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On Tuesday, Jerry Sloan had one more thing for which to be thankful. He received a full practice from Jazz center Mehmet Okur, who has been out since April 17th with a torn Achilles tendon.
But there is a little catch to this Thanksgiving Miracle.
"Memo Money" is not what the Jazz need.
Now, don't get me wrong. The Jazz need Memo. They need him badly. But it's not that sweet shooting three-point stroke that the Jazz need from Memo, it's his ability to rebound the basketball.
When you think of Memo, you think of three things:
1. His three-point shooting
2. His smokin' hot wife (Yeliz, the former Miss Turkey)
3. His bed head
What we should think of is:
1. His three-point shooting
2. His rebounding
3. His post defense
The Jazz have been one of the best rebounding teams in the league for the past 20 years, but losing Boozer and Memo has been devastating to the Jazz rebounding numbers. Jefferson and Millsap are very good rebounders, but at 6' 10" and 6' 8" they are undersized in the mammoth NBA front courts.
"Our rebounding is really getting to be, kind of going downhill. We're, I think, 29th in the league in rebounding." worried Jerry Sloan after Monday's win against the Kings.
" If your going to have a chance to do anything, you got to be able to rebound the basketball more than what we did." The Jazz were outrebounded 50 to 39. "When a shot went up, we just took off (to the other side of the court), not really going after the offensive rebound and that's why we gave up so many on the other end. Didn't really block off."
Rebounding is effort. That's how Paul Millsap, Charles Barkley, Dennis Rodman, Ben Wallace and others can rebound despite being undersized for their position.
Kevin Love, who can't fit a thick piece of toast under his feet when he jumps, snatched 31 rebounds in a game this season.
"The idea is the ball won't come to you unless you go to it... You've got to push yourself and try to get rebounds because, like I said, rebounds are an important part." Sloan speaks from experience. At 6'5" and 195 pounds, Jerry averaged 7.5 rebounds per game from the wing position.
Memo has a career average of 7.2 rebounds per game in only 29 minutes. He's 6' 11" and has always been a surprisingly good post defender. No one is going to confuse him for Dwight Howard, but Okur has the Jeff Hornacek ability to keep his man in front of him. When Memo returns the Jazz add depth, size, rebounding and defense. If you ask Jerry Sloan, I'm willing to bet he'll trade all of Memo's long-distance three's for just a little more rebounding and defense.
As Okur sits out at the three-point line draining three's we hear "Memo Money" ringing in our ears. It certainly makes for the better highlight, but it's the quite defensive rebound that will most help this Jazz team.
