Operation 2014: Get the Jazz a top 5 pick next year

[StocktonShorts]

In my opinion the Jazz should figure out a way to get a top 5 pick in next year's draft. Your challenge is to come up with a reasonable plan showing how they get there.

Things to keep in mind:

This organization doesn't like overt tanking; this means there won't be any coaching tank jobs (purposefully not playing the best guys on the active roster). Front office tank jobs are permitted, including shutting guys down for injuries.

There's a minimum salary next year, set at 90% of the cap, which will probably be about $58M.

[eLo]

if corbin will stay You dont have to worry Jazz will definitely make it

[StocktonShorts]

Jazz's salary commitments for next year (from B-R):

Marvin: $7.5M
Favors: $6.0M
Kanter: $4.5M
Hayward: $3.4M
Burks: $2.2M
Evans: $1.7M
Murphy: $0.8M

Sub Total: $26.1M (current commitments)

That means we've got to spend $32M on 7 guys.

Let's assume the Jazz keep both draft picks, say Nos. 13 and 21. We'll call those players Pick 13 and Pick 21:

Pick 13: $1.6M
Pick 21: $1.1M

Sub Total: $2.7M (2013 draftees)

Still need to splash a lot of cash to make it to $58M. So let's sign/acquire some expensive players!

First, we sign Jose Calderon to a backwards deal that starts at $10M and decreases by 7.5% each year over three years.

How about Andris Biedrins for $9M? The Warriors are already at $73M for next year and that's without Jarrett Jack. Would they give up any assets if the Jazz took Biedrins and all of his owed money off their hands? Let's assume the answer is yes.

How about bringing back Kyle Korver! We can sign him to a $11M deal over two years.

Sub Total: $24.5M (Free agents/trade acquisitions)

Total: $53.3M

Now we're close! Fill in the remaining spots with minimum contract guys like DeMarre Carroll and Earl Watson and you've got a team that meets the 90% cap threshold, gives plenty of minutes to the young players you want to build around, yet isn't good enough to win more than 28 games.

Fan interest will be high because the young guys are playing and getting valuable NBA experience. But those young guys will make a lot of mistakes and the bench will be terrible.

[StocktonShorts]

if corbin will stay You dont have to worry Jazz will definitely make it

I haven't quite figured out how Corbin fits into this. Maybe you fire him part way through the season and hire an interim coach. Or maybe you fire him this off-season and bring in a first-time NBA coach (like Brad Stevens or Fred Hoiberg).

[pickIBL]

The salary cap will probably shoot up pretty high due to revenues this year. You might have to spend 58 million to hit 90%. Freddy is a great "name" or "stars" recruiter but he has very little control over his team and bad things always happen to them at the end of close games. AKA the team makes bad decisions, fred doesn't put his foot down, and a close call becomes a big deal because ISU was chucking when they should have been running clock.

Fred will be a player's coach... but unless you got 5 guys that can shoot the rock from deep I don't get why you'd want him.

Signing Jose makes no sense for a young club. A buy-out and 4 year deal with a lot of up front money to Tomic makes more sense.

[Inigo Montoya]

awesome topic.

i may have a few more ideas as time goes on which may contradict this one, but it's all in good fun.

Goal: 58M for 13 players.
Payroll next season (including marvin and the murph): 26M for 7 players.
Assumption: corbin is the coach next season.


1. trade for kris kardashian. his contract of 12M is expiring. and he already showed he does not affect W's as evidenced by his good numbers in one of the worst teams of the decade (nets pre dwill). just absorb his salary, and save the nets a ton of money. for that - you get their unprotected 1st pick. and he's a vet so corbin won't be able to resist giving him way more playing time than he deserves.

that's 38M for 8 players.

2. add two first round picks to the jazz's salary from this year's draft.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-14-nba-rookie-salary-scale/
that's about 41M for 10 players.

3A. here is where it gets tricky. you can absorb gasol's expiring 19.2M and be done with it (just get two fillers to reach the 13 player minimum) but he might be too good for a proper tanking - unless he is injured or being shut down on purpose.

that takes care of the payroll. or go to 3B instead:

3B. make a S&T on either al or paul for the bobcats' ben gordon and his expiring 13.2M contract. get a good draft pick for that as well.

that's 54M for 11 players.

4A. sign Francisco Garcia who is likely to be a free agent (houston has a team option of 6.4M). i think 4M should make him attainable.

or:

4B. make a bid for Al-Farouq Aminu for 4M. he is an UFA.

that's 58M for 12 players.

5. a minimum salary vet, or a minimum salary young\d-league player you like.

that's 58-59M for 13 players.


you start the C4 with a PG you BETTER select in the draft and see how it goes. if they put up good effort and show development while losing, that's fine. if they start to win too much - shut them down alternately, and let ty be ty, which should help our L column. either way, our vets of next year should be really bad, so if he elects to favor them again, it will result in many losses.

