Upper Bowl Jazz Fan

The Jazz are ready for a Pau Gasol-esk trade

// January 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Trade Rumors, Trades

I wrote, the other day, that without a shakeup (trade) of the roster or some kind of internal rededication to fundamental basketball by the Jazz, they will not be able to do a whole lot better than they are now.  At this point, I don’t think the Jazz can beat Denver or the Lakers in a 7-game series even with home court advantage.  And I think that Portland and Oklahoma would give the Jazz a run for their money in an identical series.  Not that I doubt the skill of Phoenix, New Orleans, Memphis, or Dallas.  The Jazz just happen to match up well against these teams and generally can beat them.

So, it’s either a fundamental change to the way the Jazz approach the game of basketball (not likely) or a trade (more likely).  If we’re going to go with a trade, let’s make it one like the trade the Lakers made for Pau Gasol 2 years ago.  That trade was freakin’ awesome for the Lakers and the worst bonehead maneuver the Grizzlies have ever done.  This is how I imagine that trade went down:

Michael Heisley (Memphis Grizzlies owner) to Chris Wallace (Grizzlies General Manager): “CWall! I was thinking, we’ve got a great young-ish player on our team and then a bunch of crappy ones and we’re not winning.”

Wallace: “You noticed that huh?  Wait, what is your definition of ‘winning’?  I think you may be looking too pessimistically at it.  We win a game here and there.”

Heisley: “You’ve got a great point there, I think the best strategy here in order to become a better team and win more games is to trade away that great player for maybe some solid players to round the team out.  But, let’s make sure we get a really really good deal out it”

Wallace: “Well, that doesn’t make sense to me but hey, I’ll start shopping around our best player.”

Wallace calls around to a few GMs around the league and says to them something to the effect of, “Hey….so….um….if you were maybe at all interested in players on our roster…who would you pick?”

GMs reply, “Well, besides Gasol, because let’s be honest, why would you ever trade a versatile big man who’s a good defender, excellent in the paint, and a good mid-range shooter…you’ve got Mike Miller, he’s not bad.  Stromile Swift, he’s got some upside, Mike Conl–”

Wallace: “Hang on just a second!  I mean…just curious…IF Gasol was available…or something, would you want him?  Who would you, um, be willing to give up for him?  Just hypothetically…”

GMs: “Let me get back to you but we would definitely be interested.

At this point, I’m sure as Wallace was shopping around he got a number of excellent deals including some first round draft picks, rookies, role-players, expiring contracts, and some players with good potential.

Wallace undoubtedly considered his options as he quietly spoke with other GMs.  Mitch Kupchak (General Manager of the Lakers) probably got wind of this rumor and looked around his team and what options they had and he had come up kinda short.  The Lakers didn’t have a lot of tradeable assets at the time and knew it.

Wallace calls Kupchak and throws the same spiel at Kupchak, who, thinking that not seeming like he wanted Gasol was the best route, replies: “Oh Gasol huh?  Hmmm…I think I know who you’re talking about…Mexican guy right?  5 feet 10 or so?”

Wallace: “Er, yeah, something like that.  Except he’s about 7 feet tall.”

Kupchak: “Oh, right right.  Well, I gotta be honest, we don’t have much right now.  I can give you a couple of draft picks down the road, some spare change…it might be Canadian money or something but I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to use it…like it all.  Um, what else, oh, we drafted a dude who’s chubby and looks like Bigfoot…I think he might be some sort of relative of your guy, all Mexicans are related right?

Anyways, he’ll come into the league in a year or two, you can have him when he does.  AND, I’ve saved the best for last, I’ve got a ’72 Datsun that doesn’t run anymore, it’s all yours.”

Wallace: “Well, I like where you’re going with some of those.  I mean, Bigfoot would be cool to have and you never know when you might need to go to Canada and a ’72 Datsun would be a nice backup.  I’ll get back to you on that.”

Chris Wallace goes to Michael Heisley with a number of trade proposals that he’s received and after hearing L.A.’s offer Heisley responds: “Wait, so all these other offers are only potential trades?  Like they maybe aren’t REALLY willing to make that trade but if we want, they’ll talk about it some more?”

Wallace: “Well, yeah, that’s sorta the way it works.  We’ve got to talk it over and negotiate…”

Heisley: “F that dude!  If L.A. has said they’ll for sure trade what you just mentioned, let’s freakin do it!  Just tell the media and stuff that this was the best deal possible.”

Wallace: “Yeah all right.  Want to hit up the horse races?  I hear that Mr. Roger’s Sweater Vest is a 38 to 1 underdog.  I say we put down $2 million on him.  I’ve got a good feeling.”

Heisley: “Sounds good, I’ll trust you.”

