Time for the Jazz to Make a Move

What was destined to be the hottest selling jersey on www.myutahjazz.blogspot.com may never be sold at all.

So, I wake up this morning and due to week three of the permanent dead leg I received playing basketball, take 25 minutes to drag my leg out of bed and walk to the living room. The walk to the living room wears me out so I immediately sit back down on the couch and turn on the T.V. The first thing I hear is"Ron Artest traded to Houston and Chicago has a verbal agreement with Deng." Are you kidding me! Everyone is making moves and so far our best move involves a guy named Brevin Knight. Well, that's not true we did lock D-Will up for a few more years, which is the most important move.

This got me thinking though, what moves are left? Who can we get that is going to put us over the top. It's not CJ Miles and it's not Brevin Knight. Speaking with David Locke on Monday I thought Luol Deng may be it, but it looks like that idea has been shut down. Who is left? Is there a deal out there that makes us the team to beat? Artest brings a lot of Drama but he is good. You are lying if that signing doesn't concern you as a Jazz fan.

I want to hear from you, our readers, what you really think needs to happen. So, to get the conversation going, Hammy, Pick-N-Roll, Whistle, CB and myself compiled our list of realistic....err, not a chance in hell trades, we need to make happen. I'll start with mine:

Booner:
AK for Deng (Yes, our chances are all but lost, but I am holding on to a little hope.)

AK for Chris Kaman (Don't judge me for this. You know you would love having a legitimate big man that can score. Plus he doesn't look near as ugly next to Korver.)

CJ for anyone of the Barry boys. (I don't care if it's the Dad, it just seems if you have a Barry on your team you are making, at the very least, the conference finals.)

Hammy chimes in with a few ideas that look so simple:

Carlos Boozer for Dwight Howard

Carlos Boozer for Chris Bosh

AK for Paul Pierce

AK for Lebron

CJ for Joe Johnson

Pick-n-Roll continues his mission to get the "Cookie Monster" in a Jazz uniform:

1-Shane Battier & Dikembe Mutombo for AK & Ron Ron
2- Boozer & exp contract for Amare Stoudmemire
3- Crazy trade with Sac-town to get Ron Artest.....too late

Whistle, the Manny Ramirez of Jazz blogs, just being the whistle:

Memo, Boozer and AK for Dwight Howard

Boozer for Anyone

Korver & Brewer for Ben Wallace

C.B. Jack provides what may be the most realistic move the Jazz can make:

The Bear
I would like to see the Jazz trade for a younger, smaller, and more agile mascot. I feel like The Bear has done a great job during his tenure with the Jazz, but the team needs to move in a different direction. Back in the Bear's prime, he was doing dazzling stunts at an amazing rate. There were games where he would do the "scoreboard repel" and the "stairway sled" in the same game. He was reckless. He made us hold our breath. He made people who don't swear say "That is one crazy mother #^@*$*!".

He dazzled the crowd during the 1992 All-Star Jam Session and solidified himself as one of the league's elite mascots. Fast forward 16 years. Three knee surgeries, two burst tendons, a hip replacement, and 5 costume changes and all we have is some 50 year old in a 75 year old body who wants to capture our attention with such pranks as "Pull the foam finger and I'll hit you on the head" or "kids shoe toss". While entertaining, I no longer hold my breath. I don't even get the "oh shiz he's coming towards me" butterflies that I used to get when he would come to my section. I'm sure he is getting big bucks and lots of free Papa Murphy's pizza, but it's time to trade The Bears inflated contract for a young, daring, never-had-death-flash-before-his-eyes, mascot.

Thanks for the memories Bear. You won't be forgotten, but if you keep your current act up, you won't be remembered either.

"How many people have to get hurt before we pull the plug on The Bear?"

So My Utah Jazz readers, please leave us a comment and tell us your dream trade...

4 yrs. of Depression.

Well Hammy, time to start cooking up that turd sandwich.

"If the Jazz match that offer sheet I will personally deliver a
turd sandwich to Kevin O'Conner. " -Hammy

You don't mind if I bring a little camcorder along for YouTube purposes do you?

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700245985,00.html


I am bitter. I am so fed up with CJ. Just so you know, the Jazz cannot do a sign and trade. He WILL be in a Jazz uniform for at least the first year of the contract. What on earth was K'OC thinking?

