What should Jazz do with Millsap?

[LogGrad98]

just a bit?

Just curious, how many centers performed better than AJ last season? What is their availability?

According to PER, the quickest stat I could find, AJ was 6th among centers last season. And his numbers last year were off his previous seasons' performances. The year before, the year after his injury, he was 11th. The year before that, 3rd until he got injured. I'm not sure how anyone thinks we are going to score a top 5 center to replace him that easily. Kanter is DEFINITELY not that center, not yet at least, and maybe (odds are, actually) he never will be.

https://tinyurl.com/d7wntlj

 

[NCJazz]

Wouldn't that mean that we'd improve our circumstance? Or at least reduce the payroll.

If we traded with a team under the salary cap we could possible reduce our payroll to some significant degree, but as others have said may not be to many teams wanting his contract. Probably would have to take a bad contract back.

 

[sepanol]

Just curious, how many centers performed better than AJ last season? What is their availability?

According to PER, the quickest stat I could find, AJ was 6th among centers last season. And his numbers last year were off his previous seasons' performances. The year before, the year after his injury, he was 11th. The year before that, 3rd until he got injured. I'm not sure how anyone thinks we are going to score a top 5 center to replace him that easily. Kanter is DEFINITELY not that center, not yet at least, and maybe (odds are, actually) he never will be.

https://tinyurl.com/d7wntlj

First of all, Big Al is not a center, the fact that he was forced to play C with us doesn't make him a center. Anyway if you wanna count him as a center, there aren't many good centers around the league at all. For me a C, shouldn't suck at defense, and every point he makes is a plus. But Jefferson plays vice versa, he makes points, but he sucks at defense, that's very different from a proper center should be.

If you don't really have a classical center like Howard, Kaman, DeAndre Jordan, then you should look at the pair as a whole. Last year, Millsap-Jefferson couple sucked even more than Millsap-Boozer did the year before. They are not a good fit for sure, they appear on eachothers way, they can't share the space well. Only player Jefferson can play with is Favors in this team.

Kanter is not that center it is true, but he seems more compatible with other big man we have, because he doesn't have that many flaws in his defense as AJ.
Also, if we trade AJ, we don't need to replace him with a legit center, we can fulfill our other needs, plus we can get a decent Center who gets paid 4-5 per year instead of another guy like AJ.

 

[InGameStrategy]

There is a big difference between these two combinations, Boozers defense completely sucked, thats why an undersized big man, as much as smart and good defender he is, can not fill the holes boozer opened up in defense.

OK, so Favors' defense is better, but his offense is worse. And the average height between the two is still around 6'9". Not likely to cut it among taller frontcourts. You haven't said anything yet.

But Favors and Millsap, will be defensively really really good. Offensively we can argue, but won't be too much worse than Boozer-Millsap.

They will be "defensively really really good" only if height doesn't matter. Against some teams that's true, but the current NBA is a bit taller than an average 6'9" at the 4 and 5 spots.

Boozer was a totally overrated player and thanks to Deron he was seen like a very good offensive player, so now he got overpaid by a foolish team called Chicago Bulls.

As much as I hate Boozer, he was a rather prolific scorer before Deron--and he continues to be a rather prolific scorer after Deron. D-Will made CB only modestly better offensively--in no small part because he gave Booze a lot of touches (at the expense of AK and others)--and DW made CB mildly worse defensively.

And they were overrated just because they won a couple of games in the year thanks to Rose and Korver that we didn't wanna keep at all. But there is no way in the hell that a team with Boozer in the line up is gonna win a championship. That's not fair to other teams and players who put decent amount of effort on the court not to get their *** beaten.

Yeah, right. The Bulls were overrated because they won a couple of games, propelling them to #1 in the East.

Your mention of Boozer and a championship (or lack thereof) has little to do with whether Mansap and Favors is an effective combination.

 

[GVC]

Jefferson could be good defensively, at least in the halfcourt. He defends his man well, but is extremely slow to rotate. That's correctable, I'd think.

The same goes for his transition play. If he's really improved his conditioning as rumored, and hustles his *** off, he could make big strides there. Dude has some good tools. Better conditioning could improve his game a lot more than most players. Hopefully, with a healthy Memo, and Favors and Kanter ready for some minutes, Al and Sap can be kept fresher (I'd prefer if neither got more than 32 minutes per game). That would really help the Jazz run the floor and be better on the boards next season.

 

[Jazz4ever]

Part of Jefferson's problem was his weight early on. He was at 280 coming iirc and just don't think his frame could support it. It let him play decent man to man defense on true centers, but it killed what help defense he could offer. It killed him on defending pick and rolls - he was just too slow. He'll never be a great defender, but an in shape Jefferson, along with the fact he is 2 years + removed from the ACL surgery, might be better we expect.

 

[Stifle Tower]

Agreed or at least wait until the trade deadline! Lets see how these young ones do before we give them the keys to the car. We are lucky that we have this option, most teams don't when they are rebuilding.

Agree. And I think the only solution in the meantime is to give Millsap at least half his minutes at the 3. Gotta free up enough time at the 4/5 for Favors to get 30 and for Kanter to average 10-15. IF that doesn't happen, the Jazz are not going to know if Derrick can be a star or if Kanter can take on a major role in 2012-13.

Jefferson (33-35); Kanter (10-15)
Favors (30-35); Millsap (10); Okur (10).

With Memo, I think you treat him just like Haprring. Play him 15-20 on the first night of a back-to-back, then rest him the second night. Need to find out if he can play a Collins/Elson role for next season and beyond. He'd be great to play 10 mins/per - more in case of injuries or foul trouble - and be a mentor for Enes. At the right price, Memo would be a nice 4th big man for the next few years.