HEALTH AND THE IMPENDiNG LOGJAM

CJ Miles will play in his first basketball game in the 2009-2010 regular season tonight when the Jazz play host to the Indiana Pacers.  Andrei Kirilenko is a gametime decision and Kyle Korver may be ready to play in a surprising development.  Now that Matthew Harpring has officially retired and Ronnie Price is closer and closer to being the last point guard off the bench, this Jazz team may be as healthy right now as we will ever see them this season.

CJ Miles praying for a chance to get some playing time.

For fantasy basketball players:  It would be a worthwhile risk to go pick up CJ Miles right now.  He was looking like a player who was going to make a big jump this season statistically and I still believe he will be putting up good numbers in the next week or so.  That’s my little advice.

But for Jazz fans, this sudden health of the team may cause some playing time problems and chemistry issues.  Here are some revealing comments made by Jerry Sloan to Salt Lake Tribune’s Steve Luhm earlier this week:  “The ideal situation in this league is to play eight guys,” Sloan said. “That’s what a lot of teams do. … That makes it easier because the decision is already made for you. I played in that situation for years in Chicago and I know it was easier for the coach.”

Sloan later mentioned that the eight guy rotation included three guards, three forwards and two centers.

I’m not a math major, but Sloan’s calculations threw me off a bit.  Three guards?  So Deron Williams is one, Ronnie Brewer is probably another and the third is some sort of conglomerate of Wesley Matthews, CJ Miles and Kyle Korver.  Three forwards?  That’s easy.  Boozer, Millsap and Kirilenko.  Or maybe Korver and Miles are forwards, or Brewer.  Sheesh, you can throw Sloan’s ideal rotation out of the window, because it just isn’t adding up right now.  Kyrylo Fesenko is probably going to lose all of his minutes, which is a shame and Sloan will most likely go with a 3 headed monster of Okur, Boozer and Millsap at PF/C.  And one of Korver, Miles or Matthews is going to probably lose minutes all together in the next two weeks.

Being a Jazz fan is a lot of fun right now during this win streak, but this story is about 3 days away from turning into a new season of Survivor, with someone being voted off the playing court and onto the bench.  And we all now how awesome drama can be for team chemistry, right?

The good news is that as of now, Miles, Korver and Matthews seem to have their heads on straight when it comes to playing time.  But I don’t know if it can last.  If one of those guys gets less than 5 minutes a game, I think that’s a shame for them.  They all deserve to play.  So stay tuned.

My predictions:  Wesley Matthews is waived before his contract becomes guaranteed in January, which is a shame.  The only other option is to trade Kyle Korver or CJ Miles before the deadline.  And it will be for a second round pick or some cheap player the Jazz can buyout immediately.  I mean, who wouldn’t want Korver or Miles for free?  and it would save the Jazz between $8-10 million this season.  I just see either Miles or Korver not being needed for the rotation and getting shipped off somewhere they can contribute, because the Jazz can’t afford to let $8-10 sit on the bench all season.

No matter what happens, coach Sloan is going to have his hands full.