The emergence of Wes Matthews and Eric Maynor

Nobody could have expected Wes Matthews and Eric Maynor to contribute like they have so far this season. Here are a few reasons why:

-We all know Sloan has a tendency to not play rookies. He will sometimes, but it is extremely rare.

-Matthews was undrafted, and doesn't have a guaranteed contract.

-Maynor was going to be the 3rd string point guard. 3rd string point guard on a team with D-Will as the starter = garbage time only.

-Matthews was behind Kirilenko, Brewer, Miles, and Korver on the depth chart.

-Maynor seemed too small and scrawny to play in the NBA.

But here they are, being huge contributors to the Jazz this season. Matthews is rated as the Jazz #1 defender, and Maynor is playing like the best backup point guard we've had in a while.

CJ Miles will return this Friday, and Kyle Korver should be back soon as well. The team should be at full strength in a week or two.

So all of a sudden the Jazz have a ton of guys who can flat out play. You've got a starting 5 of Okur/Boozer/Brewer/Matthews/Williams with backups being Millsap/Kirilenko/Korver/Miles/Maynor/Fesenko/Price. That is a deep team, and it's going to be tough to keep everyone satisfied with the minutes they are getting.

Thanks to the added depth that the two new rookies give, if the Jazz were to make a trade, they have a few chips to deal with. The expiring contract of Matt Harpring's corpse is an attractive piece. Korver's contract is coming off the books.

Even if they don't make a trade, these two guys have probably altered what the Jazz will do next offseason. If Matthews keeps it up, he's made some of the Jazz wing players expendable. With a young, cheap, talented, solid all-around player like Matthews around, perhaps the Jazz won't be as inclined to re-sign Brewer or Korver this offseason.

A successful road trip

One might look at the road trip the Jazz just wrapped up and see the 2-2 record and the blowout loss to the Celtics and think it wasn't a very good trip. I would disagree strongly. Here are some reasons why:

-Jazz finally win in Madison Square Garden. The victory over the Knicks was +2 for us because it kept the Knicks in the bottom 3 teams in the NBA. I'm really liking our lottery chances with the Knicks pick this year.

-Jazz win in Philadelphia was the best overall game of the season so far. The team really played well together, even without Deron Williams. There was no selfishness.

-Jazz almost come back and beat the Cavs. If AK hadn't shot a boneheaded 3 pointer, they might have pulled it off.

-The last two games showed us that Eric Maynor and Wes Matthews are for real and belong in the Jazz rotation.

-Eric Maynor was just fantastic, I can't get over how good he was. LeBron even came up and game him some compliments after the game was over.

-Boozer seems to have regained his old form. He's making fans wonder why they wanted to get rid of him.

-When Korver and Miles come back, the Jazz bench will be very deep with Millsap, Korver, Kirilenko, Maynor, Matthews, Price, and Fesenko. The Jazz will have 12 guys who can contribute, and I'm sure Koufos will be a solid center as he matures.

Overall the Jazz regained a lot of confidence and learned new things about themselves this trip. Boston's dominant victory over the Jazz caused the players to want to play more like the Celtics do - as a team, with nobody caring who gets all the credit. With the Jazz poor record on the road as of late, we can't complain too much about a .500 trip. They have restored my faith that they will have a successful season. They just need to finish ironing out the bumps. They don't need to make a trade, they will be fine especially when Korver and Miles return.