In the overcrowded Western conference there is little room for missteps or loss of personnel due to injury. The real world consequences of winning a paltry forty five games is the potential couch view of the Playoffs, from the comforts of your grotto, nestled within your basketball provided compound. Such is the case with the Utah Jazz, a team many believed was poised to make the leap and return to the Playoffs. The Jazz possess an intriguing roster to say the least, smattered with a slew of young talent at multiple positions, all on largely favorable contracts. Gordon Hayward (whose contract doesn’t look so crazy now that we’ve seen some of the deals of this offseason), defensive standout Rudy Gobert, Trey Burke, Derrick Favors and Alec Burks are all primed to evolve into their superior basketball iterations. Yet, there is one player still in their lineup with the unbridled, raw potential to surpass each one. Last year the Jazz selected a much hyped teenager from Australia with the fifth pick in the draft, they hoped that their guy, Dante Exum, much of whose playing career is shrouded in the mystery that is overseas basketball, would stand out as a transcendent player.
Unquestionably Dante had a shaky debut, his first season in the NBA left fans with more questions than answers. Still the size, athleticism, youth and promise of good-to-greatness, had Jazz fans salivating more than Mark Price in a free throw contest. Undoubtedly, the rookie jitters would be out of his system this season and the player we’d see on the court would be a far greater representation of who Exum truly is. Many rookies take the biggest leap of their careers in their second season, they’ve gathered an understanding of the NBA game and develop an adeptness for injecting themselves into it. That is of course unless you tear your ACL while in an Australian national team jersey in a game against Slovenia.
The 6’6 combo guard had just wrapped up a summer league tour that had many believing he was indeed a valuable asset and part of Utah’s future. His shooting touch had improved and that athleticism and quick leap were witnessed in spades. Now, with the ACL tear, Exum will likely miss the entire season, as is usually the case. Sure, some come back sooner, but in all likelihood, Dante won’t be crossing anybody up this year. Luckily an ACL tear, while a debilitating injury, with time, is easily healed from. The only question is what will it do to his basketball ability arc, will the injury serve as a hiccup or a hurdle? A stop sign or a roadblock? A dribble hand off or a Shaquille O’Neal high screen? Dante Exum is a very young man and his best years are surely ahead of him, but the onus is on him to commit to a diligent rehabilitation and return to the court with little to no beats skipped.
For the Jazz, realistically little changes. The team hoped to trend upward this season upon the shoulders of their more established, albeit young core. Exum was to be the cherry atop the Salt Lake Sundae. However, it can be suggested that had Exum had a breakout year, Trey Burke would have likely been on the Trey-de table. Now he has a chance to showcase his skills and the Jazz should have raised the interest of potential suitors.
Get well Dante, there simply aren’t enough Australians to go around in the NBA, we need all the ones we’ve got.
4 comments
Ying
February 21, 2016 at 2:44 pm
I think that the ncaa idea would be awesome. But you shluod have the right to play as a player from outside the u.s. and encourage fiba play in the career mode. Also you shluod be able to have mini camps and when you become a star host mini camps of your own. Also you shluod have interviews, and not just interviews interviews in different locations ( house, locker room, that ESPN room that ESPN does its interviews. Then you need to have ego meters. Which is basically a meter that determines your rep in the league. And is determined by your actions on and off the court. If your answer selfishly in your interviews and are playing the same way you will be considered a selfish player and have more skill points in games as a bonus. If your a team player and answer unselfishly you will have more team chemistry and marketability. And if you do things unethical like foul a lot and answer the interviewers with crazy answers. You shluod have a bad boy who with bonuses such as the ability to hard foul and have weird tattoos and apperances. ( hair cuts, hair colors and designs, etc.) Other qualities could be flashy, humble, clutch , hype man ( the ability to be a complimentary star player) super star stopper ( the ability to shut down elite offensive players like kobe and k.d and lending and d wade.) These are just some ideas. Also they need to be able to have rival players and ally players. Players who you run into frequently and maybe diss in interviews. And this is how this would work. If you create a rival with a player. Whenever you two are on the court ESPN will mention the rival and compare stats. And they will be following the story throughout the game. At the end the interview maybe be about how well you played and what the other guy had said about you. You can wither fire back with and increase the tension between the rivalry or squash the beef. If you keep the rivalry going. It will escalate to the point were if you sign on the same team the rival won’t cooperate with you. If your an ally the exact opposite may happen you can convince the ally to join your team when there a free agent and even may get a duo trio quad and or even a starting line up nickname ( I.e. Boston 3 party, Miami 3eat, etc.) If you guys add anyone of these ideas 2k will have to take a year break to get things right.
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October 19, 2016 at 4:53 pm
Huh, a walk to remember is toch gewoon een rom/kom en shooter een thriller. Niet echt filmhuis. Maar ik ben wel gek op Little Miss Sunshine <3 de rest is niet echt mijn ding!
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November 4, 2016 at 11:45 pm
Hola!!!Me encanta tus galletas!! Llevo tiempo querÃendo hacérselas a mis sobrinas, pero no encuentro cortador para esto, y me da pereza hacerlas con plantillas. ¿dónde compraste el cortador?Muchas gracias!!
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November 24, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Love the card. Have you tried putting the inked stamp face up on the desk and putting the paper/card on that and smoothing over with your hand or an acetate block whilst holding it still with the other hand. I do this sometimes when I'm having problems. 🙂