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.

My Utah Jazz on 1320 KFAN - Locked on Sports with David Locke**Today 4pm MST**

What up My Utah Jazz fans.

My Utah Jazz was asked to participate in a new weekly segment with David Locke of 1320 KFAN. The first segment took place on Monday at 4:00 pm MST. Feel free to listen to the replay here. Click on the highlighted Jazz Bloggers Rountable link (Thanks Mom for listening, are those instructions easy enough for you?)

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/

All you need to know about Kosta Koufos

Do I get 1/2 a block for this?

(FYI - He's the white guy getting ready to flop)

I cant wait to hear how Hot Rod handles the first time this kid check into a game next season. This is what you can expect to hear:

Hot Rod: Entering the game for the first time this season, number 31 from Ohio State, wait I thought he was from Greece, mmmmmm Greek food, I like Baklava.

Producer yelling at Hot Rod in his ear: The game hot rod, the effing game!! How many martinis has this guy had already?

Hot Rod: Oh yeah, the basketball game, what was this kids name again? Kos, Kuse, Kusta, Kutsa, Costco....screw it I will just call him by his last name....damn that one is harder to pronounce....Kofo, Kufu, Kudos, Cujos....Can I just call him Baklava? Mmmmm, I like Greek food.

Back to the draft - One word sticks out about this pick: Whatever. For his upside he has been compared to Memo Okur (I thought we already had a guy like that) and for another comparison he has been compared to Darko Milicic. Great, that is all we need, another crappy big man on the roster. I guess we do need someone to replace Jarron Collins when he retires in 15 years.

From ESPN.com they list his strengths with stuff like this - He's tall, strong, can pass out of double teams ok and has good timing for blocking shots, but is not explosive enough to be a real good shot blocker. - Keep in mind these are the kids positive attributes. When the best part of your game is your size, well, at least you got that going for you.

Lets move onto the negatives from ESPN.com - Can be a disinterested defender at times. Lacks aggressiveness at times. Lacks lateral quickness. Can sometimes lose his confidence and then his game falls apart. Needs to be able to handle contact in the paint better. - This sounds an awful lot like our current big men, good job guys he should fit in nicely. Maybe he will turn out to be a lot like Memo. You know that he got super excited knowing that you don't have to play defense for the Jazz if you play Center of Power Forward.

The good news is that our D-League team is going to have two 7-footers to dominate the league next year, maybe I will get some season tickets to the Flash.

The Pre-Draft Offseason Report

Now that the evil witch of the west has been disposed of and there has been sufficient time to let the anger and sadness from the Jazz's second round loss simmer down I can rationally take a look at what I would do if I were Kevin O'Connor. And lets face it, we all think that we could do a better job so I hope that the Jazz brass are reading this and take it to heart.

Step One

This part of the off season should just be called, "Open the vault for Deron and give him what ever he wants". If I were Larry Miller I would give him Karl and John's car dealerships and change the name of the stores to D-Will Automotive Group. This is the guy who can lead the Jazz to the promised land and I am pretty sure that the Jazz will take care of him accordingly. They might have to stray into luxury tax land for a year or two until they can get rid of the Kirilenko contract, but Deron is worth it.

Step Two

Trade the draft pick. Ask yourselves, is there anything at all that the Jazz can get with the 23rd pick that will help them get over the hump? We are already one of the 5 best teams in the NBA right now, lets see if we can get a team that is in rebuilding mode to give something up that we might be able to use later. We already have 13 guaranteed contracts for next season and I am pretty sure that they will try and resign CJ Miles again taking it to 14. NBA rules limit teams to 15 and the Jazz like to keep one spot open for flexibility (which I think is a great idea) so why lock yourself into another guaranteed contract. If you were going to take a flyer on a Euro and stash them overseas for a few years that would be OK, but if the Jazz use the pick on another shooting guard or 7 foot project with bad feet I am going to throw my remote across the room.

