Upper Bowl Jazz Fan

Utah Jazz Trade Scenarios

// January 7th, 2010 // 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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