What to do with Boozer?

Post #1 » by **StocktonShorts** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 8:46 pm

As great as Boozer is playing right now, the Jazz have some very important decisions to make regarding his future and the future of the team.

While Greg Miller apparently reversed course and said there's still the possibility of bringing Boozer back, the Jazz passed on their opportunity to sign Boozer to an extension. I think they may end up regretting that move, as Boozer's value this past summer was probably at its lowest point in five years.

In the summer of 2010 there will be a lot of teams with cap space. Boozer will likely have a lot of suitors, especially if all the big name guys stay with their teams. The Jazz will likely be able to offer him more money than most other teams, but that would almost certainly mean going into luxury tax territory again.

Is there anyone willing to argue that this team, as is, can contend for a title? If not, then don't you have to consider dealing Boozer before the deadline to bring it someone who WILL be part of the Jazz's future? Such a move wouldn't shave much off the luxury tax bill, but it may let the Jazz land a good rotation player with a reasonable contract (likely in addition to a guy with a bad expiring deal).

Thoughts?

schneiderjazz · Post #2 » by **schneiderjazz** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:04 pm

Boozer has been amazing this season and I wouldn't be opposed to re-signing him. We do have some things to take into account though. He and Memo don't work well together on the defensive end and it's a major reason why we struggle defensively. Sap is already making 8 million a year. Boozer is injury prone. If we re-sign Boozer, either Memo or Sap has to go IMO.
What I think will actually happen is Boozer will leave for nothing. Jazz management don't have the balls to trade Sap or Memo and I don't think they wanna pay the luxury tax next year, since the way the Jazz are playing right now, it's just not worth it.

Post #3 » by **StocktonShorts** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:09 pm

schneiderjazz wrote:What I think will actually happen is Boozer will leave for nothing.

That's also what I expect to happen.

idajazz · Post #4 » by **idajazz** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:17 pm

The big mistake was the contract that the gave AK, until that comes off the books they are in a bad position
Boozer is what he is, I don't care for his injury record. If he could stay on the floor he would be a keeper.

Post #5 » by **StocktonShorts** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:20 pm

idajazz wrote:The big mistake was the contract that the gave AK, until that comes off the books they are in a bad position
Boozer is what he is, I don't care for his injury record. If he could stay on the floor he would be a keeper.

What the **** does AK's contract have to do with this?

If the Jazz were paying AK "only" $10M this season I'd still be asking the same questions about Boozer.

Ming Kong! · Post #6 » by **Ming Kong!** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:24 pm

HappyProle wrote:
idajazz wrote:The big mistake was the contract that the gave AK, until that comes off the books they are in a bad position
Boozer is what he is, I don't care for his injury record. If he could stay on the floor he would be a keeper.

What the **** does AK's contract have to do with this?

If the Jazz were paying AK "only" $10M this season I'd still be asking the same questions about Boozer.

Well if AK was getting paid 5-7M, then resigning Boozer for a little under max money would be pretty easy, but the reality is that AK was by far our best player when we had to pay up, many teams would of coughed up a max contract for AK at the time.

15.6ppg 6.2rpg 3.2apg 1.6spg 3.3bpg in just 32.9mpg, 24.4 PER, 2004 All-Star, 2 time All-Defense team (2nd), and so on. He was good.

Post #7 » by **StocktonShorts** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:45 pm

Ming Kong! wrote: He was good.

He's still good. He and Boozer have been the most valuable players on the team so far this year. While not a prolific scorer, AK is a much more efficient offensive player than most give him credit for. And the boost the team gets on defense when he's in is hard to argue with. AK at $7M would be a baragin. AK at $10M is fair. AK at $17M is overpaying. (I still don't see why people blame AK for that contract. He's the same player now he was then. If you want to get mad, get mad at LHM and KOC for bidding against themselves and overpaying him.)

But this was meant to be about Boozer...

