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I spent some time in Utah this week on a business trip and was stunned that fans want Milsap now over Boozer. My reasoning in this post is that Boozer is an asset that you just don't let slip away and you do everything you can to keep.

I say trade Milsap now because his value will never be higher for us. We are going to lose him in the offseason unless we are stupid and overpay, plus if we resign Carlos, Paul will not want to be here. Understand, we all love Milsap because he overachieves in every way. He plays better than a 6'6'' guy should at PF, he is better than a #47 pick, he is better than his salary says he should play, but fans will feel very differently when he is making $10M a year. I love Milsap, and am frustrated that Boozer is injured because now the secret is out on Milsap. Had Boozer not gotten injured it would have kept his pay at or under the mid-level this summer, which would have been reasonable for us to keep him. Now, that is shot. After saying all this, if Milsap is the starting PF of your team, your team will never win a championship, and you will be a borderline playoff team at best. It is just a fact. Think about the playoffs guys, Milsap against Duncan? Gasol,Bynum,&Odoms length? Stoudamire? Milsap is a great 6th man, perhaps the leagues best, but if he is your starter at the PF position, your team is middle of the road. Think 7-10 sead.

I love AK, but his contract is a millstone that we should have traded when we had the chance for Marion! The decision to be conservative with that trade will haunt this team for a decade if it costs them resigning the players they will potentially lose. If however Cleveland offered Szerbiak and a pick, take it and run. Cap is king, especially if the cap is coming down next year. Brewer will just need to step up. Then we can go out and sign a Trevor Ariza in the off season for extra defense.

Boozer or Memo need to go, and because interior defense is the greatest need that the two of them lack, the best position to fill that need is the center position. Adding to the argument is the fact that Boozer is a top 4 or 5 PF in the league and the fact that the Jazzs' offense is tailored to the PF position. Memo is a poor mans Dirk Nowitski, but as we see with Dallas you can't ride Dirk to a Championship. The Jazz need Defense in the worst way. We have 0 lock down defenders, except in my mind Fesenko and Sloan won't develop him. He could be the next Eaton type player if Sloan had more patience. But, I digress.....

What stands out with LA, Boston, Cleveland, NO, SA is length, defensive stoppers, and athleticism. We can't make Boozer and Memo more athletic or better defenders, so we need to make choices now to put players around Boozer and Williams who compliment their games and increase our defensive ability. We cannot compete with LA and Boston at this point defensively, and because of that we can't win a championship until we get a defensive post player. They are just too long and athletic, and frankly they are just better defenders. We need to move in that direction.

I worry that we will get to the summer and panic if Boozer leaves, and then we resign Paul for way too much money, and if that happens we lock in mediocrity. I say make the statement now to the league and to Carlos that he is the guy, and the cornerstone of the paint for this franchise.

I think the Jazz need to make their choice now on Milsap. If there is a low lottery team that is willing to take Milsap and give up their pick: Memphis, OKC, Sac, Charlotte etc. They should look very seriously at that. Because even if they can dump AK (very unlikely) the Jazz are still better off with Boozer over Milsap, and since that is the case Paul will not want to be here behind Carlos...so move him now and get something for him.

My Plan:

AK for Szerbiak, or Ak for Lafrentz/Pryzbilla

Milsap for unprotected lottery pick

Memo for Camby and a pick.

I wouldn't do all of them, but I would do something to get more defensive now, get picks for the future, and commit to Boozer who is your biggest asset outside of Williams.

These are my suggestions. Have at it.

Yay! Let's trade the face of our franchise for cap and picks!

Trade Millsap for a high pick, so we can hopefully have a player fall to us who's worth a damn, and could eventually average something like 20/11 for us and be a good power forward.

Or, hold onto Millsap, who is averaging something like 20/11, plays good defense and is a good power forward.

Hmm.

50% of lottery picks turn out to be garbage, not worth taking the risk.

Trade Memo who produces for us to the Clippers for Camby, because after Camby left the Nuggets they got surprisingly better, and the Clippers managed to get worse...

Hmm.

