Sorry it's been a while since my last post. Baseball is back into full swing and things are right where they should be. The Mariners suck. Again. I am sitting at work staring at my White Sox calender wondering if my childhood love is finally fading. Even though the Sox are 3 games below .500 I find myself drifting towards that team more and more. I digress, let's talk about what everyone really wants to talk about, the Utah Jazz reaching back into history again.
Karl Malone has just signed on to join another former Jazzman Tyrone Corbin in coaching the young Jazz team. He actually signs on to be a part time "big man" coach. He fills a severe need much like recently departed former Jazzman Jeff "Horny" Hornecek (congrats at the head coaching gig Horny, hope you don't beat the Jazz) did with AK47 before become a full time assistant when the Legend stepped into retirement. If nothing else, this is a great sound bite machine. Karl, err, Coach Malone will most assuredly give us wonderful tidbits after each game he is at, which seems to be most home games. I just hope he doesn't confuse Enes Kanter (I had to do that, sorry...) with his Louisiana sayings. However, he has said some incredible things in the past. "Forget technique. Hit the guy across from you. Don't let somebody come in your space." That's the mentality that these young kids need. Even if Isiah Thomas still flinches when he hears Malone coming. Derrick Favors needs some aggression and some nasty that Malone can bring. I also hope that the Jazz can talk Paul Milsap into staying on board as a 6th man just to stay with fellow Lousianan Malone. Think of the nasty picks Kanter could throw and how hard Favors could roll to the basket. I'm drooling to think that this could happen. If this works, this could work really well.
There are some major pit falls though. Malone wants to be the center of attention. Larry H. Miller once said "He's a huge pain in the ass. But he's our pain in the ass." Will the organization put up with him being a pain in the ass when he is not directly putting up 28 ppg and 12 rebounds? What if he and coach Corbin have a falling out over a coaching decision? It won't be quite. Malone will tell the media that he wants the game plan to be an inside out, pick and roll game. Let's face it, because of his history, the media will flock to him first anyway. I would. What if he sees something on the court from Favors or Kanter that he sees as quiting? Yikes. What if he sees the off season routine of these guys and freaks out at them saying "When I was your age". Hell, what if Favors gets injured for 10 games? Malone would be all over him in the media for not preparing hard enough. Until the 1 year Lakers stint where he missed half the season with a knee injury, Coach Malone (that just sounds funny) missed more games due to suspension than injury.
Can you imagine if we can talk the stoic and recluse John Stockton into getting on the bench next to Ty? Man, that would look good. John and Karl on the bench with Ty. It would remind Jazz fans of my generation of why the fell in love with the team in the first place. I'm sure that Mark Eaton could take some time away from his restaurant and Thurl Bailey could come downstairs for a pick up game of Jazz legends vs. Jazz newbies. Wow, I just thought of this, we could field a larger team of Jazz legends that are here often enough than guys on the current roster. Yikes.
Do I think this is a saving grace for Coach Corbin? I don't know, but I think it's more of a blow up potential than anything else. All in all, I think the Jazz will suffer another sub-par year, and Coach Corbin goes the way of the Milk Man and disappears. Who would I like to see coach? I'm not sure, but I don't want to see another Jazz team that lacks an identity offensively and doesn't show the typical nasty I'm used to seeing in a Jazz team. Malone will bring that nasty back, in more ways than one.
P.S. sorry I got a little link happy, but some of them were pretty fun to look up.