That’s how it went down folks…I promise. The Grizzlies got the Lakers’ 1st round draft picks in 2008 and 2010.  The 2008 draft pick was Donte Green who now plays for the Sacramento Kings.  The loose change was Javaris Crittendon and Kwame Brown.  You might remember Crittendon from such NBA scandals as “Let’s Draw Guns on Each Other in the Locker Room,” or “I Make Outrageous Bets I Can’t Afford to Gilbert Arenas.”  Kwame Brown is the one of the biggest #1 draft-pick busts of all time and has been a gigantic disappointment since entering the league as #1.  The ’72 Datsun was Aaron McKie who was an Assistant Coach for the 76′ers and hadn’t played in the league for 3 years or so when the trade happened.  He never played for Memphis.

So…how does this all apply to the Jazz?  Surely we can make a similar heist and get Brook Lopez, Kevin Love (or Al Jefferson), Kevin Martin, Carl Landry, Jason Terry, Corey Maggette, Luol Deng, Andrew Bogut, Gerald Wallace, Caron Butler/Antawn Jamison, or any other great player playing for organizations doing badly or ones run by idiots who might spend too much time at the horse races.  We can offer you CJ Miles, Kosta Koufos, the rights to Peter Fehse (Thank YOU Oklahoma), and I bet we could throw in Morris Almond in the deal…even though he’s not with the Jazz now.

Remember how well the Jazz did two years ago when they traded for Kyle Korver?  The team was re-energized and they finished the season 38-14.  Korver didn’t even shoot all that well after coming to the Jazz.  He averaged 39% from 3 point range after being traded which is respectable, but nothing game changing.  Imagine what the Jazz would be like if we got any of those above players?

Turns out Carlos Boozer is worth something to the Jazz

// January 13th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Trade Rumors, Trades

It was interesting to hear what Kevin O’Conner said, this week, about the Jazz and their tax situation.  He was clear and precise in stating that the Jazz’ first priority was to win games.  And that the luxury tax was not a concern for the organization.

Then the Dallas Mavericks made an offer to the Utah Jazz for Carlos Boozer.  In return, the Mavs would give the Jazz Shawne Williams, Kris Humphries, and Drew Gooden.  For Dallas, the reasoning was that the Jazz would waive Gooden before his contract became guaranteed so the Jazz would end up saving $2.5 million after releasing Gooden.  Reportedly, the Mavs had also offered cash to the Jazz as the icing on the trade cake.

The Jazz would have none of it.

I find it ironic that the Jazz were the team that drafted Kris Humphries and he was pretty terrible for the Jazz.  Nonetheless, the Mavs were prepared to package up their crap in return for an All-Star 20/10 Power Forward.  Ha!  As, reported, the Jazz weren’t even tempted.

I suspect that the Jazz have had a dozen other offers like this.  As fans, we hear about so few of the actual trades that are proposed but not accepted by one side or the other.  Sure, you can hear NBA rumors anywhere and everywhere but so many of them have so little merit.

This proposed trade from the Mavericks happened to come to light after it was shot down but it almost seems like that it’s conditions were made public to do 3 things: 1) Send a message to the other teams in the league that these terrible trades will not be entertained. 2) Prove to fans that the Jazz organization is committed to winning (at least, with the pieces that are available). 3) To keep Carlos Boozer playing like every game is a job interview.

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Utah Jazz Trade Scenarios

// January 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Trades

During the last few days the Jazz have come up in various rumors around the league as a possible team to initiate a trade.  Greg Miller’s post about the Jazz and what management has been up to as well as the financial situation of the team still being over the luxury tax has quite a lot to do with the trade rumors.  The NBA community has been throwing ideas back and forth about trades.  Some ideas have been quasi-plausible and some have been downright unrealistic.  Here are a few that I’ve heard:

Trade scenarios posed from around the interwebs:

• Boozer, Okur, Miles for Butler, Jamison, Blatche — If you’re Utah, I think you do this trade in a heartbeat but I don’t think the Wiz give up Blatche.  They do seem to be at the cusp of breaking up the team but I don’t see it.
• Jason Richardson + cash to Utah Jazz for AK. — I don’t think either team pulls the trigger.  The Suns could have had him a couple years ago when the AK/Marion trade was on the table.  I don’t believe Sloan would want JRich especially since he’s a 2 and we have plenty of people at that position.
• Prince and Ben Wallace for Boozer. — I wouldn’t mind having Prince on the team (or even Ben Wallace) with the defense that would come but Prince and AK are pretty much the same and I can’t see Joe Dumars giving up so many defensive players. (continued…)

Trade scenarios posed from various NBA writers:

• Boozer for Dampier and Gooden. — Dampier’s contract isn’t guaranteed next year and Gooden’s isn’t guaranteed for the rest of the season (only for 3 more days) so this would be mostly a salary dump
• 3 team trade: Wizards get Carlos Boozer and Shaq; Utah gets Caron Butler and Mike James’ expiring contract; Cavs get Jamison, Haywood and Kyle Korver’s expiring contract. — 3 team trades are nice in principle but generally very hard to carry out but this would not be too shabby for all the teams involved.
• Martin/Thomas to Utah for Andrei Kirilenko, Kyle Korver’s expiring contract, $3 million, and the rights to New York’s unprotected first-round pick in 2010. — I would love to see Kevin Martin’s offense here in Utah but he is known for being a liability on defense and bad defenders should be what the Jazz want most to avoid.  Also, as much as I don’t want to admit, dreams of a top 3 pick w/ NY’s pick next summer are dying as the Knicks are constantly improving.  If they continue to do so, using that pick in a trade loses it’s value every day.
• Murphy, Dunleavy and Travis Diener to Utah for Andrei Kirilenko, Kosta Koufos and Kyle Korver’s expiring contract. — This trade isn’t at all realistic but would go down in history as the most white guys involved in a trade. (continued…)