Trade AK for Szczerbiak, if all you want is an expiring contract there are far better players out there, and then for Lafretz and Pryzbilla? So we can have a back up C taking up minutes of Koufos who is nearly an identical player with a better offensive game and far more potential, and then Pryzbilla?

Hmm.

Sorry, but I'll pass on all three.

Milsap is not the face of the franchise. Neither is Ak. This is a GM website. If the Jazz resign Boozer, and Memphis offers a 5 year $45M offer to Paul we will not match. We just can't afford it. In the NFL the Patriots and Steelers let aging players go when it is too far gone, and they get picks for them, and they trade their young guys when they have got all they can out of them and they know they can't pay for their raises, and they take those picks and continue to improve.

If Phoenix hadn't given away their picks they could have Rondo, Deng or Iquodala etc.

All I am saying is if the Jazz are going to lose him anyway, why not get picks now. But go ahead, love a 6'6'' PF who can't get a shot off in the paint without contorting his body every which way. He will never be an All Star in this league and he will never lead a team to the second round of the playoffs. Carlos has and will in the future.

As far as Memo, keep him, don't keep him but we have to get athletic on interior defense somehow and somewhere.

Ak, well if you argue for AK, you argue against keeping two of the 2 or 3 of the following: Boozer, Memo, Milsap, Korver.

Think.

Let me ask you then: Can we win a championship with Memo and Carlos' defense in the paint? I say no. I just think if we can't trade AK, which of all of these options is the first option, that trading Okur for Camby or Okafor if we could swing that makes sense. They would give us the defense we need, and if it were Camby it would give us another year at 7M while we wait for Koufos and Fesenko to develop. Because trust me, Okur, Boozer, and Korver will all opt out this summer, and they will all want raises. Who will we keep. Again, my position is that to be a championship contender Boozer is the most important. Next year, there are some 10 to 15 players that are all stars coming up in 2010 for new contracts and all the teams want a crack at the 2010 class of free agents so Okur and Boozer and Korvers agents would be insane if they didn't suggest to opt out this summer and become bigger fish in small ponds this summer.

Just support another team. Would be easier for you

I understand where you are coming from but trading in those combinations, I don't think we would improve.

I think jazz fans along with KOC want to see the team together playing together before going younger and trading/blowing up the team like you are saying.

If boozer asks for more $$ and we must lose someone, i'll pay milsap with better D and less money, a center who can hit 3's, a team leading blocker coming off the bench...

I still want to see this unit play together, healthy.

also I think our winning record we would be the bobcats or thunder in the west...and each of us would watch okur/ak/milsap (milsap for sure!) destroy fesenko and okafor/camby/draft picks combo we would have night after night.

very painful to watch us trade players for lower quality sub par players in the name of future rebuilding.

I'd rather have Millsap's 18/11.5 right now, and have him average 70+ games per season then have Boozer right now who averages 20.5/11.7 and less then 60 games per season. Plain and simple.

Boozer just isn't as durible as Millsap is. And to tell you the truth it's a hell of a lot easier to bring in someone who covers up what Millsap lacks on offense then it is to bring in someone who covers what Boozer lacks in defense.

And historically the NBA has shown that young players usually improve on the offensive end of the floor a lot easier then they do on the defensive side of the floor. Boozer is never going to get better on defense, and it would be absurd to think Millsap won't get better on offense.

You are really selling Millsap short.

But should be negative to wait tha end of the season in this situation..'?

blackham, why do you stop short?
why dont u trade deron to OKC for an unprotected pick too?
maybe they win the lottery and we get a dwight howard type player with that pick for cheap?

Those trade ideas are just about the worst I have ever seen. You should be slapped for even thinking those trades are fair for us or something we should want to do.

blackham9258 wrote:
But go ahead, love a 6'6'' PF who can't get a shot off in the paint without contorting his body every which way. He will never be an All Star in this league and he will never lead a team to the second round of the playoffs. Carlos has and will in the future.

Think.

First, are you really trying to argue that Millsap has trouble around the basket? Because he doesn't. Boozer is a more polished paint player for sure, but it's not very credible to argue that Millsap isn't a quality paint player. What does it matter how he contorts his body when he consistently gets the job done?

