, and now he’s opening up about the decision.
Diaw released a video this weekend explaining his exit from the Association.
“I found it very motivating to take part in a project such as this one within a French basketball club,” said Diaw, per Jack Maloney of CBS Sports. “This decision wasn’t about the money, it was about joining a club that could benefit from my presence, where I could help guide and teach the young players.”
The 35-year-old Diaw signed a deal with French team Paris-Levallois after his contract with the Utah Jazz expired this summer. He is a high-IQ player who can pass, dribble, and score, and that’s a skillset that will never go out of style in the NBA. In truth, this may not be the last we’ve seen of Diaw in the league. Collapse
Nike and NBA Introduce First Connected Jersey
9/16/2017 - Ushering in a radical evolution of the fan experience, NIKE, Inc.
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