At this point I declare that the Jazz will not be able to trade Kirilenko’s contract this year unless they include NY’s pick next year AND the Knicks start to tank.  It’s seeming very unlikely.  Here are my suggestions to trade possibilities:

• Boozer for Antawn Jamison.  The trade can go straight across with their salaries being almost identical.  Boozer’s and Jamison’s game is nearly identical as both have decent postup games and can shoot the long jumper.  Jamison has a decent 3 pt game which the Jazz could utilize since we rank in the bottom third in 3 point shooting.  Jamison isn’t a great defender which makes him pretty much even with Boozer.
• Kevin Martin + some other King for Boozer.  Again, I like Martin’s upside on offense and wouldn’t be exciting for his defense but I think it could be beneficial for both.
• Boozer for Rip Hamilton.  I don’t necessarily love this trade but I think it could work.  Rip’s game is to constantly cut until he’s lost his man and find’s an open jumper.  This almost describes Jerry Sloan’s offense.  However, Rip’s contract is cumbersome and his production has declined over the past season or two.
• Korver and the rights to Peter Fehse for Marc Gasol.  Hey, you never know what Chris Wallace and Lionel Hollins will go for.  They got rid of another Gasol for garbage and the rights to a player who hadn’t come to the NBA yet.  I can always dream…

We’ve got less than 6 weeks till the trade deadline.  Usually the Jazz sit still in these situations but with being into the luxury tax it seems unlikely that the Jazz will continue without making a move.

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Jazz trade away Maynor and Harpring’s contract to Oklahoma City

// December 28th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Trades

On December 23, 2009 the Jazz trade rookie Eric Maynor and Matt Harpring’s corpse to Oklahoma City for…wait for it…the rights to Peter Fehse!!  Who?!  That’s exactly what I said when I heard about it.  Oklahoma City (then the Seattle Supersonics) drafted him in 2002 but kept him playing in Europe after they drafted him.  He never panned out in any fashion good enough for OKC to decide to bring him to the NBA.  He’ll never play a game in the NBA…that’s safe to say.  Basically when you make a trade, especially with the Jazz sending 2 players, the NBA requires that both teams receive something in the trade.  Harpring’s contract this year is $6.5 million but since Harpring is out for the season (and likely will never play again) insurance is covering the majority of his contract.  Since the Jazz are over the cap, it essentially means that they were paying the portion of Harpring’s contract that insurance was not picking up ($1.8 million) AND also $6.5 million in luxury tax to the league since insurance doesn’t cover over-the-cap fines.   Eric Maynor’s contract is good for $1.3 million this year. (continued…)

On the surface, this trade seems crappy.  Eric Maynor, even as a rookie, has been a solid backup to Deron Williams and trading him away for essentially nothing doesn’t really seem to be worth it.  However, digging deeper we see that this trade was a pretty savvy move by Kevin O’Conner.  I like Maynor better than Ronnie Price because he has a better passing and shooting game but Price is a decent backup to Williams.  It’s not like the Jazz are high and dry now that they traded Maynor.  The other thing to remember is that, at best, Maynor/Price as the backup will only really get 8-12 minutes per game…which isn’t all that much.  Something else to remember is that the Jazz were $12 million over the cap which means they forking out a lot of money in salaries and to the league for the luxury tax fines.  After making this trade the Jazz save $10.5 million this year…that’s astonishing.  Someone I know who is VERY close to the Jazz and their financials disclosed that the Jazz were losing over $200,000 per game this year.  In these tough times it’s hard to ignore that figure.  In times of recession the rich lose more than the rest of us.  The owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder has been reported to have lost over $2 billion in the last few years.  It’s safe to say that the Miller family has probably also lost money due to the bad economy.  The last thing the state of Utah needs is for the Miller family to be losing money in their non-Jazz related ventures AND then for the Jazz to be losing money because we don’t need them pulling the plug.

Another way to think about this is from the opportunity cost side.  When this trade became available the Jazz could very well have looked at it like this.  If we trade Maynor we save $10 million dollars.  Is Eric Maynor worth $10 million dollars?  Would he be worth a $10 million dollar contract?  No way.  That’s not even a question.  Luol Deng, Hedo Turkoglu, Manu Ginobili all make around that and Maynor is not remotely in that same class.  So the bottom line is: you make that trade and be happy you did.

In the meantime, the Jazz are under the required roster size of 13 so they’ll need to pick someone else up.  Whether that’s through a trade, bringing up a D-League-er or someone not playing in the NBA we’ll see.

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