As far as Carlos leading the Jazz out of the second round, it was Deron who led in the traditional sense. Boozer was outstanding in our first run, though -- dominating even, so I'll concede this point. But last year? Not so much.

And then there's the "engagement" factor. Booz looks plain disinterested sometimes, especially on defense. If he would be out there going after it 110% every game, then I'd pick him over Millsap in a second. But that's just not the case. I'll always take the slightly less talented guy, who pours his heart and soul into it on both ends, over the the guy who doesn't.

I'd give 9 out of 10 to Booz on offense
5 (and I^m being very generous in here ) out of 10 on defense

Millsap 7.5 out of 10 on offense
8 out of 10 on defense

Add Carlos' injury problems,Millsap's youth(4 years younger than Booz) and the cost(Milsap will prolly cost around 8-8.5 mil per year whereas Booz will cost around 13 mil per year) and you have a very valid argument for keeping Millsap over Boozer.

blow up the whole team for cap and picks. sweet. with that cap we can sign AI or Sheed. Or maybe we save the cap and go after amare or lebron or wade? Im sure one would come to utah right? with one guy on our team deron williams. Other then that why would a player come to us? Millsap can play, he is improving his mid range game and overall he will just be a better player then carlos. He may not ever get to where boozer is offensively, but he already has more D and hustle, not to mention more durable. Id take millsap at 9 million for 5 years over carlos 16 over 5.

Boozer for Marion in another month. Marion would replace Miles, adding a whole lot of defense and experience to the team. Imagine the difference. Marion becomes cap space next season. The Jazz would have to send another player with Booz to make the deal work.

Uh, I think you are selling Millsap short here, BH.

Still, I agree with a lot of your points. For the have-nots, like us, cap is king. It really, really is. And the way you stay ahead of the cap is to have young players who are giving you more on the court than they are costing on your cap. But the only way to do that is to hit on late picks (very hard to do) or find a way to keep a stock of relatively high picks running through your team (even harder) or at least get a combo of both. The Jazz seem to have hit on Kosta, which could play a huge role. If he develops, he could easily replace Memo for far less money. Big factor there.

They also hit on Millsap, who--had he not blown up with Boozer out--could have replaced Boozer for less than half of what he would be worth if given the chance to show his ability, which he has now. The worst thing that has happened this year is for us to lose the 6m a year margin we could have had by re-signing Millsap for 5 or 6 million, and then watch him play at near All Star level on the contract for the next 4 years. That is devastating.

If we were LA, Boston, NY, Cleveland, Chicago or anyone like that, we would just simply re-sign everyone and work out the kinks as we go. We can't.

So now we have to find a way to get 75-80m worth of play out of 65 million worth of cap space. What blackham is saying is that in order to do so, we should take the opportunity of trading guys who are going to leave anyway for nothing in return for picks that will give us the chance to get guys playing for cheap but producing big time results. I don't disagree with him on the premise, but I do think his proposals are out of touch with reality a little bit, and that they would not help us in the short term. And I think he's selling Millsap short. The dude can be an All Star.

The idea of getting future unprotected picks would be nice. But trading good players to teams, and then hoping to get a high pick out of it makes little to no sense.

Then factor in the Jazz already have a pick like that in the future, and realize you don't want to count every year on getting some stud freshman to come in and save your team. Hell, half the time with high draft picks they don't produce until the last 1 or 2 years of their first contract, and then they get a big pay raise.

So personally, I'd rather sign veterans who can help now, then hope we get some stud rookie to save the franchise.

BTW, when was the last time a rookie came in and took his team to the finals in his first 3 years?

Dwyane Wade.


...and please don't say, "BUT SHAQ!"

Yes, that wouldn't have happened without Shaq, but Wade was the best player and the foundation of that run, as well as the principle force that put them over the top in the actual finals.


Still...your point is well made.

You're right, D-Wade did win it for them.

If we can get D-Wade with the 5th pick in 2010 lets trade the bunch of them.