If Boozer finds himself this offseason...

[Pappyman]

I think that the Jazz should seriously consider moving him over to the center position. While he is only 6'9", he weighs almost 270 pounds. That is large enough to be a center. He is not fast enough to guard athletic power forwards, such as Lamar Odom and Kevin Garnett. He is strong and tall enough, however, to guard centers on the low post (like Pau Gasol, Yao Ming, and Tim Duncan). He only gets exposed as a bad defender when he has to go out on the perimeter and guard players that are faster and more athletic than he is (such as Lamar Odom). Paul Millsap should be the starting power forward. He is faster and more athletic than Boozer and is a much better defender. The Jazz would be much better with two players on the low post instead of just one, plus Paul Millsap is an above average shot blocker and would help cover Boozer's problems. Paul Millsap is also a very good low post scorer and would help alleviate the opposition's ability to double team Carlos (such as the Lakers). This move would also put Mehmet Okur on the bench as the back up power forward (his natural position), and would eliminate the lack of defense on the front line. Mehmet Okur would take over as "the explosive scorer off the bench" role. Basically, he would become our Manu Ginobili. The only reason that I think that this move didn't happen this season is because we had no one worthy enough to be the back up center when Boozer or Okur were not in the game. Paul Millsap was forced into the role of back up center and often got into foul trouble due to his lack of height. Assuming that the Jazz draft a defensive-minded center with their first round pick (I am one of the people who think that Roy Hibbert would be perfect for this team), this should be our lineup next season:

PG: Deron Williams, Ronnie Price, 2nd round pick
SG: Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, Morris Almond
SF: Andrei Kirilenko, C.J. Miles/Matt Harpring*
PF: Paul Millsap, Mehmet Okur, 2nd round pick
C: Carlos Boozer, 1st round pick (Roy Hibbert), Kyrylo Fesenko

Jason Hart and Jarron Collins should be traded for anything. I mean ANYTHING. They are useless and take up vital payroll/cap space. Maybe trade them for a future second round pick or something.

I also think that the Jazz will have a better record next season than they did this season. If they do, they will be in a better position when the playoffs start. I doubt that they will continue to be as bad on the road as they were this season. They are now more experienced and more ready to be succesful on the road. I think that a lot of their problems were caused by the lack of home games in December and the Gordan Giricek fiasco. Once December was over and Giricek was traded for Kyle Korver, the Jazz were much more consistent on the road plus they only lost one more game at home. They had three of their four home loses before the KK trade.

*Note: I think C.J. Miles is ready to become a regular member of the rotation. He should start getting equal to if not all of Matt Harpring's minutes. Harpring should eventually be weeded out, so by time his contract is up he retires from basketball. His body is beginning to break down and I don't think he has that many more years in him.

[cjs55]

He only gets exposed as a bad defender when he has to go out on the perimeter and guard players that are faster and more athletic than he is (such as Lamar Odom).

[troy]

Size is what killed us against the Lakers and Odom and Pau Gasol. That would be a horrible move.

[JStockLivesOn]

This would be an atrocious move, as would moving Memo to the bench. We take our bad interior defense and make it even worse. Memo's man-on-man defense is more than passable, even though he's not a good help defender. Boozer's man-on-man is a putrid something less than passable, especially when he gives up advantages of any kind physically (arm length, height, quickness -- basically all the attributes decent NBA players have).

No, thank you.

[hoops4life]

So you are going to bench okur?

[fivas14]

Milsap off the bench > Milsap starting

[Pappyman]

The main reason that I thought this thread up was to find ways for the Jazz to improve their interior defense without having to trade any of their better or best players. Having Boozer and Okur on the floor at the same time is very discouraging for the Jazz's interior defense. Both are slow-footed and they have trouble guarding against more athletic players (like Garnett and Odom). The Jazz may inevitably have to end up trading one of them. If KOC ends up not wanting to do that, which he may not because he seems to be very conservative with player personnel decisions, I was simply trying to find ways for both of them to be able to succeed on the defense end of the court. Many people on this board have wondered what it would be like if Paul Millsap was a starter. Why not at least attempt this move? If it does not work, then try something else. I believe that one of the reasons that Boozer was so ineffective against the Rockets and Lakers was that often he was the only player on the low block and was going up against two and sometimes three defenders. Because Memo is more perimeter-oriented, it became difficult for Carlos to find someone to drop the ball of to when he was double/triple teamed and took it upon his own shoulders to try to score when this happened. If Millsap would have been the primary starter at the power forward with Boozer playing his more natural position of center, it is possible that teams would have not been able to double and triple Carlos as much because Millsap is more of a low post threat than Okur. Also, because Millsap is much faster and more athletic than Boozer and Okur, I feel that he would be more effective at guarding the power forward position. The power forward position is changing in the NBA. Players are becoming taller and more athletic, with increasingly more emphasis being put on perimeter scoring. Boozer has a center's game in a power forward's body. Due to his lack of athleticism, more athletic perimeter-oriented power forwards expose his defensive problems. Mehmet Okur has a power forward's game in a center's body. He is a very good offensive player, but lacks the athleticism and quickness to guard the more athletic PF's on the perimeter. When the Jazz have both of them on the floor at the same time, they are nearly forced to play a zone defense and other team's shooters just eat that up. On another point, a lot of offensive problems were caused by Ronnie Brewer. Because teams do not trust his perimeter scoring ability, his defender would "sag" off him to deny Boozer position in the post. Brewer just needs to continue improving on his perimeter ability and teams will not be able to do this any more. He improved quite a bit from his rookie season and has no where to go but up. The player that I may have been most impressed with this season is Andrei. He really has improved his perimeter shooting to a point in which he is a legitimate threat to score whenever he shoots the ball. Even though Utah lost game six to the Lakers, Andrei was absolutely clutch in bringing his team back into the game. He hit two key three-pointers that put the Jazz within reach of the lead.

