I don’t know about you, but I think that we’ve been waiting **WAY** too long for the season to come around. I can only survive on Darryn Peterson workouts and Keyonte George quotes for so long. I need some _real_ action. In my spare time, like a reasonable adult, I go back and watch games from when I was growing up. Now I’m 31 years old, so the guys I grew up with were Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirlenko, and 1x All-Star Mehmet Okur. Sure, we expected more out of them, but they were fun to watch. The jerseys were absolutely gorgeous too. I mean come ON.
During my trip down memory lane I watched a game where West Virginia legend Deron Williams dropped 28 point on the Los Angeles Clippers on opening night during the 2009-2010 season. That got the cogs in my brain moving and wondering “who really showed out the most on opening night as a Jazzman?” So that brings you here, because clearly you were curious was well.
**A COUPLE OF GROUND RULES:**
* I did review the brief 5 year history of the New Orleans Jazz in this research, mostly because it felt disrespectful to not even consider the team’s roots.
* I am going to limit one player per slot. We’ve had too many great players come through here to not share the love.
Without further ado, let’s jump into it.
It’s no secret that Lauri Markkanen has become a fan favorite here, and it’s performances like this one that has earned the love and respect of the Jazz fans. Playing in front of the home crowd to kick off the season can be a daunting task for some, and others step up to the plate and hit a home run.
Markkanen was firing on all cylinders this game against the Memphis Grizzlies. In what turned out to be just a 2 point loss he was a +16 BPM (box plus/minus), scored 35 points, snagged 9 rebounds, and had a ludicrous 60/57/92 shooting split.
The rest of the season was a “down” year for Lauri only averaging 19/6 in 47 games, but he did come out swinging, and who doesn’t love that?
In the season before time stood still, Donovan Mitchell was out to prove a point. He was a few years removed from his Rookie of the Year award being taken away by Ben Simmons, and although the team was successful (winning 98 regular season games his first two years) he was looking to make even more of an impact.
On October 23rd, 2019 the Oklahoma City Thunder came to town. Now, of course, they weren’t the Thunder squad that would come to run the league, but they were a plucky bunch of underdogs. The Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chris Paul, and Danilo Gallinari (man, what a time to be alive) led team put up one hell of a fight, but eventually lost to the good guys 100-95.
Had Donovan Mitchell not suited up for this game, we’re probably talking about a different story because outside of Mitchell there were only 3 other Jazzmen that scored in double figures this game. Mitchell led the way with 32 points, an uncharacteristic 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and shot 63% from the field. Sure, the breakup with Mitchell was messy, and there are plenty of people who still have ill will towards the guy, but he was a supernova to watch while he was here.
Carlos Boozer has the distinct honor of being one of the upper tier power forwards in my favorite era of basketball. My favorite player of all-time is Kevin Garnett, but Pau Gasol, Amar’e Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace, and Booz are all very high on my favorite players list. I was watching this team very closely because of my love for Deron Williams, but more often than not, Booz stole the show.
On October 30th, 2007 we went to California to take on the Baron Davis led Golden State Warriors. Again, while this wasn’t the Golden State Warriors teams that would dominate the league for many years to come, _this_ Warriors team had just knocked of the #1 seeded Dallas Mavericks team as the #8 seed the season before. A lot of that “We Believe” roster returned this year, so they were just as dangerous as before.
They were, however, no match for Carlos Boozer on this day. The Jazz had really respectable games from Deron Williams, Ronnie Brewer, and Paul Millsap as well, but Boozer scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and shot 57% from the field. Domination in every sense of the word.
Adrian Dantley, or as I call him “Demon” Dantley, was exactly that; an absolute **DEMON**. I’m not sure why he never gets brought up when we discuss the league’s best scorers, but it does make me angry. I mean for his entire career he averaged 24 points a game, scored over 23k points, and (especially for the time) was pretty efficient. During his 7 year stretch in Utah though is where he earned the “Demon” moniker from me. He averaged 29.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.1 steals a night while shooting 56% from the field and 81% from the line. With stat lines like this it should come no surprise that he had the ability to go nuclear on any given night, and how he ended up on this list.
In 1983 we pulled up to Denver to take on the Kiki Vandeweghe, Dan Issel, and Alex English led Nuggets team, and everyone expected a shootout. We had a squad too: Darrell Griffith, John Drew, and Rickey Green were no slouches, but Dantley was the star of the show and he made the game competitive.
The Jazz lost 139-125 but Dantley led the team with 40 (!) points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal, shot 61% from the field and 87.5% from the FT line. He did a little bit of everything this game, which was only a precursor to him averaging 30 points a game for the year and finishing 7th in MVP voting for the 83/84 season. An absolute demon, indeed.
Given how many points he scored in his career, he was bound to make an appearance on this list. Malone was a menacing, physical force and his ability to put up points in bunches was unmatched. This time in Utah Jazz history is obviously looked on favorably, but for Karl Malone to have the PERFECT running mate for his playstyle specifically in John Stockton is something that feels like it was written in the stars.
In the season opener at home vs. Denver, the two showed their superlink connection; Stockton scored 23 points, an absurd 19 assists, and 3 steals, and Malone showed out with 40 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, and shot 72% from the field.
This was an omen of things to come for Malone because the 89/90 season he went on to average 31 points, nearly 12 rebounds a night, and the team won 55 games on the year.
I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the offseason was a bit too long, and that I’m excited to see what this season has in store for us. We’ve got a **TON** of coverage coming your way this year, so be sure to stay with us and come back daily for new articles from this very talented SLC Dunk team.
Be kind. Tell somebody you love them.
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