Redrafting the Jazz: 1989

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 27, 1989 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

The 1988-89 season was a bizarre one for the Utah Jazz. Head coach Frank Layden abruptly retired after just 17 games, kickstarting Jerry Sloan's incredibly long run with the franchise. Joining John Stockton and Karl Malone in the All-Star Game (for the first and only time of his career) was Mark Eaton, who also won his second and final Defensive Player of the Year trophy. And Thurl Bailey finished second in voting for Sixth Man of the Year (losing to Phoenix's Eddie Johnson). The Jazz went 51-31 and won the Midwest Division for the second time in franchise history. But then disaster struck in the playoffs. Utah wasn't just upset by Golden State — it was a downright embarrassing sweep. No one on the Jazz could slow down Chris Mullin or Mitch Richmond.

The draft:

Seeking to fill Utah's immediate need at shooting guard/small forward, Scott Layden used the 21st pick on East Carolina swingman Blue Edwards.

With the 48th pick, the Jazz drafted a point guard from South Alabama named Junie Lewis.

Analysis:

Edwards was a smart pick for the Jazz. Although he wasn't a good enough shooter to be a true shooting guard, his defense and athleticism made him a competent (yet undersized) small forward. He made the All-Rookie Second Team and gave Utah three solid years ... before being inexplicably traded for Jay Humphries. The Jazz later realized the mistake they made and traded Humphries back for Edwards a couple of years later. But by then, Utah already had David Benoit, Bryon Russell and Jamie Watson, so Edwards saw very little playing time during his second stint with the Jazz. He was then promptly scooped up by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1995 expansion draft.

Despite the positives Edwards gave the Jazz, there were just enough deficiencies to his game that prevented him from having a longer, more impactful career in Utah. The tough thing is he was the best player available at his position. So I'm going to have to sadly tell Layden to try to fill that need through free agency and trades because the best remaining players are all big men. I went back and forth between Vlade Divac and Clifford Robinson, ultimately deciding that Robinson would provide the most versatility for Utah. A one-time All-Star, Sixth Man of the Year and two-time All-Defensive Second Team member, Robinson would have filled that Thurl Bailey role quite nicely with the added bonus of better defense and some 3-point shooting. 

Picking a backup for Stockton in the second round was a good idea, but Utah drafted the wrong point guard. Lewis never played in the NBA. But Boise State's Chris Childs did. After a lengthy stint in the minor leagues (and a trip to a rehab facility to combat his alcoholism), Childs eventually worked his way into the NBA and had a nice nine-year career punctuated by his tough defense and 3-point shooting. I have no idea how his career would have turned out had he been drafted by the Jazz, but I want to take that risk anyway.

My advice:

1. Use the 21st pick on Clifford Robinson.

2. Use the 48th pick on Chris Childs.

It felt a little strange looking at replacements for Eaton and Bailey right after they had such strong seasons. But I know both of them began to sharply decline once the '90s hit. And I think the versatile Robinson could help relieve both of those aging big men ... assuming he's able to find cannabis as readily available in Salt Lake City as he was in Portland. Hmmm ... on second thought, maybe I should have gone with Divac ...

Before Watchmen: What to do with Dr. Manhattan?

Well, I've finally come to the last miniseries about the main Watchmen characters. Dr. Manhattan may be the hardest character to write, but he does offer the most possibilities for some truly bizarre, fascinating stories. Unfortunately, J. Michael Straczynski was chosen to handle this miniseries. Fortunately, he was paired with Adam Hughes, who provided some very nice interior art. His cover is fine, but nothing special.

The Paul Pope variant cover isn't particularly pleasant. I like the concept, but not the execution. Dr. Manhattan just looks too squiggly and off model for me.

Jim Lee decided to take Dr. Manhattan off model in the completely opposite way. He's now a humorously huge body builder, reminding me of how Arnold Schwarzenegger was almost cast as Dr. Manhattan. It astounds me how ridiculously bad Lee's variants were for this project.

The problem with trying to write a prequel about Dr. Manhattan is that Alan Moore had already covered every aspect of his life — quite thoroughly, in fact. And you can feel Straczynski struggling with that fact for 90% of this issue. But he tries to insert his own bits of originality here and there. We'll see how

He opens with a random funeral — perhaps the funeral of Dr. Manhattan's father, but this isn't confirmed yet — then begins flipping around back and forth through Dr. Manhattan's past. The first flashback is in 1938, where a 9-year-old Jon Osterman is still living in Germany (I had always assumed he had been born in America, but whatever). It's Jon's birthday, and his father has gifted him an ornate clock, which just so happens to look exactly like the clock palace Dr. Manhattan would later build on Mars. I personally find it strange that Dr. Manhattan would recreate an enormous version of his father's gift when the original series made it quite clear that Jon deeply hated his father, but what do I know?