[hoops4life]

I don't think that putting Boozer in as a center is going to help the interior defense at all.

[JStockLivesOn]

Millsap is obviously a much better defender than Boozer, but he's not as versatile an offensive threat as Okur. And the players helping on Boozer are the same ones who would be helping on Boozer even if you had Millsap down low. I don't understand what you're getting at here. It wasn't the Center helping off of Okur.

[edfmx86]

Milsap off the bench > Milsap starting

enuf' said

[Kayariel]

offensively , okur's shot threat makes boozer effective on the court

[erudite23]

This would be an atrocious move, as would moving Memo to the bench. We take our bad interior defense and make it even worse. Memo's man-on-man defense is more than passable, even though he's not a good help defender. Boozer's man-on-man is a putrid something less than passable, especially when he gives up advantages of any kind physically (arm length, height, quickness -- basically all the attributes decent NBA players have).

No, thank you.

This touches on a myth that I wish we could permanently bust. Boozer is 6'9-1/2", with a 9'1-1/2" standing reach. That standing reach is better than Amare Stoudemire, Joakim Noah, Hilton Armstrong, Nene, KMart, Bosh, Villaneuva, Aaron Gray, the Collins twins, and a host of others who play center or are considered freaks of length. While he is also the same as or within 1/2 an inch of standing reach to Elton Brand, Primoz Brezec, Stromile Swift, Tiago Splitter, Spencer Hawes, Andrea Bargnani, or the "incredibly long" Tyson Chandler.

The point is, Booze is in no way "undersized" like he has been labeled. The guy is plenty long enough to play spot minutes at the Center position. What's more, is that he is also a body-basher who is at his best in close quarters.

All told, I don't think that its a bad idea, per se, to play him extended minutes at the 5. What my concern is, more than anything, is that he doesn't use his athletecism and explosiveness on offense like he does on defense. That means that there is very little or no rim protection going on when he plays the center position. As much as Memo isn't a defensive presence, there is still a big difference in this particular aspect of the game between the two.



Buuuuut, lets get something clear. We didn't lose to the Lakers because of our defense. The only thing that cost us defensively were the amount of fouls that we committed.

We lost to the Lakers because of our offense. We are a team that shot nearly 50% from the field for an entire season. In the playoffs, that number went down to 44.5%. The Lakers are a great offensive team, you aren't going to shut them down (especially with the personnel we have). However, WE are a great offensive team as well, and I genuinely feel like our defensive effort was good enough--if we could have kept the fouling in check--to win that series if we produce offensively like we can.

Obviously, having our most effecient AND highest volume scorer mired in the worst shooting slump of his career would be a big factor there.

So, hey, maybe its an over simplification to say that if Boozer had shot the ball better then we would have advanced to the WCF for the second straight year. But then again, maybe it's not.

[JStockLivesOn]

You may have misinterpreted my point, E.

Boozer has the length to guard people. He's got the height to guard people. He's got the quickness too. But he still plays atrocious defense against players with length, players with height, and players with quickness. And that excellent length gets him about .3 blocks per game.

That's what I was getting at with "basically all the attributes decent NBA players have." I'm implying that any decent NBA player can tear him up on the offensive end. That may be a bit of hyperbole, of course...

... a bit.

[The Sheik]

Boozer is a terrible defender, but you cant blame the LA series on Boozer. Jerry Sloan put him in a losing situation. When you have a spot shooter like Radman how can you not put Boozer on him and AK on Odom.

The only person that can "find themselves" this off season and boost their trade stock is AK. Another good showing this summer and the Jazz might get what they are looking for.

Id personally like to see them make a move before the draft so that at the very least we can have roster space when we trade AK so that we could accommodate a 2 for 1.

[schneiderjazz]

Boozer is a terrible defender, but you cant blame the LA series on Boozer. Jerry Sloan put him in a losing situation. When you have a spot shooter like Radman how can you not put Boozer on him and AK on Odom.

The only person that can "find themselves" this off season and boost their trade stock is AK. Another good showing this summer and the Jazz might get what they are looking for.

Id personally like to see them make a move before the draft so that at the very least we can have roster space when we trade AK so that we could accommodate a 2 for 1.

