Find out if the Jazz have what it takes to get past the Western Conference Finals and into the NBA Finals in this 2007-08 Utah Jazz predictions and season preview for Point-Spreads.com. The oddsmakers at Bodog have made the Utah Jazz 20 to 1 odds to win the 2007-08 NBA Championship.
Utah will play second fiddle to Denver in the NBA’s Northwest Division this season. While Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams give the Jazz two of the league’s brightest young stars and Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko are another pair of All-Stars that should have the Jazz in title contention, Kirilenko’s statements about not wanting to be a member of the Jazz any longer could prove to be a dark cloud hanging over the Utah franchise.
Deron Williams is clearly looking like Utah’s franchise player. He returns with his 16.2 ppg and his 9.3 apg averages. No one has even come close to dishing out dimes like that in Utah since John Stockton. Carlos Boozer also propelled himself into the category of basketball’s elite, boosting his billing as a double-double guy to a double-double guy who can put up 30+ points on any given night. Expect him to average even more than the 20.9 ppg he put up last season.
Kirilenko should be excited heading into this season. He had lost all confidence heading into last year’s playoffs but leading his Russian national team to a Eurobasket gold medal over the summer while collecting MVP honors should have him ready to help lead this Jazz team to a title. Instead, he came out into the public with nightmarish comments about not wanting to be a part of this team. I don’t think it will keep the Jazz out of the playoffs, but this is the sort of thing that makes it impossible for a team to have enough cohesiveness to win it all.
Okur brings 17.6 ppg to the table and is a tough cover for big men as he likes to hang around outside and shoot the three ball. Matt Harpring is a premier off-the-bench player as well.
I feel like the Jazz are going to have to be better defensively than they were last season if they want to win their division as the Nuggets have more firepower. That will undoubtedly be Sloan’s focus.
This Utah team overachieved last season thanks to Golden State knocking off the Mavs in round one of the playoffs. I feel like reality will strike this year and the Jazz won’t quite have what it takes to get back to the conference finals.
Last season’s success will lead to the Jazz being overvalued by the oddsmakers, especially in the first half of the season. We will look for opportunities to beat the NBA odds by looking for spots to go against the Jazz this season.
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Atlanta Hawks 100/1
Boston Celtics 4/1
Charlotte Bobcats 100/1
Chicago Bulls 12/1
Cleveland Cavaliers 12/1
Dallas Mavericks 4/1
Denver Nuggets 28/1
Detroit Pistons 12/1
Golden State Warriors 35/1
Houston Rockets 11/1
Indiana Pacers 100/1
Los Angeles Clippers 80/1
Los Angeles Lakers 20/1
Memphis Grizzlies 100/1
Miami Heat 12/1
Milwaukee Bucks 80/1
Minnesota Timberwolves 100/1
New Jersey Nets 45/1
New Orleans Hornets 55/1
New York Knicks 80/1
Orlando Magic 45/1
Philadelphia 76ers 100/1
Phoenix Suns 4/1
Portland Trailblazers 60/1
Sacramento Kings 90/1
San Antonio Spurs 7/2
Seattle Supersonics 50/1
Toronto Raptors 45/1
Utah Jazz 20/1
Washington Wizards 60/1
