My Kevin O'Conner Utah Jazz Plan

[Montanajazz]

1. Draft a Big man at #1
2. Trade Kirlinko and the jazz#1 of Memphis in 2011 for New Jerseys #2-gets jazz $
3. Jazz Draft another big man with New Jersey #2 Pick
4. Trade Price & Koufus for veteran Point Guard-makes around 3.2 Mil
5. Sign Mathews to 5.5 mil contract.
6. Sign #1 pick 3.5 mil
7. Sign new Jersey #2 pick, Jeffer, & Gaines for 2.4 mil total
8. Sign Brendon Haywood for 6 mil
9. Sign John Salmans for 6 mil
10. Sign Al Harrington for 8 mil
11. Sign Fez for 1.2 mil

Thats 73 million, and over the cap! Remember Okur is injured, Miles in last year + Fez, gaines, Jeffers are on 1 year contracts. Jazz said they were willing to be over cap again in 2011.

Williams Gaines Veteran
Mathews Miles Jeffers Salmons
Salmons MIles Jeffers Mathews
Milsap Harrington Okur Rookie #1 0r 2
Haywood Fez Okur Rookie #1 or 2

14 players

[dr0welf]

I hope you mean Matthews 5.5Mil for 2 years. I don't think he is quite to the 5.5mil/year yet. And if you did sign Matthews to 5.5Mil, where are you getting the money to Haywood, Salmons, and Al Harrington? We are still over the cap so we can only use our 2 exceptions and you just used the big on one signing Matthews. It's just impossible.

Also, our 1st round pick is #9 which makes 1.84 mil the first year. Based on the rookie scale at http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages ... pholds.jsp ; we do not have the option to sign for more or less. So that will save you a couple mil off of your hopeful spend. But since we will have no money it makes this a mute point.

[drivewayball]

My Jazz plan? Get rid of O'Conner. The Okur contract was so lame. How can you pay a guy to screw you over like that??

[superd]

I live in Maryland so don't get to see the Jazz play very often. I stayed up late to watch the Denver and LA series. Miles has come a long way and I think should be the starter at small forward. Mathews as a second round rookie was amazing. Both these guys played hard and well, yet both should get better.

I always liked AK but he gets hurt too often. With a Russian owning the Nets maybe we could trade him to NJ with the #9 and get the #2 where we should take the center Cousins out of Kentucky. Jazz need a center as was painfully obvious against the Lakers. I don't think Okur comes back strong next year.

Not sure how the salary stuff works but with AK gone we should have money to keep Boozer and Korver.

PG Williams, Price
SG Mathews, Korver
SF Miles, Korver
PF Boozer, Millsap
C Cousins, Boozer

This rotation gets Millsap plenty of playing time which he has earned.

[JDubJazz]

1. Draft a Big man at #1
2. Trade Kirlinko and the jazz#1 of Memphis in 2011 for New Jerseys #2-gets jazz $
3. Jazz Draft another big man with New Jersey #2 Pick
4. Trade Price & Koufus for veteran Point Guard-makes around 3.2 Mil
5. Sign Mathews to 5.5 mil contract.
6. Sign #1 pick 3.5 mil
7. Sign new Jersey #2 pick, Jeffer, & Gaines for 2.4 mil total
8. Sign Brendon Haywood for 6 mil
9. Sign John Salmans for 6 mil
10. Sign Al Harrington for 8 mil
11. Sign Fez for 1.2 mil

Thats 73 million, and over the cap! Remember Okur is injured, Miles in last year + Fez, gaines, Jeffers are on 1 year contracts. Jazz said they were willing to be over cap again in 2011.

Williams Gaines Veteran
Mathews Miles Jeffers Salmons
Salmons MIles Jeffers Mathews
Milsap Harrington Okur Rookie #1 0r 2
Haywood Fez Okur Rookie #1 or 2

14 players

1. wrong. Take the best player available. Thats always the best draft strategy. If its a big, then great, but drafting for size over skills = Saer Sene or Michael Olowakandi.

2 & 3. First off, NJ says no way and secondly, see #1.

4. I'm fine with moving Price, but I'm not ready to give up on Kouf yet. He's certainly not untouchable, but I don't want to just dump him.