[StocktonShorts]

The salary cap will probably shoot up pretty high due to revenues this year. You might have to spend 58 million to hit 90%.

Isn't that what I said in the first post?

Freddy is a great "name" or "stars" recruiter but he has very little control over his team and bad things always happen to them at the end of close games. AKA the team makes bad decisions, fred doesn't put his foot down, and a close call becomes a big deal because ISU was chucking when they should have been running clock.

Sounds like the perfect guy to oversee next year's 25-win season!

Signing Jose makes no sense for a young club. A buy-out and 4 year deal with a lot of up front money to Tomic makes more sense.

Yeah, I like the idea of bringing him over, but the buyout and any upfront money gets spread out over the life of the contract when figuring out the cap hit.

[StocktonShorts]

1. trade for kris kardashian. ....

3A. here is where it gets tricky. you can absorb gasol's expiring 19.2M and be done with it...

Both of these seem plausible. The Gasol option might work, but I would hesitate to bring in a big man slotted ahead of Kanter or Favors, even if I figured he would get injured and only play 40 games.

[pickIBL]

ah that 58 million is also this year's cap figure. Tomic's cost just keeps going up and up cuz dude is gettin it done. Everybody love's hoiberg but me. Thought he was a good hire to recruit... bad hire to manage the game... because he'd never managed one before. Simply lacks experience and just can't be a hard ass... it's just not in him. He's probably best selling tickets, satellite tv, and cars in Ames.

[thug-lyfe]

It would be nice if the Jazz land Andrew Wiggins

[pickIBL]

Okafor (even Ariza) are two targets the cheap azz Wizards would love to dump. Make them throw in Tomas Satoransky's rights. If you want to suck Okafor is your guy.

[StocktonShorts]

Okafor (even Ariza) are two targets the cheap azz Wizards would love to dump. Make them throw in Tomas Satoransky's rights. If you want to suck Okafor is your guy.

Ooh.. that's another good one.

[AingesBurner]

Ok first I would like to sign Jarrett Jack to a 4 year 20 million dollar deal, he would be our BPGOTF, get Timofey Mosgov on a 2 year 6 million dollar deal, get Ronny Turiaf on a 1 year 1 million dollar deal, resign Carroll on a 3 year 12 million dollar deal, bring in Korver on a 3 year 12 million dollar deal, and trade for Ben Gordon, our two draft picks which would be about 3 million total, and sign a scrub from the D-League. We are at the 58 mill thresh hold and we have a team that can be exciting to watch and would still lose a lot of games.

[slc24]

This organization doesn't like overt tanking; this means there won't be any coaching tank jobs (purposefully not playing the best guys on the active roster).

Isn't that what has happened this year??

[StocktonShorts]

This organization doesn't like overt tanking; this means there won't be any coaching tank jobs (purposefully not playing the best guys on the active roster).

Isn't that what has happened this year??

Touché.

[roll]

Sign Paul Millsap for 2y max and draft Andrew Harrison. I don't believe Utah will be able to tank enough to get Parker or Wiggins.

Inspiring tread

[pickIBL]

eh this wont be popular but I'd take on Royce White's contract. After next year you can cut him if you like so it makes sense on paper. You might get the rights to Sergio Llull too (a young PG). Offer a future 2nd basically for the rights to Sergio and let them throw in Royce's contract.

[StocktonShorts]

Houston is only on the hook for $1.7M for Royce White next year. That's not enough that they'd give up assets just to get rid of him. For comparison, look at how much the Jazz were willing to eat of Raja Bell's contract.

[pickIBL]

oh i think you misunderstand the situation. I'ts not the money. Royce is a legal/PR nightmare. There are his doctors, team doctors (we are talking head doctors here), he has a contract with the rockets outside of the standard player contract. He has refused a D-League assignment. He's left the team. Then reported right back. He's now refusing to play in the D-League playoffs. It's a mess. I'm not an expert on Sergio's contract but I think he'd have to be bought out and then of course signed. If he's not in the Rocket's plans it is pretty easy to toss him in to make their Royce problem go away.

Once traded Royce has no special agreement with the Jazz (like the Rockets) & after being traded for a bucket of chicken (bag of chips, candy bar, etc) he'll realize all the people around him have been feeding him a line of BS... and if he doesn't get out there and play... he'll be out of the league in a year.

Royce is giving interviews to the Huff post so it is a real possiblity he goes on MSNBC or something and trashes the Rockets.

[babyjax13]

Trade 1:
Paul Millsap (S+T) for Emeka Okafor and 2013 WAS 1st
The pick likely ends up being in the 18-20 range, not great, but better than watching Millsap walk for nothing. Okafor is expiring and gives us another body to fill the lane with.

If we don't resign Al Jefferson, I see San Antonio signing him. I don't know that we can get a good package in a sign and trade.

Our depth chart:
Favors/Okafor
Kanter/Evans
Hayward/Carrol
Foye/Burks
Random point guard/Tinsley/Burks

And...picks to move up.