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http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/jazz/49897 ... l.html.csp

The Jazz will sign Carlos Boozer and trade him to the Chicago Bulls, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned.

Terms of the deal are still being discussed, but the Jazz will give the Bulls a protected second round draft pick, and in turn will receive a trade exception in the amount of Boozer’s salary for the first year of his contract.

Had to give up a protected second rounder but that's worth getting the TPE. With the Jazz being willing to give up the pick my guess is they are going to pursue using the exception.

KOC.

Am I the only one for using this on al jefferson? He can fill in for center while okur is out and then if/when okur comes back he can slide down to the 4 if need be. To me he just seems like the best possible player to acquire, great post player, very good rebounder, still young only 25.

Do the T-wolves want to get rid of him that badly?

Al Jefferson has way more injury concerns than Boozer, he's a worse defender, and his BBIQ is horrible.

I'm not too hot on Big Al. I could see 'Sota doing this since they are making a run at Lee.

Hell no on AJ. It would be a big waste. They need to be picky with who they bring in, because we will want to use that on someone long term. Huge props to the FO for pulling this one off. It won't be quite so easy for all you fairweather fans to keep hating on them so bad now.

I wonder if there's a way to run at Scola.

Well, this really depends on if we use the TPE or not. If we don't use it it only amounts to throwing good money after bad.

But, if we do use this to land a player like Al Jefferson or WHOEVER I will be very happy we did this.

Glad to see Chicago was willing to work with us, we didn't have a very strong negotiating position with them. I imagine that we didn't drive up the bidding on Boozer because we had this deal in place.

DelaneyRudd wrote:I wonder if there's a way to run at Scola.

IMO, we would still have all the same problems we had with Boozer, with less offense and less consistency. Maybe if he can be had for under 12m or so.

Lee is going to GSW for Randolph, Turiaf and Aziubuke(sp). Good move by the Knicks.

DelaneyRudd wrote:I wonder if there's a way to run at Scola.

I heard Nets are going after him...

Regardless, if we dont use this and/or the Grizzlies exception and let them expire, i'm gonna be a bit irked.

Now we are talking...

Very nice asset indeed. I wonder if Utah would be willing to go into the Luxury tax if they could land some talent w/ that $6.5M TPE and then find a stud w/ this one.

As for Al Jefferson? No thanks, he would kill our offense and just isn't very mobile.

Also injury prone and a defensive liability. No, we need to find a way to use this exception to take on a player like Andris Biedrins, Kendrick Perkins, or someone of that ilk, a post defender with some length and weakside helping ability.

Paul Millsap is going to be a more than capable replacement for Boozer, and will make a run at the All Star game next year, health permitting. We simply need to add a defensive ace and, hopefully, another perimeter guy who can create his own shot. If we can/could do that, not only would we not take a step back, we would actually improve and win 55-60 games. This team still has a lot of quality pieces, and one of the best 5 or 6 building blocks in the NBA in Deron Williams. Playoffs are a lock, even if it takes 50 wins to get there.

This reminds me a bit of the Mavericks when Nash left. Everyone thought that they were going to fall down a tier, but they retooled, traded for a few lesser players who complemented each other well, and it actually catapulted them to their only finals appearance and made them a team better suited to winning during the playoffs. The Jazz' downfall has been defense. They've annually been among the very best offensive teams in the league, but when push came to shove they couldn't get stops. Millsap is one of the best 10 PFs in the league defensively. What he lacks in length and size he makes up for with heart, strength and quickness laterally and off his feet. With a big guy next to him, we would go from one of the weakest interior defensive rotations to one of the best. Combine that with AK's stellar defensive play, Matthews' emergence and D-Will's consistent excellence, and we might suddenly be looking at a defensive-oriented team that can also score at a high level. But its all going to hinge on finding a damn good defensive center. If O'Connor can do that, this will be a net positive for this team.

So basically what we get in trade exception is Boozer for that player. We can take on alot of salary but again the owner is a little broke and cheap. Al Jefferson to Jazz for Memo seems like a possible deal. Not exactly what I want from a center defensively but he can score and rebound and no worse defensively than Boozer or Memo.

Excuse my ignorance for a moment, but do the Jazz have to trade a player or picks to use the TPE? I'm a little fuzzy on how it works.

well done KOC. At least we didn't let boozer go for nothing. Now this gets interesting....

This could be good. I'll hold off getting excited about it until it's actually used though. I can't really think of any teams with a worthwhile player just letting them go for the exception at the moment. I"m sure there's some guys teams wouldn't mind unloading an overpaid guy, but I don't see anyone looking to dump good talent for cap space only at the moment.

Having the salary cap raised actually hurts a bit in this case.

KOC should be on the phone right now offering this TPE to NO for Okafor.

hoops4life wrote:KOC should be on the phone right now offering this TPE to NO for Okafor.

I 100% AGREE! We don't need Jefferson. He is Boozer 2.0 and that is not gonna get us anywhere. Okafor can give us 30 minutes of solid D, shotblocking, and rebounding. We have Dwill, CJ, Okur, and Millsap that can score, but we don't have anyone to protect the rim. We could drastically improve our defensive without effecting our offense too much (Millsap, CJ, and AK can make up for Boozers 20).

This would be a solid lineup:
Okafor/Okur
Millsap/Okafor
AK/Hayward
Matthews/Miles
DWill/Price

We would have an extremely defensive minded starting lineup and some scoring punch off the bench. SIGN ME UP!!