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The worst thing about the Pau Gasol trade, is that it made the league predictable.

The worst thing about the Jazz pick last night is it made us predictable. We will be a borderline playoff team until Deron leaves. We won't win another series for the better part of the next decade. We were lucky this year to win, but Portland and OKC will move ahead of us this year, and we will lose in the first round if we even sneak in. Whats worse is we will always be just good enough to not get anyone of value in the draft again for quite some time. I call it the endless state of mediocrity.

We won't be able to sign any significant free agents because A. we don't have the cap space to sign any this year and B. there are none in the future few years and C. they won't come here anyway. So our only way to improve was to do something dramatic in the draft and build from within.

If the Brand deal was there for AK, and our #9 and Memphis pick you do it. If it was their for other things at 6 or 7 you do it. Ak and 9 for Rip and #7 you do that too. We could have taken on Maggette and got number 6. The point is you do something in a a 7 player draft to make sure you get one of those 7 players. (GS being the one team in the top 7 that didn't take a player from the correct tier. Aminu was the 7th ranked player.)

And now with how conservative the Jazz were, the problem is that we will not be this high again until Jerry and Deron leave. We are going to lose Boozer this off season which is fine, but we have no cornerstone to build from off of this draft. They got bad luck in the final weeks of the season where they went from possible as high as 3 or 4 and a minimum of a 5 to 7th pick to tieing with the Clippers and then losing that coin flip. (Which had we won, we would be sitting with Aminu today, something we would all like at this point.)

The GM war room of the Jazz were paralized to do anything risky. Give up Ak, take on a contract, and get a future cornerstone. They have held onto AK and overvalued him for too long. He needed to be the key to our moving up in the draft from the get go, and I think that that option was just never really considered. No wonder nothing go done. If I were the other GM's I wouldn't have moved down for CJ or the memphis pick alone(we probably didn't even want to give up on CJ either). I would have wanted some cap relief. The Jazz just hunkered down and decided not to risk it, and didn't realize that we, the entire fanbase wanted them to risk it all to make something dramatic happen.

So watch closely as we head into the endless night of mediocrity.

Exhibit A: chicken little syndrome

I don't like the pick, but you threw everything in there except the Miller's would sell the team and they would move to Vegas....

A draft pick isn't going to make us a borderline playoff team, and I'm not sure where you think Portland is passing us up. It may be true about OKC, but I also don't see Denver repeating their strong season.

The major situation to consider is whether Boozer stays or goes. That will be the decision that shows how this team will do in the years to come, not the #9 pick in the draft.

HammerDunk wrote:A draft pick isn't going to make us a borderline playoff team, and I'm not sure where you think Portland is passing us up. It may be true about OKC, but I also don't see Denver repeating their strong season.

The major situation to consider is whether Boozer stays or goes. That will be the decision that shows how this team will do in the years to come, not the #9 pick in the draft.

Boozer is gone!!!! He is either playing in New York, Miami or Chicago. These teams are not clearing cap space to not sign free agents. Starting from there, everything said in this initial post is true. The Jazz had an opportunity to try and win it last year and simply refused to spend the money and risk their future for one year. We now have a bunch of good guys that work hard and will be fun to watch. 50 wins is a still a good possibility but a championship will never happen in Utah and that was proven last year when management didnt go for it. Cleveland went for it and it failed, but at least they tried with no regrets. The Jazz management and ownership are just happy with the status quo.

I fully expect Boozer to sign elsewhere--however, word out there is Miami is targeting Bosh. Then add Wade returning and their cap room is pretty much gone. Anyone going to New York or New Jersey? From what I've heard, neither is very attractive for guys to sign up for early as they don't have any other pieces in place. Chicago is fairly attractive due to the pieces they have in place. Is Boozer their primary guy since they already have Noah? I would expect Amare to go before Boozer but that is where the next few weeks will be interesting...

I was not trying to be apocalyptic about these things by posting this, but the truth is what the truth is. We were high enough in the draft to get a player by taking on a contract and we chose not to. Cleveland is a perfect example. If they had won after taking on Jamison's contract then Lebron would have stayed. Heck, the feeling is that had they gone to the finals and just missed out, he would have stayed, but since they went out in the second round LBJ has the cover to leave cause he can say that his team isn't close and is so cap strapped that they can't improve in the near term. But at least they went for it.

We needed to go for it, and we didn't. If we resign Boozer we will be the same 50 win team that is more likely out in the first round as teams around us improve.

The last year has been the same thing over and over: Questionable calls all around. Keeping Boozer instead of trading him when you knew you couldn't beat the Lakers. Resigning Okur to an extension and loosing cap room for this summer. Picking Hayward instead of moving up and taking Monroe. Taking Hayward so you could let Korver (the better player) go. Korver is the better shooter now. Both can't defend their position but at least one of them has an elite NBA skill because Hayward certainly doesn't. They did nothing at the trade deadline, and did nothing all year but save money unwisely, and spend money unwisely, and now they will reap the reward... Which is mediocrity.

It certainly isn't the apocalypse because we made these mistakes anymore. We will certainly be a playoff team, but you either have to commit to be a champion, or commit to build a champion. The Jazz have chosen to be mediocre, and for the next 5 years we have locked ourselves into being on the borderline of making the playoffs, early exits, and weak draft picks which furthers the cycle of mediocrity.

And that to me is apocalyptically boring!