Cool picture of Hardaway Jr. and Sr. EDIT: And Trey

Submitted by DISCUSS Man on

Found this on twitter. Pretty cool. I'll admit I didn't think THJ would be a first rounder but man I shouted when his name was called.

Front page of the official Utah Jazz website

We Are The Borg

June 28th, 2013 at 2:12 PM ^

Now I have reasons to watch Utah and New York NBA games. Normally I don't watch the NBA because it's not nearly as good as it was in the 90s, but it will be fun watching two of my favorite M players.

Maizenblueball

June 28th, 2013 at 2:23 PM ^

I'm happy for THJ.  Good for him.  I also thought it was cool that the Knicks fans cheered so loudly when they read his name.  They were excited with the pick.

da3mite

June 28th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^

From what I've heard from experts, I think JR is still sticking around. He's still an extremely high value considering his salary, on a team that doesn't have much cap space for improvement.

Also, most Knick fans love JR SWISH, despite his mediocrity this playoff season.

French West Indian

June 28th, 2013 at 5:25 PM ^

...I'm kind of digging the MSG connection.  Seems like Michigan plays there often and given it's Manhattan locations it one of the few venues that I seem to pass by regularly myself.  Nice to see THJ playing there & hopefully he can make an impact.

LSAClassOf2000

June 28th, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, a fair number of Jazz fans were pretty stoked about Burke, although they did not produce anything nearly as great as the Spike Lee reaction photo. Here's one fan anyway complimenting the team's strategy: 

"I think for what they would have gotten at picks 14 and 21, it wouldn’t have added up to what they got in Trey Burke," Jordan Blackham said."

Maizenblueball

June 28th, 2013 at 6:18 PM ^

I texted a few of my buddies who are in SLC and huge Jazz fans, and they are excited about getting Trey.  Point Guard was a big need for them anyway, but they didn't think Burke would be available for them.  Their only concern was his lack of size, but overall they are Jazzed up about the pick.

CLord

June 28th, 2013 at 2:28 PM ^

Cold truth is TH3 will start riding pine after 2 or 3 years at most.  I have no idea how he went in the first round.  He virtually disappeared in the big moments all year, committing more turn overs and making more mistakes than being helpful.   As a blog community are we supposed to blow sunshine up the ass of all of our players and alums all the time?  I think not, but maybe I'm  wrong, in which case I'll get flamed to oblivion but so be it.

I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see it for TH3.  Glad for him that he at least made the Association for a couple of years.

riverrat

June 28th, 2013 at 2:58 PM ^

I hear this from Michigan fans a lot, and while I'd agree that perhaps his sophomore year wasn't all that, last year there were times that I felt he flat-out rescued the team, either with defense or being aggressive going to the basket and making things happen for himself or others. 

That was the joy of that team last year, I thought, having two folks capable of doing that in Burke and Hardaway. 

Butterfield

June 28th, 2013 at 3:24 PM ^

Only time will tell, but if forced to predict an outcome at this moment, I'd agree with you. There's nothing he does at a great level, shooting, handles, defense, passing... He's solid in all those departments but he'll need vast improvement to be anything more than a minute eater.

El Jeffe

June 28th, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^

Thank you. Not only that, it's an asinine comment. 2-guard is like the thinnest position in the NBA right now. You have, in some order

  1. James Harden
  2. D-Wade
  3. Kobe's Ruptured Achilles
  4. Jamal Crawford's One Awesome Dimension
  5. ...
  6. Um, Joe Johnson?

And that's about it. So I think THJ will do just fine for himself. I don't see him turning into any of those guys (except maybe Johnson), but he'll have a long career being an aboverage 2, which is not a high hurdle in the league right now.

Bay_Area_Blue

June 28th, 2013 at 2:46 PM ^

Why don't we actually wait a few years to see how things go before we totally dismiss/praise certain picks. Wait, that goes against the rules of sport fandom. My bad. 

Bay_Area_Blue

June 28th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^

That is indeed enticing. I might take that action. I definitely think he can enter into that conversation, for all the reasons you mentioned and for the fact that Michigan provides the tradition and history to make him a popular pick nationwide. I just began messing around with sports books last year. I used to be casually indifferent towards Oklahoma and now I will never forgive them for their unbelievably terrible defense last year. I guess I'm the moron for thinking they could get it together at any point. Oh well. 

mgobaran

June 28th, 2013 at 3:04 PM ^

But this team man. (our should I say last years team).

Michigan hasn't had success like this in a long time. Not one, but two first round picks!! I am going to be excited as hell. And Tim isn't going to Minnesota (or Utah), but to New York. We could see him playing on ESPN like once a week. That is huge. I can't say he will flame out, or end up starting by mid-season, but I am going to be hopeful. And that is sports fandom.

Bay_Area_Blue

June 28th, 2013 at 4:19 PM ^

I completely agree with you sir, and I'm equally excited to see how Burke and THJ do in the pros. I was addressing the "THJ is overrated and shouldn't have been a first-rounder" comments. I, for one, refuse to take off my maize tinted glasses when evaluating our teams, but even if one thought Timmy would flame out, why would you feel the need to say it here? Most of us are really excited to see our guys in the NBA and I see no need to forecast failure yet. The praise? Okay, okay. Heap it on. :)

gwkrlghl

June 28th, 2013 at 3:26 PM ^

I feel the same way visiting fans must feel when we cheer so loudly for Slipper Rock in the Big House: "I must be missing something here". Did they desperately need a 2? Did KnicksGoBlog declare that THJ was the KnicksGoSleeperOfTheYear? What am I missing? Because there was pretty much unanimous joy when he was picked