Reasons this was a dumb move:

-CJ Miles does not want to be in Utah
-Jerry Sloan does not like the guy.
-I hate the guy.
-Where will the money for Milsap and Brewer come from?
-If Kyle Korver opts to stay the last year of his contract, when will CJ get minutes?

I just don't get it. Please feel free to leave a comment and explain to me why this makes sense. I would love to hear all the CJ Miles homers (BiasedFan) come and support this absurd move.

Score: CJ 15.8M, Jazz Brass 0

I hope CJ's agent just laughs his way to the bank.

Its a Bold New Basketball World

So much for a sign and trade with Atlanta to get Josh Childress, he has signed on with Greek club Olympiakos. Not that the Jazz were giving any signs of making such a deal (thanks for the effort Kevin), it was just a pipe dream that a few of us fans/writters were having. Josh is not a superstar in any definition of the word, but a very nice player that is vital to a club with championship aspirations like our Jazz. He was not going to help a team like Atlanta too much because he can't be your second best player, but with the Jazz he could have been a Tayshawn Prince or Bruce Bowen type of contributor when their teams won the trophy, just what this version of the Jazz are needing.

The first thing to look at in this deal is the money, because the money is what it is always about regardless of what the athlete says. The deal is for 3 years and apparently worth 7 Million per year after taxes and conversion from the Euro to the Dollar. To compete with that an NBA club would have had to come up with a 10-12 Million per year type of deal to come close to the take home pay he is getting. With the salary cap and economic structure of the NBA right now that type of deal is salary cap suicide for a player of his caliber. Basically it would take a 4 year $45 million deal to match it apples to apples. Imagine paying Andrei Kirilenko that much, we would be ready to set fire to Kevin O'Conner. Oh wait, we're paying AK a little more than that right now and we can't stop complaining about it (and AK is a better player that Childress).

The more interesting part of this deal is the possible ramifications that his signing might have on other players of his caliber. For us Jazz fans this means players like Ronnie Brewer, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver might be getting offers that are too good to pass up and too rich for the Jazz to match. These are players that the Jazz need to keep on board and need to keep developing if they want stay at the top of the pile in the NBA. For a restricted Free Agent like Childress (or Millsap next year and Brewer shortly after that) going to Europe ultimately gets him to un-restricted status quicker while still getting paid. To keep his rights the Hawks would have to make a qualifying offer each year which goes against their cap. I just don't see a team outside of the Knicks that would be willing to eat up a portion of their cap for a player that is 5,000 miles away with no intentions of coming back. Basically the Hawks are screwed on this one and are going to loose Childress for nothing in return. Childress also got an opt out after each year of his deal so as soon as he gets a better offer back home he can take it.

Lets hope this does not become a popular trend for other good, but not great young players or the Jazz could be just as screwed as the Hawks are. Up to this point in the globalization of the NBA it has been the US teams picking off the players from Europe and now we may be seeing the start of an new reality. Fortunately, the Jazz are not run by complete morons like the Hawks and should be able to keep this from happening to us. I think...

Morris, Morris, Morris.....

Is it really that hard for Morris Almond to play a little defense or even pass the ball. That is all Sloan wants to see but for some reason Morris thinks the more he scores the more minutes he will get. If Almond had a brain he would of tried getting assists, steals, and rebounds. He is a black hole and will rarely see the floor this upcoming season. He is soft and is extremely lazy on defense. It really makes you appreciate guys like Harpring.
As far as Fes and Kosta they looked bad. I had high hopes for both of them. Let's be honest Kosta will be lucky to stay in the league for more than a few seasons. and Fes is Fes, happy but doesn't have a clue.
The revue guys looked bad and will not have any impact on the Jazz team at all.
P.S. Did you know Kosta middle name is Ken.

Whistle

The Shart Era is Over!

Not sure if MUJ readers have heard the news but Jason Hart has just been traded to the Clippers for Brevin Knight. 1320 KFAN has just reported the deal and apparently it is a simple one. The Jazz trade Hart straight across for Knight. I am sure more details will be known shortly, in fact, some of you may already know more about the trade than I do.

During the 2007-2008 NBA Season Knight averaged 4.6 ppg and 4.4 assists in 22.6 minutes per game. That's a minor improvement over Hart's 2.9 ppg and 1.5 assists in 10.6 minutes per game.