After spending a few pages rehashing things we already know, Straczynski takes us to 1949, where college student Jon Osterman is bizarrely choosing to stay inside and work on a clock instead of going down to the lake with a beautiful girl, who is practically shoving her massive breasts in his face. I find it strange that A) Jon is still working on clocks even after his father forced him to give up that hobby in favor of studying physics and B) notoriously horny Jon would be completely unfazed by this gorgeous woman throwing herself at him. But again, what do I know?

In 1959, Jon begins his new job at the Gila Flats test base. As he tours the facility, he feels a strange sense of déjà vu, somehow remembering when he visited it years later when it was abandoned and he was Dr. Manhattan. This disturbs Dr. Manhattan while he's on Mars, as he can't explain how his past, human self could have sensed his future, super-powered self. 

He thinks about how his choices may have changed the future, which brings us to the infamous Crimebusters meeting of 1966. Once again, Straczynski plays out the incredibly stupid moment of Captain Metropolis trying to split the heroes into pairs and Dr. Manhattan changing Rorschach's paper to Silk Spectre's. Dr. Manhattan even briefly considers two different possibilities where (assuming the Crimbebusters meeting went well) he gets to fight crime alongside either Rorschach or Silk Spectre. Of course, in the case of Laurie, he spends more time kissing her and less time blowing up criminals.

Straczynski then spends several pages blatantly contradicting the original series. Dr. Manhattan tells Janey Slater he loves her and instead of admitting to himself that was a lie, he now tells himself that statement was true, but "utterly beside the point." Later, we see Jon's father having a breakdown upon learning of his son's death. And even though Moore made it quite clear that Dr. Manhattan hated his father and never made any attempts to let him know he'd survived, Straczynski decided to have Dr. Manhattan visit his dad on his death bed. Jon's dad was too delirious to acknowledge his son, so I guess nothing technically changed, but it still really bugs me.

Anyway, Straczynski finally gets around to doing something interesting. Dr. Manhattan realizes that he can slide up and down his timeline from the moment of his creation to the future, but he's never tried to take himself to any point of time before he became Dr. Manhattan. Until now. He arrives unseen at Gila Flats, just moments before the fateful accident. But this time, Jon safely retrieves his coat and calmly exits the testing chamber long before the door is sealed shut. And an astonished Dr. Manhattan is completely stumped by this development.

Well, it was rough getting there, but I genuinely enjoyed the ending. It's just a shame that everything that preceded it was either a pointless rehash or a direct contradiction of what Moore had done. I get it, writing a prequel about Dr. Manhattan is hard, and probably never should have been attempted in the first place. But if you're going to insist on publishing a miniseries about him, then please find a writer more suited to the job.

Redrafting the Jazz: 1990

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 27, 1990 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

Thanks to the phenomenal play of Karl Malone and John Stockton, the 1989-90 Jazz won 55 games in the regular season. Unfortunately, they were stunned in the first round of the playoffs, losing to Phoenix in Game 5 off a last-second shot by Kevin Johnson. Utah's biggest weakness was quite obvious to general manager Scott Layden: shooting guard. Darrell Griffith was on his last legs and Bobby Hansen ... just wasn't that good. So instead of trying to solve this problem through the draft, Layden sought an immediate upgrade by trading for two-time All-Star Jeff Malone. 

The three-team trade was completed two days before the draft, and saw Utah sending Hansen, Eric Leckner, and both their 1990 draft picks to Sacramento in exchange for the Kings' second-round pick and Jeff Malone from Washington. It wasn't a bad trade, but it didn't help as much as the Jazz wanted. Regardless, the witch's curse prevents me from undoing that trade, so I'm left to work with Utah's single second-round pick in this draft.

The draft:

Sacramento's second-round pick ended up being No. 33 overall, which Utah used on Dartmouth big man Walter Palmer.

Analysis:

Palmer only played 28 games for Utah before heading over to Germany for a year. He returned to the NBA, but only lasted 20 more games with Dallas. So it's not going to be too hard to find an upgrade here — in fact, I luckily have two All-Stars to choose from.

One tempting candidate is Cedric Ceballos, who may have been a nice upgrade over Blue Edwards — at least on the offensive end. But I'm much more intrigued by Antonio Davis. Every team could use another strong rebounder/defender on their roster, especially the Jazz, who were dealing with an aging Mark Eaton and Thurl Bailey. Davis did spend a couple of seasons playing overseas before joining the Pacers, and I think that'd be just fine for Utah. Let him develop for a bit, then bring him over when you really need him.

My advice:

1. Use the 33rd pick on Antonio Davis.

Davis may have been a bit undersized, but he and Dale Davis formed one of the most toughest frontcourts in the late '90s. And by the early 2000s (when Antonio became an All-Star) a few key rule changes would greatly benefit the under-seven-foot big men of the league. I do feel slightly bad for making the Jazz wait longer with this pick, but I'd tell Scott Layden he had the right mindset by trying to win now with Stockton and Malone in their primes. I'm giving him the best player available in this draft — he should focus on making some more trades to bolster the roster with veterans.