5. Ridiculous. Matthews is NOT a full mid-level exception guy. If he gets an offer over 3.5 million per year, then let him walk.

6 & 7. Not gonna happen.

8. Haywood is a possibility, but I think Dallas will keep him to prove they didn't screw up that trade.

7. Salmons is a guy the Jazz have liked in the past, so I could see it, but at this point I'm not sure he gives us any more than CJ.

8. Harrington would be an immediate occupant in the Jerry Sloan doghouse. No thanks.

9. If Fes comes cheap, then sure. If he gets a stupid offer, then let him walk.

I'm not trying to be a jerk and just shoot everything down, but your ideas for trading up in the draft seem particularly unrealistic, as does overpaying Wesley Matthews.

[Bullet]

My thoughts:

on 2: Trading for AK dampens NJ's hopes of landing FAs this summer.

on 9: I'm guessing Salmons will get some great money this summer, probably 9M+ per. He was great for Milwaukee towards the end of the season and more notably in the playoffs.

[Wolverine]

Sign & trades with Dallas:

Boozer, AK + #9
for Dirk & Haywood?

[blackham9258]

Just have to disagree with the last comment about Salmons getting $9M this summer. He is at best a mid-level guy, and the only team dumb enough to offer it to him would be Milwawkee who like us has to overpay to keep and get players.

The the new CBA coming up which could cut players salaries by up to 40%, you will not see a lot of big contracts this summer. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh and possibly Amare will be the only ones getting max money. If there were fewer teams with the cap space Amare and Bosh wouldn't get max in this environment.

Their is always a chance for some ridiculous contracts, but look for teams to be frugal.

Philly will rue the Brand contract. Detroit, the Hamilton contract. We already regret the Memo one, and not because he was injured. Why else is Dirk leaving $21M on the table next season, because he knows this is his last chance to lock in ridiculous raises and contract size. The stars of this league will insist on their inflated contracts to be grandfathered in.

In short, look for Salmons to go for $5M per, to Full MLE money.

[Fido]

1. Draft a Big man at #1
Ok, cool.
2. Trade Kirlinko and the jazz#1 of Memphis in 2011 for New Jerseys #2-gets jazz $
There is no way NJ burns their cap space on AK when the free agent market is going to open up just a few weeks later. The only shot I see is if they miss out on all the "main targets" and remain under the cap that far.
3. Jazz Draft another big man with New Jersey #2 Pick
Won't have it
4. Trade Price & Koufus for veteran Point Guard-makes around 3.2 Mil
Who do you propose for this? And if you find one, why do they want Price & Koufos for him?
5. Sign Mathews to 5.5 mil contract.
They are going to have to use the mid-level exception to do this but he may very well demand it since his season went so well.
6. Sign #1 pick 3.5 mil
Whatever the rookie scale is....
7. Sign new Jersey #2 pick, Jeffer, & Gaines for 2.4 mil total
Jeffers and Gaines have non-guaranteed team options on their contracts according to some web sites
8. Sign Brendon Haywood for 6 mil
Can't--the Jazz are over the salary cap and used their mid-level exception on Matthews.
9. Sign John Salmans for 6 mil
Can't--the Jazz are over the salary cap and used their mid-level exception on Matthews.
10. Sign Al Harrington for 8 mil
Can't--the Jazz are over the salary cap and used their mid-level exception on Matthews.
11. Sign Fez for 1.2 mil
Ok.

The biggest (legal according to the CBA restrictions) challenge is going to be deciding whether to sign Boozer, sign-and-trade him for some pieces to strengthen the team, or just let him go. They also have the trade exceptions that could be used in trade scenarios (especially multi-team deals to make the numbers work) to take a player without sending someone in return.

[UTJazzFan_Echo1]

My Jazz plan? Get rid of O'Conner. The Okur contract was so lame. How can you pay a guy to screw you over like that??

Yes, since that is exactly why we signed him to an extension...to screw us over.

The KOC hate over the Okur contract extension is just stupid.

In fact the hate for KOC in general is just stupid. He is the one of the best if not the best GM in the NBA today. God its like when you guys complain about Sloan as our head coach...he is HOF coach who wins with a team full of second round/undrafted guys and yet you still complain. Just amazing...