It certainly isn't the blockbuster move I was hoping for, however, it is a good move for the Jazz. I don't think Knight is going to take Ronnie Price's job away, but it doesn't hurt the Jazz to have a couple of back up point guards fighting for minutes.

Here's to hearing more smart moves from the Jazz Front Office this off-season. I was going to put together a montage of Jason Hart's career in Utah but it ended up being seven minutes of him sitting at the end of the bench. Take care Hart.

Booner

C-YA CJ & D-Will is Locked Up (kind of...)

CB Jacks biggest dream is coming true, CJ Miles is leaving town and dude is going to get paid too. Apparently the ownership of the newly created Oklahoma City Scam Jobbers team think CJ is worth 15 million over 4 years. If the Jazz match that offer sheet I will personally deliver a turd sandwich to Kevin O'Conner. I think at best with CJ you are getting a 15 minute per night player who averages 7 points per game and might go off for 25 points every now again. When it is all said and done I am so happy that pin-heads running the players formerly know as the Sonice are making the CJ issue go away. I just don't understand how a career 42% shooter with a scoring average of 4 points per game is worth 15 million dollars. Most NBA GM's are just plain dumb. I am going to miss the pre-game handshakes though.

Moving onto the bigger and better story of the day, our boy D-Will is locked up for 4 more years. This is very good news for the Jazz and possibly even better news for Jazz fans. I personally think that D-Will made the smart move for him and for us as fans by taking the 3 years with an option. By signing this deal he will force the Jazz brass to stay competive and keep improving the team or their golden boy is going to bail. It may even make them think twice about going into luxury tax land if means getting the right player to put the team over the top.

I heard David Locke of KFAN 1320 bring up another good point about this contract that I think is a very important one. When this contract is up Deron will be 28 years old and assuming the CBA stays the same can then can sign another deal for 6 years at that point taking him to 34 years old. On that last contract he would be making potentially 30 million per year in the last 2 years of the deal as a 33 and 34 year. If he would have signed for 5 years today he would be getting that 24 - 30 million as a 35 and 36 year old and history has shown that point guards start to get dramatically worse after turning 34. Want some recent proof? Jason Kidd was 34 last year and most of his major stats went down, would you want to be paying him 21 million next year? Gary Payton turned 34 or 35 when he joined the Lakers and his points per game went from 20 the year prior and then to 15 with Lakers and then to 11 and then to 7 and then to 5. The point is point guards don't age well after they get past that 33-34 year old stage and if you are paying that point guard 30 million you have seriously handicapped your team.

P.S. - I was going to write something about game 1 of the Rocky Mountain Revue but apparently the piss poor play against the Spurs carries over for our Review team as well. Good effort boys and thanks for keeping the tradition of getting your heads kicked in by the Spurs alive.

Sign Him Already!

If you are like me, you've been clicking on espn.com, cnnsi.com, utahjazz.com, etc. every two minutes waiting for that "Breaking News: Jazz sign Deron Williams." But still, nothing. It took the Hornets 15 minutes to ink CP3 up, what are we doing? I am about as impatient as they get but this is ridiculous. My biggest fear is that he is going to head out to the Olympics and we still won't have a deal.

Does anyone have any insight here? I've searched Insider Reports, listened to Sports Radio 24/7 as well as tapped phone lines and still can't get a freaking bone here.
Enough with the Rocky Mountain Revue, tell me what the deal is with Priority #1. Yes, I am excited about the Review, but honestly, what are Jazz fans more excited about, the Jazz beating the Iranian National Team or the Jazz signing D-Will.

Oh, and on an unrelated note, you know damn well Ronnie Brewer and Ronnie Price told Fez it's still cool to bleach your hair. In fact, I tapped that phone conversation:

Brewer: Fez, you oughta bleach your hair mane?

Fez: No, that maybe cool in 90's.

Price: What? No, it's still hot man.

Fez: You sure? I don't see American do bleach no more really.

Price/Brewer: Trust us on this one. It's still cool.

Fez: Well, if you say cool it is. I bleach.

Nice work Fez.

Anyhow, on to the real reason I was writing. Let's wrap this up already Jazz. Don't try to play hard-ball, just make it happen and make it happen quick. Contrary to what a lot of you Jason Hart fans think, D-Will is the key to the teams success for years to come so it's time to seal the deal.

