RealGM

Some of you want to tank the season and get a good draft pick. Some want desperately to get rid of one of our bigs so Favors and Kantor get more minutes. Some want to force our idiot coach to play the young players. Some of you want the young guys, that are our future, to get more playing time together. Some of you want a young point guard to grow with our young core. Some of you want to take a chance to go for the championship, instead of always being satisfied with making the playoffs. The question is are you ready to give a very good deal to another team to accomplish these things?????? My trade and plan I believe accomplishes all the above.

Here is my trade and my plan. Paul Millsap is a free agent and is as good as gone after the season, so I am not counting this as a big lose. Mo Williams is injured, a free agent and we would hate to lose him, but he is not the long term answer at point guard anyway. Now the one I really hate to lose is Gordon Hayward, but you have to give something good to get a starting point guard with NBA experience. Before you look at the trade, let me give you the whole picture of where I am going with this. We tank, for those that can’t stand that, or let the young ones play their hearts out trying to win getting much needed experience = tanking. We end up with a poor enough record to get the best small forward/power forward coming out of college Alex Polythress 6 ft. 8 in. 239 lbs. from Kentucky, with our pick (projected around pick 7). With the Golden State pick, we get Trey Burke the point guard from Michigan.

Our line up next year would be:
PG – Branden Knight (Kentucky drafted 1st round), Trey Burke (drafted 1st round and he may end up being better than Branden), Alec Burks
SG – Alec Burks (drafted first round), Kevin Murphy
SF – Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky drafted 1st round), Alex Polythress (Kentucky will be drafted 1st round), Marvin Williams has a player option and he may stay (drafted 1st round), resign free agent DeMarree Carroll?
PF – Enes Kanter (Kentucky drafted first round), Derrick Favors, Alex Polythress, Jeremy Evans
Center –Derrick Favors (drafted 1st round), Enes Kanter, Ante Tomic or some defensive free agent?

We can use our 2ndround pick to fill in our roster as needed.

Corey Maggette becomes a free agent and we let him walk after the season. He is not currently starting, so Detroit has no problem losing him. Tayshaun Prince has 2 more years on his contract, which will allow for Alex Polythress to gain experience. Hope our idiot coach will play him over the veteran as soon as he is ready. This forces Corbin to play the young core more this year, and sets us up to be a power house team in the future. We let Big Al walk and use his salary to lock in all our young talent. We will have a team full of good ball handlers and shooters, so we have no need for the black hole.


Change in Team Outlook for Detroit: +9.5 ppg, +2.8 rpg, and +3.4 apg (Hey we're tanking live with it).
Outgoing Players

Paul Millsap
27 year old , 6-8, 253 lb. F-C from Louisiana Tech
14.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 2.6 apg in 30.1 minutes

Mo Williams
30 year old , 6-1, 195 lb. G from Alabama
12.9 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 6.7 apg in 31.4 minutes

Gordon Hayward
22 year old , 6-8, 210 lb. F from Butler
13.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.2 apg in 26.5 minutes
Incoming Players

Corey Maggette
33 year old , 6-6, 225 lb. F from Duke
5.3 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.1 apg in 14.3 minutes in 2012-2013

Tayshaun Prince
32 year old , 6-9, 215 lb. F from Kentucky
12.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 2.3 apg in 32.4 minutes in 2012-2013

Brandon Knight
21 year old , 6-3, 189 lb. G from Kentucky
13.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 4.6 apg in 32.3 minutes in 2012-2013

Ok let me know your thoughts. I would love to have the above team going forward myself. Even if Brandon Knight currently does not have great stats he is young, plays on a poor team and will improve. At least we would have a 3 pt. threat at the point guard (.401 percent this season and .380 his rookie season). No longer will the Jazz be the team that settles for just trying to make the playoffs.

I like Knight, but I'm not sold on him as a PG...... He seems to be a second coming of his teammate Stuckey, a guard who doesn't really like to pass the ball, but is too small to play the 2....... And his PER is ridiculously low, which is another warning sign......

I just don't see him as a starting PG for a good team......

Very well thought out, with lots of good reasoning. However, I fear that you are holding on to an over zealous expectation of Brandon Knight. I agree that he has loads of potential, but I just don't see him as a future franchise point guard. He may end up working himself into a very good PG for a long time to come kind of like Jarrett Jack of GSW's, but he doesn't have it yet that is for sure.

I say we either sign Jack to be our stop gap PG while a draft pick develops, or what I am seeing as a better option is we give the position over to Burks. He needs to improve his shooting, but what I think is good about playing him at PG is it keeps his over agressiveness in check. Sometimes he can be too drive happy as a SG, and being the PG helps him think more out their and make good decisions. I would always play him with Hayward out there who I think can be like a Ginobli/Evan Turner/Iggy clone with the ball in his hands and then we play more motion/flex offense with way more movement. I tire of the spot up game that has no movement with Williams/Foye. Spot up players only do well when the ball is flying around with great passing. Thats why Jefferson needs to go and we bring Pau in... see below:

I go back and forth on Hayward but I actually am starting to see that he will end up being a very good starting SG in this league.

I love your idea of getting Poythress as I think he could end up being great... but I would rather trade Millsap to OKC for the Toronto pick and carry a little dead weight salary in Perkins to accomplish this pick goal. Heck, they may even be willing to take Jefferson and I bet Perkins asks to be bought out... something like all of his dough this year and 4-5Million of next year and he walks over to Boston.

