28-year old point guard Devin Harris is off to an awful start this year. He has played in 16 games (all starts) for the Jazz so far this year and he is averaging 26.1 minutes, 9.1 points, 1.5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. Harris is also only shooting 40.2% from the floor, which is pretty darn awful for a guard. The Jazz need Harris to pick up the pace if they are going to keep winning like they are right now.

48-year old head coach Tyrone Corbin took over when Jerry Sloan stepped down as the head coach of the Jazz, and he had a rough time of it.  When Corbin took over the Jazz, they were sitting at 31-23 (57.4%) with playoff aspirations.  The Jazz then finished the season by going 8-20 (28.6%) under Corbin.  Everything wasn’t Corbin’s fault as the Jazz traded Deron Williams to the Nets at the trade deadline.  But, the Jazz’ fans and organization expect to win after doing so much of it lately under Jerry Sloan.  That means he needs to step up as the head coach starting in 2011-12 if he wants to have this gig long term.

26-year old center Al Jefferson is having a very solid year for the Jazz.  He has played in 78 games (all starts) for the Jazz so far this year and he is averaging 36.0 minutes, 18.8 points, 9.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.9 blocked shots per game.  But so far in April, it’s been rough sledding for him.  He is only shooting 32.7% from the floor (16 of 49) so far in April but he’s still averaging 35.0 minutes, 13.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.0 steal and 1.3 blocked shots per game.  It’s hard to pick on Jefferson as he’s one of the few guys who gives the Jazz a solid every almost every night.

The Utah Jazz need 31-year old backup point guard Earl Watson to step up.  Deron Williams didn’t start in the Jazz’ last game and Watson responded by playing 39 minutes in which he had 10 points, 2 rebounds, 13 assists and 1 steal.  Watson has played in 45 games (1 start) for the Jazz so far this year and he is averaging 14.9 minutes, 3.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.  He is a better player than he has shown so far this year so the Jazz need him to step up and be more consistent going forward.

31-year old center Mehmet Okur is finally back for the Utah Jazz.  They will likely take it slow with him with the idea of using him more minutes as the season goes along.  Okur has played in 3 games (0 starts) for the Jazz so far this year and he is averaging 13.7 minutes, 3.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game.  Okur is only shooting 5 of 15 (33.3%) from the floor so far this year but there is no reason to think that he won’t pick things up soon.  Okur will develop into a lethal weapon off the bench for the Jazz in the second half of the season, book it!

The Utah Jazz have enough good offensive players to carry a player in the starting lineup like Raja Bell who is a defender first.  Bell has played in 4 games in December so far and he is averaging 33.0 minutes, 9.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game.  Bell has now played in 22 games (all starts) for the Jazz so far this year and he is averaging 29.4 minutes, 8.4 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.

23-year old SG/SF C.J. Miles has not been playing too well for the Jazz so far this year.  Miles has played in 21 games (0 starts) for the Jazz so far this year and he is averaging 23.o minutes, 11.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.  His minutes might not be there for him much longer unless he starts shooting better.  Miles is hitting only 39.7% from the floor and 32.1% from three point range  this year.  The Jazz need him to start shooting better because they need him on the court.

Deron Williams had the best first round out of pretty much any player in the playoffs, but in the second round the Los Angeles Lakers have been able to slow him down and that is why the Utah Jazz are down 2-0 so far.  Williams is shooting just 36% from the field and averaging 19.5 points and 8.5 assists in two games against the Lakers.  In the first round he was on fire, shooting 49% from the field and 48% from three, on his way to averaging 25.8 points and 11.3 assists.  Williams had a decent outing in game one, but they needed more than 24 points and 8 assists from him.  He only 15 points in game two, so Williams has to step it up and try and get back in the groove he was in during their first round series against the Nuggets.  The Lakers are much better defensive team than the Nuggets though, and the Lakers size has been making it much more difficult for Williams and the rest of the Jazz to finish in the paint.  The Jazz are going to need Williams to put up some monster numbers if they want a chance in this series, because if he keeps playing like this they will get swept.

With Mehmet Okur out for the season the Jazz will need either Kyrylo Fesenko or Kosta Koufos to step up and give them some quality minutes. Fesenko is the more likely of the two to get the starting job. He played in 49 games (5 starts) for the Jazz during the regular season in which he averaged 8.3 minutes, 2.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. He played in 5 minutes in game #1 against the Nuggets with 1 point and 1 assist. Kosta Koufos is a former first round pick of the Jazz so he might have a bigger upside. He played in 36 games (0 starts) for the Jazz during the regular season and he averaged 4.8 minutes, 1.5 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. Koufos played in 3 minutes in the opening game of this season and he got a rebound but didn’t score. I have a feeling that the Jazz will need 15 good minutes for them while Paul Millsap and Carlos Boozer handle most of the heavy lifting along the front line.

Deron Williams does just about everything for his team and he is the main reason why the Utah Jazz are 38-22 this season.  He is averaging 18.4 points, 10.1 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.2 steals.  He is shooting 47% from the field on the season, but lately his shot has been pretty inconsistent from night to night.  It may be that his legs are wearing down towards the end of the season, but he hasn’t really put up two good shooting nights in consecutive games in the past month.  For example, last game they lost to the Clippers 108-104 and Williams went 5-15 from the field for 13 points.  The game before that the Jazz blew out the Rockets 133-110 and Williams went a red-hot 13-17 from the field for 35 points.  The game before that was a loss to the Kings, and Williams only went 4-16 from the field for 10 points.  He had 20 points on 8-17 shooting before that, and you get were I am going.  In the past month, if you look at Williams game log, there is almost a pattern of one good shooting night, followed by one bad shooting night, and then followed by one good shooting night, etc.  The Jazz have only lost three games since February 1st, and in those three losses Williams had very bad shooting nights.  So, Williams needs to focus on trying to end this pattern and try and get a few good shooting nights together.  If this type of thing happens in a playoff series, it would be very bad for the Jazz chances.