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Like most Jazz fans, I love the idea of the core 4 terrorizing the league. I hope that they blossom together, along with a young, stud PG, and they live happily ever after. Unfortunately, the new CBA won't let that happen. It's nearly impossible in most scenarios. For example, even if Favors and Kanter both only reached half of their potential, they could both get close to the max, or even at the max when they hit free agency, just because teams are desperate for big men. That right there is a huge chunk of your salary tied to two bigs. So what do we do?

I've always felt that Favors and Hayward are the only untouchables on the Jazz. And I've always felt that the Jazz have never been fully committed to Kanter or Burks. I felt that in that draft that they were just trying to maximize their assets. There wasn't anyone that they truly fell in love with, so they just snatched the best players available. Not that they didn't like Kanter or Burk's skillset, I just think they wanted to give themselves more options down the road when the time came to make a move. This is just my opinion. So what if this were true? What would be the next step?

That would give us these assets: Kanter, Burks, one of Jefferson/Millsap, the GS pick and our own. That can get you a pretty damn good player(s) in the right situation.

Just in my opinion, I think that we need to kind of model San Antonio. They've never had problems financially. They've always handled their roster pretty well. There's a reason why they compete every year. They've been tied to 3 core guys (Duncan, Ginobli, Parker) for the last decade, and filled in the gaps with 3-4 year cheap veteran deals and rookie deals. I think we have our Duncan and Ginobli in Favors and Hayward. (No, I'm not saying they're on the same level, but you get the point.) Now we just need to find our Parker. Eric Bledsoe seems like the most realistic and worthwhile option at this point.

Hypothetically, if we gave up Kanter, Burks, and one of Jefferson/Millsap, and and in return got Bledsoe and a couple of decent veterans and/or young players, would we be better of than we are now? I think we would. I think the key is to build around 2 or 3 guys, and surround them with role players who specialize in specific roles. Carroll and Foye type players.

So what do you guys think the direction we will go in? Or what direction we should go in?

I would only trade Burks but with his potential its tough. If we trade Kanter, we have no center and I dont want to keep Jefferson or Millsap. I say we trade one and sign and trade the other for something valuable.

I think we wait and see. Get rid of Jefferson and Millsap for some more picks, find out what players fit going forward and who doesn't. There is still plenty of time. All of our players will be RFA's when they hit the market, so even if we have to resign them to massive deals they can be traded before the deadline...unlike Millsap and Jefferson who don't have all that much value this year. I like the idea of moving Jefferson to San Antonio; something like Al for Danny Green, Tiago Splitter, Matt Bonner and Patty Mills. There would have to be another team involved somehow to keep San Antonio deep, maybe by attaching incentive for Cap'n Jack...but something appealing can be done. Then Maybe a Millsap+GSW pick for Evan Turner trade, or something to that effect. I'm not a huge fan of Bledsoe and I don't see a way we get him here, but I wouldn't be opposed to the idea, either. I just think that point guards are easy to find in the draft and that's the way we should go.

If our young guys become good enough to demand a salary we can't afford then they will be demanding enough to give a benefit to whichever team has their Bird rights... which means they will become more valuable as trade assets than they are now. There is no long-term benefit to trading our guys now rather than later unless we think they aren't going to live up to their potential.

Were really sitting on a fence.

We either go one way or another, or continue to stay up top of it, sitting on 5 vet starters and 5 very young bench players(with mixed company like Carroll and Watson).

I think it all depends on what Jazz think they can get from the draft. I mean were one young PG away from a future group.

Even if we get one and spend next year with 5 young guys at bench, and just sign more FA's, were likely to stay and do what we did last off-season/this season.


I personally see no reason to remove Foye, Carroll and Core Group, There is plenty of cases for removing Marvin, Millsap and Al, especially since there is three guys ready to take over whenever Jazz says OK. I really think foye and carroll aren't replaceable with someone on the bench, but the other positions could come in and do work(expect PG, sitting on Mo and Tins is actually not a bad thing, but I say rid of Watson and bring draft pick in).