Booner

So Much for Our Maggette Hopes

It looks like the Jazz will be 0-2 in their attempts to land Free Agent Corey Maggette. Not that every Jazz fan thought Maggette was the best move, nor did Jazz brass want him more than any other F.A. out there. However, I'm still bitter because my hopes of landing Maggette just went down the drain. According to ESPN Maggette looks to be signing with Golden State.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3479117

So what is next? Does anyone know? Are we even going to make an attempt to land a "Big-Name" F.A.? Do we need to? From a personal stand-point, I love the drama and the excitement of Free Agency. I love to read the rumors and speculate what we may or may not do. That is one of the only things that gets me through the off-season. And now with the Bachelorette being over, without any big moves, this off-season could be a huge let-down. Oh well, if not making any moves is the right move for the Jazz, I can live with that. I'm just going to be really bored for a couple months.

Booner

P.S. For those readers who just unsubscribed from our blog because I said I watch the Bachelorette, NO, I do not watch the Bachelorette. However, I am officially hooked to "Wipe-Out" on ABC. Nothing better than watching grown men and women completely humiliate/inflict pain upon themselves via asinine obstacle courses.

P.S.S. For those MUJ readers who do watch the Bachelorette, don't leave because I offended you in my "P.S." above. MUJ writer "Whistle" writes a daily Bachelor/Bachelorette Blog at http://www.justtellyourfriendsyourwifemakesyouwatchit.com/

Go Jazz!

CB Jack on 1320 KFAN - Locked on Sports TODAY @ 4:00 pm MST

True Blue unite...

My Utah Jazz has been asked to be on Locked on Sports again today!

Tune in Monday (Today) at 4:00 pm MST. Feel free to listen live here.

Thanks to David and Kevin for making it happen. Please let us know what you agree and don't agree with. We want to represent Jazz nation and can only do that with your help. Of course, if your opinion isn't the same as ours, we probably won't address it. But aside from that, let the feedback begin!

http://www.thefansports.com/

The Post Draft Offseason Plan

Its time to get into the trade phase for the Jazz because I can't imagine that they would try and sign any free agents this year and I think there are two intriguing trades sitting right in front of our faces.

First Trade - why not work out a sign and trade with the Clippers for Maggette? Have the Clips sign Maggette to a 4 or 5 year deal worth about 9 million per year (which would be about 3 or 4 million more per year than any other team besides Philly, Memphis and Golden State could offer him as a free agent) and send AK packing. We would have to take back Tim Thomas in the deal, but he is only on the hook for 2 more years at about 6 million per instead of the 3 years at 17 million per that we owe AK. So after two years the Jazz would net 7 million in salary to give to Deron and Milsap.

If this was the only move the Jazz made you would see the most dynamic, powerful offensive team in the last 15 years of the NBA. Three legitimate 20 point scorers, two guys who can create their own shots and get to the line at will and think of how many open 3's Memo would get because teams would have to guard Maggette unlike AK. I don't know how good Maggette's D is, but could the Jazz really get worse there? Besides, it is the interior D that is the big problem for the Jazz and Maggette would be guarding swing guys. There is also the real possibility that Boozer is going to bolt after next year and Maggette could help fill the scoring void that would be created if that happens allowing the Jazz to go and find a stud low post defender and not worry so much about the offensive output from that position.

Second Trade - moving onto the great big gorilla in the room. I think that the Jazz need to seriously consider trading Boozer at this point if they even remotely think that he could bail on them after next year. They could get a kings ransom for him right now and set the team up to peak with a solid core during D-Wills prime. I would love to see the Jazz keep Boozer and Deron together, but Carlos has a shady past and Karma has a way of getting back to you so get out while you can if you start seeing any bad mojo coming our way. I would try talking with the Bobcats for a sign a trade with Emeka Okafor and put a serious upgrade on the low post defense.

Imagine going forward with D-Will, Brewer, Maggette, Okafor, Okur, Milsap and Korver. I think that we would get at least one good big man from the Fesenko/Kofus combo and another good scorer off the bench from the Almond/Miles combo as well. That would give the Jazz a solid 9 man rotation for years to come.

Some other trade chips that the Jazz could put into play would be the Knicks pick next year, and both Jaron Collins and Jason Shart have expiring contracts that other teams would like to get ahold of. It would be a pretty major change up if the Jazz could pull off those two trades, but I feel that the Jazz would be a more complete team long term if they could pull it off.