I don't think that Boozer guarding Odom was a big problem. Of course Odom is a terrible matchup for Boozer, but I think he could have done a better job.
IMO, the problem was the way he was guarding Odom. Odom can't shoot consistently and can't go to his right. Boozer is slow. He should have dared Odom to shoot and make him go to his right. He played Odom too tight. Odom beat him off the dribble over and over again. I think Boozer has the tools to be a good defender. Not an amazing one, but decent. When I see him playing defense, it looks to me like he's just faking it. Like he's pretending to be trying. It's really upsetting.

[The Sheik]

-= original quote snipped =-



I don't think that Boozer guarding Odom was a big problem. Of course Odom is a terrible matchup for Boozer, but I think he could have done a better job.
IMO, the problem was the way he was guarding Odom. Odom can't shoot consistently and can't go to his right. Boozer is slow. He should have dared Odom to shoot and make him go to his right. He played Odom too tight. Odom beat him off the dribble over and over again. I think Boozer has the tools to be a good defender. Not an amazing one, but decent. When I see him playing defense, it looks to me like he's just faking it. Like he's pretending to be trying. It's really upsetting.

Playing people in their grills is a defensive philosophy mastered by what Utah Jazz coach? If you need an example please look up John Salmons works Matt Harpring off the dribble. Boozer guarding Odom was a huge reason we lost, it wasnt the only, but it was a huge bonus for LA.

[track86]

IF there are no trades made, AND we try to address the defensive problem by adjusting our current line-up, AND we decide the best way to do this is to bring Okur off the bench, THEN I think it would be better to move Boozer to Center, move AK to Power Forward, and Start Korver at Small Forward.

In this scenario, you move our best shot blocker closer to the hoop where he can help contest penetration. You bring Korver in to offset the outside shooting of Okur being on the bech.

Basicly our frontcourt rotation would look like this.

3) Korver (perimeter threat), Harpring (banger)
4) AK (athletic shot-blocker), Milsap (athletic shot-blocker)
5) Boozer (banger), Okur (perimeter threat)

I think that balances out the rotation better than starting Milsap would.

[troy]

Buuuuut, lets get something clear. We didn't lose to the Lakers because of our defense. The only thing that cost us defensively were the amount of fouls that we committed.

We lost to the Lakers because of our offense.

My godness , erudite you'll never learn will you ?

OF COURSE DEFENSE is the reason we lost that series.
We let the Lakers shot 49% from the floor. Do you understand what that means ??
It's better than there regular season average or better than what they were allowed against the freaking Denver Nuggets !!

You say that our team had a worst % in the playoffs than in the regular season , but EVERY **** TEAM has a worst field goal percentage in the playoffs because defense are tighter in the postseason !!
Take the Spurs for instance . Last year's champions.
Last year they shot 47.6% from the floor. IN the playoffs they shot 44.3% vs Denver , 45.7% vs Phoenix and 44.4% vs Cleveland.
They still won the championship , why ? DEFENSE.
Actually the only series where they had a better fg% than in the regular season was against...Utah. Last year they shot 49.3% vs the Jazz.
It was the reason we lost last year , and this year is no different.

We scored 107 pts per game on 44% from the floor , and you really think we lost that series because of our offense ?!!
My goodness this is PATHETIC.

[Pappyman]

IF there are no trades made, AND we try to address the defensive problem by adjusting our current line-up, AND we decide the best way to do this is to bring Okur off the bench, THEN I think it would be better to move Boozer to Center, move AK to Power Forward, and Start Korver at Small Forward.

In this scenario, you move our best shot blocker closer to the hoop where he can help contest penetration. You bring Korver in to offset the outside shooting of Okur being on the bech.

Basicly our frontcourt rotation would look like this.

3) Korver (perimeter threat), Harpring (banger)
4) AK (athletic shot-blocker), Milsap (athletic shot-blocker)
5) Boozer (banger), Okur (perimeter threat)

I think that balances out the rotation better than starting Milsap would.

The only thing that I would change is Korver playing small forward. I would keep him on the bench as the back up shooting guard. I would start C.J. Miles at shooting guard and I would move Ronnie Brewer over to small forward. Korver is too much of a defensive liability plus C.J. is more athletic and would offer better defense. Even though he only weighs 225-230 pounds, Kirilenko would still be very effective at power forward. Kevin Garnett only weighs 220 pounds and plays power forward. This would be my lineup (w/o draft picks):

PG: Deron Williams, Ronnie Price, Jason Hart
SG: Calvin Miles Jr., Kyle Korver, Morris Almond
SF: Ronnie Brewer, Matt Harping, Morris Almond
PF: Andrei Kirilenko, Paul Millsap
C: Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Kyrylo Fesenko

[fivas14]

-= original quote snipped =-

PG: Deron Williams, Ronnie Price, Jason Hart
SG: Calvin Miles Jr., Kyle Korver, Morris Almond
SF: Ronnie Brewer, Matt Harping, Morris Almond
PF: Andrei Kirilenko, Paul Millsap
C: Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Kyrylo Fesenko

If the Jazz played this line-up, they'd have to fight for the divison.

The Line-Up will look the same again next season.