So... given the reality of the current situation (meaning we have no time machine enabling us to go back and sign AK to something more reasonable or draft Chris Paul or opt not to match Portland's offer to Millsap), what do you do with Boozer?

erudite23 · Post #8 » by **erudite23** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:04 am

No, AK doesn't have near the impact on the defensive end that he had back then. His steal and block rates have plummeted, and while he's still a good defenisve player, he's not close to being a great one. Back then, he was the best defensive player in the game, and one of the best I've ever seen. He didn't get serious pub because the Jazz were mediocre to bad during his peak years, but he was a force of nature on defense. Just an amazing player.

Now he's kind of settled into a "pretty good" all around player who can occasionally go off either offensively or defensively. The player he was then was worth max money, the player he is now is a 9 or 10m a year guy.

As for Boozer, I think its a really tricky situation. One thing we could do is to keep him, extend him for 12 or 13m a year and then target Cole Aldrich in the draft and look to move either Memo or Millsap. Both players are excellent guys in either their early prime (Millsap) or late prime (Memo). They both have fairly reasonable contracts that aren't extremely long. You could move them and get either a solid vet or good prospect in return. Trading one of them for Battier, for example, would be a nice move and one that the Rockets would almost certainly be interested in. Either one would fit well next to Yao, and with Ariza manning the 3 spot and a team that looks to be going nowhere fast, a guy with the qualities of Battier is largely being wasted.

The other option is, obviously, move Boozer for the best piece we can find. The way he's playing now, like a top 20 guy, we should be able to get an extremely nice package in return, as long as management is able to avoid the appearance of being desperate, which will require creating a reasonable doubt about whether we'll retain him past the off-season. If we can manuever that way, there's no reason to think we couldn't get a Kevin Martin, Andre Iguadola, Caron Butler, Tayshaun Prince, or Luol Deng for him. If we could move him for a high quality wing with a decent contract who is a quality (read: efficient) scorer that's also capable of creating offense for others to some degree, that could make our team completely unstoppable offensively, while also improving it defensively (since Boozer's minutes would be taken up by Millsap and AK, both of whom are better than him on that end).

The main concern in jettisoning him would be rebounding. While we were once a dominant rebounding team, even without him, he is now the only exceptional two-way rebounder on our team. Millsap is capable of taking some of that workload, but he really only excels on the offensive glass. His defensive rebounding is only slightly above average. Meanwhile, the rest of the team, Memo, Deron, Ronnie, CJ and at time AK are all below-average-to-horrible rebounders for their positions. AK is wildly inconsistent, capable of pulling down 13 rebounds one game and 1 the next in identical minutes. That is a serious concern.

However, when you look at the incoming pool of prospects its obvious that there is a lot of quality rebounder/defenders from the PF position coming out. Aldrich is a guy capable of dominating both of those phases from the Center position. Favors and Davis both look like they will at least be capable of giving you some minutes at the 5 as well. So the answer might be to move Boozer for a wing like one of the above mentioned and write off the rest of this season. Then go after a big guy to replace his rebounding in the draft. A core group of, say, Deron/Kevin Martin/Brewer/Millsap/Aldrich with Memo and CJ coming off the bench would be incredibly hard to stop, and a team capable of staying together for the next 3 seasons at least.

Post #9 » by **StocktonShorts** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:50 am

I don't think the Jazz can currently extend Boozer, so any plan that revolves around him staying here beyond this season means negotiating with him in the summer of 2010. That to me is what really makes this tricky. You can't plan around him being here.

That's why I think your second option is appealing. The problem is a lot of the guys you mentioned have hefty and lengthy contracts. Do you really want Igoudala for five years at an average of $13M? Deng for five years at $12M per? Kevin Martin is a more attractive (and likely) option at 4 years, $11.5M.

FWIW I'm less concerned about rebounding. It's a tricky stat because I think a lot of rebounds are meaningless or near-meaningless (when there are 3 of our guys around the bucket does it matter who got it?). Honest question: did the Jazz get out-rebounded with Boozer out last year?