Well the Jazz will stay pat athe the trade deadline (with the exception of mabey a small insignificant trade), thats guarenteed.

I think the Jazz will try to build through the draft but try to compete at the same time. I mean what would be the point of making the playoffs with alot of vets on expiring contracts just to rebuild the next year? Thats not gonna happen and not the Jazz style. So to do that Millsap and/or Big Al will surely be back whether you like it or not. And as usual, they will get more veterans and have the young players try to "earn" their playing time.

So expect more of the same with a one or two new young faces and mabey some different veterans (also mabey a young guy or 2 is traded) that will take minutes away from the young guys. The jazz don't do full rebuild mode and I dought they start now whether we like it or not.

Soonest year for "young movement", is 2014-2015, when Burks and Kanter are in their 3rd year. But I say it won't be in full effect by 2015-2016, when all our young guys will be in their +4th year.


Millsap didn't become a true starter till 2010-2011, which was his 4th year. But this was the year we didn't have Boozer and Korver, but had Big Al, AK47, Dwill, and Rookie Hayward/Favors/Evans(this was going to be an amazing championship team till we imploded from the very heart of this organization).

If you look back, Miles #34, Millsap #47, and then Brewer #14. Generally we get young guys like this, we use them as bench and trade them. I see Burks #12 as having the same fate as Brewer, Murphy #47 the same as Eric Maynor #20, and Evans #55 same as Koufus #23. Hayward, Favors and Kanter are highly likely to have the same as Millsap, which is long term Jazzman.

The new bench issue is the biggest factor in removing someone like Big Al, cause Evans would take Kanter's minutes. It is a crazy step to trade a starter for a bench player, I think we should trade them for draft picks, but next year in 2014 when the crop is said to be much nicer(I think this is the Jazz long term plan).



If you go back to the last western finals team (06-07), You might see why were not making Western Finals this year. Dwill and Boozer were All-Star and Olympic level during there best season in Utah. Without a new Dwill/Stockton were not going anywhere. Ak47 is also a big loss compared to Marvin. The biggest factor now is, we no longer have Sloan, and the Wild West has 15 good teams and 12 great teams.

It is easy to see why we got so far that year, but puzzles me how were not able to at least go 2nd round?!?! Is competition that much harder?

1st Unit:
Dwill/Fisher/AK47/Boozer/Okur vs Mo/Foye/Marvin/Millsap/Jefferson

2nd Unit/Key Bench:
Brewer/Giricek/Harpring/Millsap/Araujo vs Tinsley/Burks/Hayward/Favors/Kanter

3rd Unit/Rest of Team:
Brewer/CJ Miles/Brown/Collins vs Carroll/Murphy/Evans/Watson

Starters vs Starters:

PF / C / PG / SF / SG: 73.1 points (06-07 Western Finals Year) 51-31 4th
Boozer 20.9 ppg 11.7 rpg
Okur 17.6 ppg 7.2 rpg
DWill 16.2 ppg 9.3 apg
AK47 8.3 ppg 4.7 rpg
Fisher 10.1 ppg 3.3 apg

PF / C / PG / SF / SG: 65.3 points with Mo and 56.5 points with Tinsley (12-13) 28-22 7th
Millsap 14.9 ppg 7.4 rpg
Jefferson 17.1 ppg 9.6 rpg
Mo 12.9 ppg 6.7 apg / Tins 4.1 ppg 5.0 apg
Marvin 8.5 ppg 3.5 rpg
Foye 11.9 ppg 2.1 apg

PF / C / PG / SF / SG: 74.3 points (96-97 Finals Year) 64-18 1st Western
Malone 27.4 ppg 9.9 rpg
Ostertag 7.2 ppg 7.3 rpg
Stockton 14.4 ppg 10.5 apg
Bryon Russell 10.8 ppg 4.1 rpg
Jeff Hornacek 14.5 ppg 4.4 apg