Step Three

Ask Coach K to teach Boozer how to play defense this summer. Actually, if could just try and get Boozer to give a damn about defense that would be sufficient. Lets face it, this version of the Jazz is never going to be able to lock teams down, but they have to be able to slow them down. I think the D-will and Ronnie Brewer back court is capable so we really need the front court to do their part. Hopefully they can learn to play better team defense the longer they are together, but Boozer and Memo have to show more desire on that side of the floor. I guarantee you that if the Jazz put in an incentive clause for Boozers next contract that gives him some sort of bonus for making the any of the 3 all NBA defensive teams the effort would be there.

Step Four

Start shopping, specifically AK. The Jazz do have a couple of tradeable assets, but we are going to have to swallow pretty hard if we really want to get rid of AK. He has three years left on his cap killer deal there is going to be some garbage in return, but maybe it will only be on year of garbage instead of three. If you package AK with Morris Almond and our first round pick that we are getting from the Knicks in 2010, we might be able to do something that does not completely suck. Miami for example has Mark Blount and Udonis Haslem or you could talk to Milwaukee about Bobby Simmons and some spare parts. The point is, there is a team out there that would like to take a flyer on AK if we sweetened the pot a bit with some other stuff. This trade will be a lot easier to make after the Olympics because you know that AK is going to average something like 20 points, 10 boards, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 3 steals.

After the draft is done we will have a better understanding of what the Jazz and other teams have I will put together a post draft plan with more specifics.

D-Will, Booze Join Team USA

Although both Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer have made the 2008 USA Men's Basketball Team, due to budget cuts, they will have to share a jersey.

It's official, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer of our Utah Jazz will be representing our Country in this Summer's Olympic Games! Below is the ESPN article that most of you have probably all read by now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/olybb/news/story?id=3457058

I don't know what the rest of you MUJ Bloggers think, but this is going to make this off-season just a little bit easier to get through. I am excited for Deron to get his chance to shine, not sure how much time he will see, but I know he will make the most of every minute he gets. I would love to see our two Jazz men bring home the Gold. (It still won't put you on my good list Booze, but it won't hurt either.) Now, don't get me wrong, when it comes to the Summer Games, I am a Women's Gymnastics Fanatic, however, Men's Basketball is a close second.

Congrats D-Will and Booze, from all of us at My Utah Jazz!

Booner

The Perfect Fathers Day Gift

Its no secret that I completey despise Kobe Bryant and the Lakers so to say that I am happy with how the Finals have unraveled would be an understatement. After the Game 4 collapse we can officially cross Kobe off of the greatest player on the earth and heir to MJ's throne debate. Would MJ ever let his team lose a lead like that in the second half at home? We saw the Jazz erase big leads the Lakers built in all 4 of their losses, but unfortunately could never close the deal. It actually makes me mad that the Jazz were so determined to foul Kobe every time he touched the ball and Carlos decided to be a second round pick for the playoffs or they could be here instead of the Lakers.

Anyway, the best thing for me today on Fathers day would be seeing the Lakers lose the finals on their home court as all those fake fans sat there actually a little happy that the season was over so they could get back to watching TMZ and re-runs of Beverly Hills 90210. Phil Jackson would complain in his post game interviews about the free throw disparity while forgetting that Kobe shot 100 free throws per game against the Jazz proving his hypocricy has no bounds. And then we would get to watch Kobe in his post game news conference complain about his teamates not being good enough and demanding a trade. There is an old saying, a zebra can not change his stripes and we are seeing that with Kobe right now.

- This is what a cheating front runner looks like right after he "Wets the Bed" -

Who Has the Classless Fans?

Remember all that talk as the Jazz season was winding down about all the classless Jazz fans? Well, for the record, there are a few other organizations we could talk about as well. Don't get me wrong though, that guy throwing the chair was priceless. And where did that chair come from? Was that a wheely chair? What stadium has those? Was it Phil Jackson's custom chair? Will someone research that for me? I guess it would be nice though: You could just glide out into the hall and grab yourself some popcorn..... then glide right back. Course then there would be the downside: Your friends decide it will be funny to see if you can glide down the stairs or, I could totally see ol' C.B. and Whistle picking me up and then sliding me out onto the court only to delay the game etc. etc. The pros out-weigh the cons though. Anyway, nice work Lakers/Celtics Fans. Nice work.

Booner