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I feel a little better and a little worse after listening to that. It is a must listen to if you are a draft junky like me. About half way through the first 45 minute podcast he mentions how hard the Jazz pushed to get Cousins by trying to get the #3 pick from NJ.

Basically Chad says along the time NJ started playing games with Minnesota about possibly taking Wes Johnson at #4, they had really decided that there just wasn't anybody that they were in love with and looked at moving the pick to get real low with the tax and possibly do what Miami was trying to do.

At this point he said KOC tried desperately over the last 48 hours to pry the pick away from NJ, and that he was very creative. What does that mean? Chad mentioned Yi's and Kris Humphries' contracts for sure ($7.25M combined) would have to have been taken back and even Devon Harris' contract (although I wonder about NJ's willingness to do that). He also says the draft day rumor about Indiana offering Granger was BS.

So what did KOC try, and why didn't it work, and what could have made it work.

For sure: #9, and Memphis' pick, and any 2nd rounders they might want, and probably either another Jazz pick in 2013 etc. or something. Probably also when it came down to it $3M cash I don't think that would have been a deal breaker or clincher regardless of the Miller Family desire to do so or reluctance because we are dealing with a multi-billionaire owner at NJ.

To take back the $7.25M we simply send the Matt Harpring trade exception or other exceptions as needed.

Possibly: Millsap for Harris. So NJ clears Harris' $8.98M and the $7.25M from Humphries and Yi, a total of $16.25M basically for Millsap's $6.2M giving them roughly a $10M cap reduction, and giving them some $44M I think in cap space. They also pick up the leagues best backup power forward to team with Bosh or Stoudamire or oddly enough Boozer in FA. Because if you get Lebron, do you really need an elite PG? That is if they were really trying to move Harris. It may have just been the 2 contracts for Yi and Humphries. For the Jazz I would have done either scenario because if we get Cousins, but it cost us Paul, we just resign Boozer and shop Harris for a SG or pick in the draft, or another Center or backup PF. Really we could have parlayed Harris into anything, if he was part of the potential swap.

How did it fail? Now we learn Rod Thorn is retiring, and that I think really rules them out of the Lebron chase, unless they hire Pritchard asap and then that actually increases their chances. Thorn was one of the best and Pritchard is considered one of the best if not the best GM in the league. All in all though I think we needed a little more fire power. This is where KOC's weak drafting in the first round has hurt us. If we still somehow had Maynor we probably could have done this deal. Maynor whould have had some pretty high value after an impressive year as Dwills backup. Just one more young chip may have done it. Or say we had taken Ibaka instead of Kosta back in 08', that could have sealed it. Oh, would a could a should a.

What extra could we have offered? Could we have been the team not sleeping at the wheel when OKC robbed Miami by taking Cook and the #18 pick. I say robbed Miami (we all know what they were doing), Sam Presti of OKC rather robbed all the other GM's in the league. When all you have to do is take on $2M for a pick, and you get a first rounder just outside of the lottery you jump on that ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!! The 34th pick cost $2M and you don't get a player with your money, you just spend the $2M. Sam Presti of OKC spent $2M on a decent player and got a near lottery pick! Where was KOC on that one.

Why weren't we on that like ( fill in the blank )! Most late first rounders cost $3M, that's what Dallas paid for #25, but they didn't get a player. We could have so, so, so done that. We should have done it regardless.

Would my aformentioned deal worked. Would the 18th pick sent it over the top? Hindsight is always 20/20.

Certainly I do feel some vindication that I was right, that Cousins was the guy we should have been targeting all along. I am proud however to hear they made a play.

Now, the question remains: Why didn't we get that Miami pick, and parlay it into the #6 pick so we could get Monroe!

THINK KOC, THINK! This draft is so agonizingly frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!! You needed to be a little more on your game, and you could have really done something here.

Sorry for the long post.

can someone summarize this.

Once again, purely speculation. I think it's funny how people think they know the situation better than KOC. He's not an idiot. We can all speculate on what was going on, but bottom line is KOC wasn't willing to blow up this team to get the #3.

ut_jazz wrote:can someone summarize this.

The Nets were willing to trade down from three, Jazz wanted to trade up to three to pick Cousins, they weren't able to reach an agreement.

For the record, the Jazz couldn't have used Harpring's trade exception to bring back those two players. The dollar amount fits but you are not allowed to use a trade exception on multiple players (there are several good sources on trade exceptions if you google it). Funny when people get on the internet making accusations about the professionals and they don't even have the basic rules down themselves.

Bottom line, the Jazz have squandered good assets and the opportunity to obtain other assets in the name of thrift. That is the reason they were hamstrung on draft night.
I am so tired of hearing that this organization doesn't have money to spend- BULLS#!T! They just don't have the balls. Welcome to the new Greg Miller era.

He has none of the passion nor maverick risk taking blood of his father, and the Jazz will always seek the sure, steady financial return under his leadership. Junior's faulty logic does not even acknowledge the fact that were this team able to make consistently deep appearances in the playoffs, the organization would create enough revenue to more than make up for the extra few million invested.

I'm a very frustrated fan at the moment - not just because of recent moves and the lack there of, but because of what these moves portend for the future.

Jazz have never been a risk taking organization.

This was very reassuring to hear at least we correctly saw cousins as the answer to much of the Jazz's problems. Ultimately, NJ couldn't take on salary so they didn't do it.

My question is why we didnt push for the #5 from sactown, where cousins was just as likely (if not more) to go. Maybe KOC did, but it seems they would be easier to deal with, given they can actually take on salary / maybe weren't as wedded to the idea of favors / cousins.

In answer to Fido's condescending remark. We have two Trade exceptions: Harpring and Brewer and could have done both to get the two players.

To Jazzfan71, I agree that we should have then moved on to Sacto, but I also think they were locked in on Cousins too and weren't really that interested in cap space to give him up.

Good thought though.

All in all, we don't know the intimate details because we aren't in the room, but given our assets and what it would have taken, it is pretty easy to speculate about what was probably on the table and I just would have made a different decision than the organization based on what was likely on the table.

Fido wrote:For the record, the Jazz couldn't have used Harpring's trade exception to bring back those two players. The dollar amount fits but you are not allowed to use a trade exception on multiple players (there are several good sources on trade exceptions if you google it). Funny when people get on the internet making accusations about the professionals and they don't even have the basic rules down themselves.

I'm not finding these good sources of which you speak.

This location suggests that the team trading away the exception (in this case, the Jazz) can trade away only one player, but the other team can trade more than one player.
http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q71

In other words, it's not clear to me why Utah couldn't trade Millsap and a trade exception for Harris, Cousins (a pick), and whatever else was necessary for the deal to work.