PG - Deron Williams
Williams is everything a team could want in a point guard: He is a tremendous passer and playmaker, he can score inside and out and he elevates his game in the post-season. He is a fantastic floor leader at twenty-four-years-old and inking him to a max-money deal this summer was about as easy a decision as the Jazz have had to make in a good, long while. Whatever happens to Boozer next summer the Jazz can breathe a little easier because Williams will make any back-up plan work better than most NBA point guards could. He coalesces this team and that is a skill that should only expand as he gets more years under his belt.
SG - Ronnie Brewer
If saying that Brewer had a breakout season last year is an overstatement (and it is) then at least concede that he had a mini-breakout for a team that desperately needed what he brought to the table. After losing two-guard Fisher last summer this team was desperate for a body who could even suit up at the position. Brewer was first in line to try and went from anonymous rookie to full-time starter in year two by playing stifling perimeter defense with his long arms and active hands and combining that strength with a vastly-improved and more efficient offensive game, connecting on 57% of his shots (nearly half of those attempts were jumpers, too). Unsurprisingly well over 70% of his shots were assisted but it was his ability to blend into an offense that already featured Williams, Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko that made him so indispensible. He didn't need lots of touches to be effective and yet by simply looking to be in the right place on the floor he wound up averaging more points per game than Jazz mainstay Kirilenko. His role is pretty well defined and he plays it to perfection, so hopefully the Jazz can simply count on more than the same from Brewer in the future.
PF - Carlos Boozer
The issue of his free agency has been discussed to death, and it overshadows other aspects of his game that require attention. Chiefly, Boozer did his best Karl Malone impression last spring and choked in the Playoffs. His scoring was off by five points per game and his shooting percentages plummeted from 54.7% during the regular season to 41.5% in the post-season. He needs to be a steady rock that anchors this team's post-offense and last spring he simply couldn't be relied on. With guys like Kirilenko and Okur such crapshoots in the springtime the Jazz cannot afford to have Boozer fall off like he did when it matters. Two years ago, when the team made its run to the Conference Finals, Boozer averaged 23.5 ppg on 54% shooting. Where that player was last season is uncertain, but the Jazz will need that player back if they are going to make any noise this April and beyond (it would also make a big-money contract a lot easier to offer).
http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=250783&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nba