This way we retain Hayward. So my two trades would be:

Millsap to OKC for Perkin & Toroto Pick... then buy out Perkins

Utah: Jefferson to Bobcats, Marvin to LAL for Pau Gasol and Charlotte's Detroit Pick
Charlotte: Ben Gordon to LAL, Pick to Utah (Detroit one) for Jefferson/ Meeks, and LAL 2016 first.
Lakers: Pau Gasol to Utah, 2016 first to Charlotte, Meeks to Charlotte for Ben Gordon/Marvin Williams

This way we pick up 2 coveted picks, pick up Poythress/Burke and one more piece this year. Pau Gasol returns to form and either becomes an all star anchor for the next 4-5 years, or a trade asset for a top draft pick or prospect for a team that can't wait anymore. And best of all we don't commit to mediocrity with Millsap/Jefferson extensions.

Future Lineup:

Burks/Burke (taken w GSW pick in low 20's or our own)
Hayward/Burks
Carrol/Poythress (Taken w Toronto pick)
Favors/Kanter
Pau/Big in the draft with our pick (Taken with our own or GSW pick)

Plus we have the Detroit pick to look forward to.

jazzrule wrote:PG – Branden Knight (Kentucky drafted 1st round), Trey Burke (drafted 1st round and he may end up being better than Branden), Alec Burks
SG – Alec Burks (drafted first round), Kevin Murphy
SF – Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky drafted 1st round), Alex Polythress (Kentucky will be drafted 1st round), Marvin Williams has a player option and he may stay (drafted 1st round), resign free agent DeMarree Carroll?
PF – Enes Kanter (Kentucky drafted first round), Derrick Favors, Alex Polythress, Jeremy Evans
Center –Derrick Favors (drafted 1st round), Enes Kanter, Ante Tomic or some defensive free agent?

What's with your obsession with listing where players were drafted and what school they were from? Why does it matter? No one cares that Tayshaun Prince was picked in the first round out of Kentucky. He's a grown, established NBA player at this point with a track record that speaks for itself. And I can't see the Jazz going after him.

And Ante Tomic isn't coming to the NBA. That ship has sailed. He'd be a minimum impact guy here even if he did come over.

Piston fan here, I come in peace...We're not trading Knight at all!..I suggest you guys look into trading Burke to the Suns for Marshall...

I lived in Michigan for a long time, and the Pistons are my second favorite team. They are not trading Knight, unless you're willing to give up a serious chunk of our core, which I wouldn't do.

I don't know how you think you're prying him from a rebuilding pistons team. He's going to be very, very good for them (I've actually met him several times, he works out at his old high school in Florida where my friend works, and he seems very smart, hardworking, charismatic, combined with his physical tools, he's just going to be a very good starting PG). I don't think he's a "franchise player," but I think only like 6-7 players are.

This is why Bledsoe should be our #1 target this offseason. He's a potential top 10 guard on a team that has a franchise PG. There is no other young PG in the league with that much upside but no future with their current team. Once CP resigns, we have to be all over that. Bledsoe is the perfect Jazz player. Not perfect Jazz PG, but he's incredibly tough, great rebounder, physical etc. Not a distributor in the half-court, but he's a playmaker on defense and in transition. We need that, and he's imminently acquirable. No other options outside the draft imo. Maybe Lowry, but I think Bledsoe can be better and we'd get him on a rookie deal and let him mesh with the rest of our core for the next 5 years.

I don't see the point in trading away core pieces for Knight anyways who hasn't proven he is a true PG. In Utah you like high IQ PGs anyways. Milos Teodosic fits that well and you don't have to trade anything away for him.

I'd let Big Al go and in today's NBA just have Favors play the 5 spot. But I can see keeping Millsap around on a long term deal. Then Kanter can have a nice role off the bench.

I don't see the incentive in a deal where we clearly give away the best piece in Hayward.

Brandon Knight has a 12.6 PER. He's only a good 3pt shooter. His FG% stinks, his assists are low for a PG averaging 32mpg+, his scoring is also mediocre for his minutes, very low steals and blocks (I imagine his defense in general is bad). Seems like Hayward was ahead of him in his second year, and doing far better now than Knight is, and they are really just about 20 months apart in age. Not to mention that Knight plays on one of the worst teams in the NBA, while Hayward plays for playoff team. I don't really care for Mo much, though Millsap I could see us retaining for the right price, and obviously this wouldn't help our chances. I know some people want to get rid of both Millsap and Jefferson, but it'd be nice to keep one, for some front court depth. Prince is done, so it's basically a trade for Knight, and I don't think I'd do it for Hayward, even knowing we have Burks who might be able to replace him well.

Jodi wrote:Piston fan here, I come in peace...We're not trading Knight at all!..I suggest you guys look into trading Burke to the Suns for Marshall...

This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Marshall is barely competitive in the D-league. I'd much rather see Burks become our future PG.

Our core are probably not going anywhere. I would also assume Marvin is going to stay another season.

I believe Mo is good enough to be our PG for the next couple years. I mean there is nothing to not like, especially when it comes to PG who will actually come here, who aren't drafted. It will be awhile till we can draft the next Stockton or D-Will.

I see the Jazz keeping Foye, along with Carroll. The only uncertainties are Paul and Al, with Paul being the only one not going to play next year.


I can see Jazz picking up the best PG in the draft or getting another big guy. I think we will keep Mo as starter, but will fill in the bench with another PG while removing Watson, probably in some deal that trades Paul. Although, I see Paul being traded for a Forward, I can't think of any PG that I want, that could be traded for Paul(except Lowry or Calderon).

We got screwed....our future starter PG is on the Trail Blazers. One as good as him will be in the next couple drafts but how is Jazz going to continue to get some good 1st round picks each year to fish out our future starters(every great star on Jazz was drafted). If we want a new one, its gonna be in the draft again.