As Good As It Gets: Utah Jazz Just Excitingly Average at Best

The elephant in the room is so damn big that it's become a stifling misnomer and already just a week into this young NBA season, the radio station is in obvious need of a change.

Change of style. 

Change of tune.

Change of personnel. 

Lost in the midst of playoff exits, free agency hoopla, and the comings-and-goings of annual drafts, the Utah Jazz have just plain lost a step. 

That step that gave way was one of talent. A few years ago, there was a young team that had no sense of identity or demeanor. They had no expectations—no All-Stars. 

The all-mighty buck has trumped the evolution of a roster once boiling-hot with potential and promising outlook. 

There's the cast of usual suspects, nothing familiar to Jazz fans. Somehow, like how befuddling the Twilight saga has been dubbed a respectable progress in film, Utah brought back almost an identical twin of what has been the last three-to-four season in Salt Lake City.

Carlos Boozer is back. Yep, heeeee's baaaack. And he's produced about the same amount of effort as Mehmet Okur's hair stylist. Just kind of messy, all over the place, and a seemingly embarrassing attempt. 

Everyone knows what you get with Boozer and, more importantly, with this team. 

Showing up on game-day is akin to conflicting visits to say, a Taco Bell. The first trip is surprisingly good, those Chalupas seem fresh and coincide quite well with that Mountain Dew you've rightly chosen to drink. 

You think you want to come back. You tell your friends. They don't believe you. You pitch that hard sell with all you've got. 

"This is different, I know what you're thinking, but trust me," you tell them.

As upon a second visit, you leave with a case of runs and a bloated stomach and mind. 

What happened?

Nothing. Precisely.

The Jazz brass have a core of players they think are capable of winning a championship. The Jazz brass is wrong. They couldn't be more wrong. 

Matching Portland's $32 million offer for Paul Millsap left the state and fan base ecstatic. After all, Millsap is what seems to be the vaccine to the Boozer virus that has plagued the franchise ever since his slimy ways became evident last season. 

Okur and Kyle Korver opted to come back, too. Two guys that can shoot the three-pointer, spread the floor and basically have no concept on how to play face-up defense and not foul like they just had their Ferrari stolen. 

So, yeah, the Jazz are 1-3 in a young season. 

Contentment is the word, I'd say.

Content with being just good enough to sell tickets, get a local business to sponsor a first round matchup with, say, the Lakers with all those light blue towels, and watch the Jazz slowly circle the drain in five games to Kobe and Co., yet again. 

To go along with contentment, another popular word this preseason was defense.

Still, the Jazz haven't figured out what it means to play defense, or more even team defense for that matter. 

So far, the Jazz have given up 105.5 points in four games against the Nuggets, Clippers, Rockets and Mavericks. Two of them coming on the EnergySolutions Arena hardwood. 

As absent as the defense has been since Stockton and Malone roamed the court in Utah, the effort has plain crashed-and-burned.

Sure, it's easy to blame Boozer. He's infected the Jazz faithful with "C1B1" and the vaccine is not meeting the proper spectrum of supply-and-demand, but the problems run deeper than Lord Carlos. 

Jerry Sloan has seemed to have lost this team. 

This isn't the '80s, '90s, or even early 2000s. 

These players aren't buying into this tough-guy, play-your-ass-and-brains-off-for-four-straight-quarters mentality. Jerry is Jerry for a reason. He is a basketball genius and is as stubborn as a pissed off rattlesnake. 

He wants what he wants and that's what matters. He wants his players to become dedicated to one another on and off the court and secretly wants to suit up and box the Carl Landry's and Kenyon Martin's right out of the paint for that rebound. 

That's just not how it happens anymore—not for this Jazz team.

And to make the sting worse, if Utah doesn't quickly figure out what kind of team it's going to be in terms of a winning mentality, the most-recognizable face in the state of Utah will soon be hoisting an NBA Trophy with Kobe in Los Angeles, or with Dirk in Dallas. 

Deron Williams is a gamer. Losing is not a word in Williams's vernacular.

He is one of the premier players in the league today and is showing his love for the franchise that took a chance on him by trading up to nab him.

If he wanted to run for governor of the state of Utah, current Gov. Gary Herbert would have to pull off the marketing campaign of a lifetime to defeat "D-Will."

The day will come when the prodigal son will have to turn his back and walk away.

By not unloading Boozer before the season started, Jazz management told their fanbase and players that they are going to play the waiting game and in the meantime sacrifice what could be a successful season for what might be and what might actually never come.

Tyrus Thomas's name surfaced and Jazz fans gave a standing-O. Udonis Haslem's name popped up and they sat down. 

So is it too early to bury this team that was three wins from the NBA Finals three years ago? 

Sadly, the amount of talent and experience on the team needs to be imploded. Decisions need to be made on who will give the Utah the best chance at winning division titles and making it past the first round of the playoffs. 

Williams is there. 

Millsap, yes, but not reading too much into three games by this, his struggled both offensively and defensively are certainly not what one would expect out of all-out, all-the-time forward.

Then it gets muddy. Andrei Kirilenko beefed up and looks even more like Ivan Drago, but his gargantuan contract will be looked to be shed sooner than later.

Okur is re-upped for a while, but he is nothing more than a streaky shooter who happens to be 7'0". 

And the front office hasn't shown Ronnie Brewer any love in the contract department, or essentially his future with the team in general. 

Muddy? Try murky as hell.

Utah will go nowhere this year. They will win games, but if the alarming start to this already tumultuous season is any indication, things could nose-dive a lot faster than we expected. 

When placing the blame on someone, finger should be pointed at just about everyone from GM Kevin O'Connor to Sloan to Greg Miller to Boozer, so on and so forth. 

By not taking risks this past summer, Utah brought back a liar and a cheat and didn't improve the team in any other facet.

When Eric Maynor over Brevin Knight is your most-impressive offseason move—especially in the Western Conference—you deserve to be mentioned in the same light as the Warriors and Kings.

Or Keystone Light to everything else. 

Rarely do you see a team this familiar with one another and talented lose its fight and want for the game. 

But maybe that's the problem. Maybe they're too familiar. Maybe they're too content with getting that paycheck, showing up to work, taking private jets, and staying five-star everywhere they go that they forgot what it means to be a professional basketball player.

What does that mean exactly? Well, it's determined by the desire to compete at the highest level on a consistent basis. 

This Jazz team hasn't had that hunger in two season now, and it's all unraveling before everyone's eyes. 

And lastly, familiar with the feeling of what rock-bottom looks like or tastes like? 

Utah's 96-85 loss in Dallas assured it all. 

Up 15 to start the fourth quarter, the Jazz had what was assumed to be an impressive road win against a top-tier Western Conference team. 

Dirk Nowitzki had a counter-argument. A very big one. 

The 7'0" German scored 29 of his game-high 40 points in the fourth, en route to helping his Mavs score 44 points in the quarter and obliterating the Jazz, 96-85. 

Such a hot-streak that could not be quelled proved that this team is done. No matter how early it is in the season. They've given up, they will give counter with a half-hearted quotes of how there's lots of games left to be played.

But don't be fooled.

The Jazz are a mess. They are worse than the Tyra Banks Show . They have fallen to the bottom. 

They will not get up. Not nearly to where so many expected them to be.

They've just plain quit.  

That's it and that's all.