GP · Post #10 » by GP » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:03 am

I would love to keep boozer, but as others have mentioned the team as comprised, isn't a championship contender. It really comes down to 4 guys, Boozer, Millsap, Okur and AK. That combination of guys needs to change and the questions is who to get rid of. Also, Miller may want to re-sign boozer, but with the way he's playing, that is looking less and less likely.

Wolverine · Post #11 » by **Wolverine** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:55 am

What would happen if we were able to draft Wall? Resign Boozer & let Brewer walk?

Post #12 » by **StocktonShorts** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:40 am

Wolverine wrote:What would happen if we were able to draft Wall? Resign Boozer & let Brewer walk?

Depending on how CJ does the rest of this year I'm thinking they should let Brewer walk no matter what happens with Boozer.

partnerfusion · Post #13 » by **partnerfusion** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 4:08 pm

Trade him for Gerald Wallace.

seejaydeja · Post #14 » by **seejaydeja** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:45 pm

Even if Jazz FO wanted to re-sign Booz this offseason I can almost guarantee he's leaving Utah on his own free will. He knows he's still not well liked in Utah and I really think he'd be happier living elsewhere. If Jazz want any value to come from Booz beyond this season, they're gonna have to deal him while his value is high before the deadline in February.

majortripps69 · Post #15 » by **majortripps69** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:14 pm

seejaydeja wrote:Even if Jazz FO wanted to re-sign Booz this offseason I can almost guarantee he's leaving Utah on his own free will. He knows he's still not well liked in Utah and I really think he'd be happier living elsewhere. If Jazz want any value to come from Booz beyond this season, they're gonna have to deal him while his value is high before the deadline in February.

I disagree. Money far outweighs happiness for a lot of people, and I believe Boozer is one of those. Would he sign a max extension with Utah? I guarantee he would. As long as he stays healthy, he is the best PF we have and arguably the best player we have overall. And let's be honest, Paul Millsap and Memo have been very disappointing this season.

Wolverine · Post #16 » by **Wolverine** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:49 am

partnerfusion wrote:Trade him for Gerald Wallace.

seejaydeja · Post #17 » by **seejaydeja** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:13 am

majortripps69 wrote:
seejaydeja wrote:Even if Jazz FO wanted to re-sign Booz this offseason I can almost guarantee he's leaving Utah on his own free will. He knows he's still not well liked in Utah and I really think he'd be happier living elsewhere. If Jazz want any value to come from Booz beyond this season, they're gonna have to deal him while his value is high before the deadline in February.

I disagree. Money far outweighs happiness for a lot of people, and I believe Boozer is one of those. Would he sign a max extension with Utah? I guarantee he would. As long as he stays healthy, he is the best PF we have and arguably the best player we have overall. And let's be honest, Paul Millsap and Memo have been very disappointing this season.

You nailed it on the head. It's all about the $$$. He's had a great season so far, but it's his contract year...With all the inconsistency he's shown beyond this year, why would we offer him a max contract? Too inconsistent for that in my opinion.

Post #18 » by **FJS** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:29 pm

If he is commited to play as hard he can I would extend his contract.
AK Contract will be over soon (I hope him to resign for A LOT less money) and with a top 3 pick, we should be really good.

red4hf · Post #19 » by **red4hf** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 3:26 pm

To have any hope of resigning Boozer we would have to trade MIllsap, there's no way the Jazz could afford to spend well over $20 million on one position for the next 3-4 years, especially when MIllsap wouldn't get more than 25 minutes a game with Boozer here.......

seejaydeja · Post #20 » by **seejaydeja** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 5:09 pm

red4hf wrote:To have any hope of resigning Boozer we would have to trade MIllsap, there's no way the Jazz could afford to spend well over $20 million on one position for the next 3-4 years, especially when MIllsap wouldn't get more than 25 minutes a game with Boozer here.......

Exactly. Jazz already committed to sap as the PF of the future. Unless they are going to deal him, Booz is pretty much out of the equation after the year is over.