AW Tait's Roar Profile

Trey Burke probably isn’t a playoff point guard, but for the Jazz to acknowledge this and have him coming off the bench was a huge move on their part. Exum isn’t ready yet either, but he’s far more likely than Burke to run a playoff team.

The Jazz are looking really exciting. They’ll have plenty of cap space when Kendrick Perkins is off the books, even after overpaying Alec Burks and possibly Gordon Hayward. Dante and Rodney Hood are still years away from earning any huge money, with Burke and Rudy Gobert only a year behind them.

Hopefully for our sake they keep Joe Ingles and us Aussies get to ride the Jazz train into next year’s playoffs.

Utah are jazzing their way into the NBA finals

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I love how Milwaukee is looking. MCW might not turn out to be a world-beater, but Antetokuomnpo just might. Khris Middleton is only 23 and has been scoring nearly 20/game since the All-Star break, while John Henson will be a 23-year old, 3-year veteran big at the start of next season.

And this is all while leaving out Jabari Parker, who could potentially be anything.

With an above-500 record already and cap space (even if Middleton asks for a mint), Milwaukee looks super exciting for the next few years.

Bucks, Sixers or Suns - who has the brighter future?

I’m hoping it’s a cyclical thing. With Kentucky having 9 All-Americans in the same squad they’ll probably take the whole thing out, so I’m looking forward to cheering for the underdog.

But when it comes to draft time, it’ll be interesting to see how well someone like Karl-Anthony Towns (who will go in as an All-American, NCAA Champion) fares when he’s averaged single figure points and rebounds per game.

In a sadistic kind of way, I hope the Kentucky players are drafted really low, and that budding college players start thinking that being the star player at a smaller school (or anywhere other than Kentucky, really) will be better for their draft chances.

Can March Madness save college basketball?

He’s put himself in a position where he’s more likely to look worse than to look better. I think that’s why I agree with you in hoping he can put in a good showing.

When I started high school, a musician came to the school and showed us some tricks on the trombone. I was one of about six people who signed up to be a tromboner in the band, right then and there.

It only lasted a year, and I got out of the concert by pretending I had a sick uncle – but it shows that kids can get on board nearly anything if it’s presented to them in an engaging way.

I’ve never really known whether people who bad-mouth the NBL are people who would ordinary follow it if they didn’t see it as an inferior product, or people who simply don’t like basketball (ala Kevin Bartlett).

I’d imagine a rebrand would bring new fans from the former category, but I’m basing that on my hope that they aren’t drowned out by the haters.

I think the league is broken, but I really don’t know what to do about it from a business aspect. All I know is that anybody looking to own a sports team for profit probably isn’t going to get very far.

I read Bob Turner’s comments about franchising and how it doesn’t work, and I’ve seen how the ABL is centralised to negate the need for private owners (albeit with help from MLB). I like your ideas about a community model, too. If a community model is done well, it’ll put the onus on clubs to participate in the community while the community will repay with support.

Something I’ve always had a problem with is expecting TV stations to broadcast the game. It’d be lovely if they could really promote it well, but they have to be confident they’re onto something good before pouring money into it. Maybe if we had Mark Worthington and Josh Childress cooking a three-course meal, we’d get the marking kick we need?

No judgment on the quality of the duos from me. I just thought it was interesting that KD and Russ would be in pretty exclusive territory. Whether it’s because they’re as good as Cousy & Russell, or if it’s a quirk in history, makes for a good debate, though!

KD & Russ just need another 11 rings to make things interesting!

Boti’s word is usually gospel. I hope he has the same amount of faith in the league being run properly, though.

I thought the same about the NBL being drowned out, but it doesn’t really seem like it’s getting much more attention in its summer format. If it was making news headlines every night, I’d be a lot more comfortable with it.

Cousy & Russell! Of course. Dare we think of Westbrook and Durant in the same league as them?

CP3 has historically had the numbers, even in New Orleans with fellow basketball titans David West and Peja Stojakovic. He’s upped his game since Griffin went down so he hasn’t been able to fall back onto his output lately. And I like Paul’s game a lot more than I liked Iverson-circa-2001, although I guess he didn’t have as much competition in that MVP race as there is nowadays.

Who should be fifth?