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So I figure with the obvious potential holes in our roster, I'd go down what assets the Jazz have in the off season that will allow them to fill some of these gaps.

1. MLE: The Mid-Level-Exception is the Jazz easiest tool to use this off season as far as signing FA's is concerned. Estimated to be between 5-6 million dollars.
(Some of it will likely be used to resign Wes Matthews)

2. LLE: The Bi-Annual Exception will allow the Jazz to sign a low level FA for around 2 million a year, or can be split like the MLE to sign multiple players.
(Likely used to fill the 10-12 man role.)

3. TPE: The Trade Exception acquired in the Harpring trade worth 6.5 million can be used to acquire a player in a trade with a salary with in 100% +100,000 of 6.5 mil.
(This is a valuable asset to teams who are over the luxury tax line trying to shed some salary.)

*TPE #2: The Trade Exception acquired in the Maynor trade worth 1.3 million can be used to acquire a player as well with the same provisions.

4. Carlos Boozer Sign-and-Trade: With the pure number of teams looking to acquire a big man i.e. Chicago, Miami, New York, OKC, and New Jersey, it seems likely that Boozer will receive an offer too large for the Jazz to match. The advantage for the Jazz in a sign and trade is the ability to acquire some assets back in a trade instead of losing Boozer for nothing.
(Boozer can also be traded to one of these teams below the salary cap, and the Jazz won't have to take back a dollar for dollar match.)

5. Kyle Korver Sign-and-Trade: With as much attention as Boozer gets, you can bet Kyle Korver will draw a ton of interest from teams that sign one of the big name free-agents. Korver is an excellent complementary player coming off the best shooting season in NBA history.
(His value is high right now, and a sign and trade with Korver could give the Jazz a very solid rotation player.)

6. Andrei Kirilenko Expiring Contract: Next to Michael Redd, AK-47 has the biggest expiring contract of anyone in the league. Though the demand for expiring deals won't be nearly as high this season as it was last year, the FA class of 2011 is still strong, and you can bet the teams who miss out on this years FA splash will be looking to have money to spend next year.

7. Memphis First Round Draft Pick: Though the pick is heavily protected, first rounders are always valuable, and the potential for it to be a #15 pick if the Grizzlies sneak into the playoffs soon would be tantalizing for a lot of teams looking to get younger.

8. Young Talent: Though I imagine that this is the least of the likely scenario's considering the Jazz need to fill roster spots at pretty much every position, the Jazz to have some young players who could be had in a trade. Kosta Koufos, CJ Miles, and Ronnie Price seem like the most obvious candidates, with an outside chance that Paul Millsap could be moved in certain situations.

*Edited to correct info.
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That is pretty much all I can think off right now, but you can definitely see how the Jazz are going to be approaching the off season. Each of those things individually have some value, and when packaged you could really be looking at some nice trade pieces. It really depends on how much salary the Jazz are willing to take back, and whether or not the money saved from the trades last year was meant to be spent this off season.

What do you think the Jazz should do?

Good breakdown of all the assets!!! SImply, there are plenty of them that the Jazz can do alot if they are agressive. I predict the Jazz do nothing. The Jazz unfortunately will do the following:

1) Let Boozer walk (not a bad thing in my mind);
2) Let Korver walk;
3) Resign Matthews/Fess;
4) Sign their number one pick; and
5) Sign a back up center like a Mikki Moore.

Jazz Line up:

PG Williams Price Gaines
SG Matthews Miles Price
C Memo Moore Kosta Fess
PF Millsap AK-47 Kosta
SF Miles Ak-47 Hayward Jeffers

Team will hustle, play good D (much better than last year), and pass the ball. Scoring will be a big issue in the half-court offense. For this team to be a top 4 seed, Miles would have to average 20 points per game (not likely). Predicted record of wins from 43-47 maybe a 8th seed.

There is two trade exceptions - one for Harpring's salary ($6,500,000) that you mentioned and a second one for Maynor's salary ($1,318,920). They cannot be combined but could be used individually to add 2 players in trade without sending anyone in return.

Just to be pernickety, you can't apply the 125% rule to trade exceptions. I think the most you can take is an additional $100,000, so the Jazz could take up to $6.6M using the Harpring TPE.

Interesting question, though, I will think on this.

You don't get great assets (like say.... starters, or good young players) back for sign and trades. (Nearly) All the sign and trade scenarios being tossed around are just fantasies.

Bat wrote:
6. Andrei Kirilenko Expiring Contract: Next to Michael Redd, AK-47 has the biggest expiring contract of anyone in the league. Though the demand for expiring deals won't be nearly as high this season as it was last year, the FA class of 2011 is still strong, and you can bet the teams who miss out on this years FA splash will be looking to have money to spend next year.

Those teams will still have their cap space in 2011 then. The only way this is really a valuable piece is if the Jazz take on some big salary in return, which the FO has been comically afraid to do.

I think we keep AK, let him expire and resign him for cheap. Let memo expire, and then try and sign someone in 2011 or 2012 (whenever we first have space).

I have some ideas for what the Jazz should do, but I'd wager the Jazz don't do anything drastic. We'll see, but as a Jazz fan, I am usually underwhelmed with their "big" changes.

HolyToledo wrote:Good breakdown of all the assets!!! SImply, there are plenty of them that the Jazz can do alot if they are agressive. I predict the Jazz do nothing. The Jazz unfortunately will do the following:

1) Let Boozer walk (not a bad thing in my mind);
2) Let Korver walk;
3) Resign Matthews/Fess;
4) Sign their number one pick; and
5) Sign a back up center like a Mikki Moore.

Unfortunately, I think you're right.

Boozer to the Mavs for Dampier's contract and Roddy B. Jazz get a decent backup PG.

I think the jazz will look to add some bargin Free agents if Boozer leaves. The Jazz split the Mid Level between Mathews ( 3) and another player Milicic or Amir Johnson ( 3) . Maybe use LLe on a Player like Dooling who can play Point plus 2 guard and shoot 3 pointers and play good defence. Use our Trade exeption on a player like Haywood in a sign and trade plus we give Dallas a future first,maybe Memphis pick or trade for Brandon Bass.

The Jazz in the very least will use the Harpring TPE to get someone. I imagine that this will need to be a fairly aggressive off-season, at least in terms of what they CAN do. Too many guys on this site expect them to do things they CAN'T do, like sign a big FA even though they are over the salary cap. Doing that would take either a sign and trade, and they rarely happen to each teams' benefit, or giving away a LOT of assets to make room, which isn't likely since the rest of the roster needs to be filled as well.

Jazzfan12 wrote:Boozer to the Mavs for Dampier's contract and Roddy B. Jazz get a decent backup PG.

Roddy B is a starter in this league, and def won't be traded. Except if lebron comes calling.