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Al Jefferson to Utah? ...Mark Stein's Twitter reports

I closer to agreeing with Numerica which isn't the popular viewpoint. I do disagree about Jefferson being a loser. He has been on crappy teams. I think he will be excited to be coming to the Jazz. Where I agree is that the Jazz overpaid. I was upset that we were offering two first and I thought that was too much. Then we add Kostas which makes giving two picks even worse. The Jazz should have gotten a couple of seconds or told them Kostas and a first. Why would Minnesota do this? Because they are the ones wanting to get rid of Jefferson so the Jazz had the leverage in the deal. I am happy with Jefferson but upset about with how much we gave away. I know Kostas has struggle but he was a first round pick so basically we gave 3 first round picks away.

Location is everything. Seriously. The fact that playing in a different system, with a different coach and an almost perfect PG will do wonders for his game.
 
I closer to agreeing with Numerica which isn't the popular viewpoint. I do disagree about Jefferson being a loser. He has been on crappy teams. I think he will be excited to be coming to the Jazz. Where I agree is that the Jazz overpaid. I was upset that we were offering two first and I thought that was too much. Then we add Kostas which makes giving two picks even worse. The Jazz should have gotten a couple of seconds or told them Kostas and a first. Why would Minnesota do this? Because they are the ones wanting to get rid of Jefferson so the Jazz had the leverage in the deal. I am happy with Jefferson but upset about with how much we gave away. I know Kostas has struggle but he was a first round pick so basically we gave 3 first round picks away.

These are the first round picks of the Jazz in the last several drafts that haven't been top 6 picks (IOW - other than Deron and the picks they traded won't be close to that high)....Eric Maynor, Kosta Koufous, Morris Almond, Ronnie Brewer, Kris Humphries, Kirk Snyder, Sasha Pavlovic, Curtis Borchardt, Raul Lopez and DeShawn Stevenson.

That's 10 1st round draft picks in a row - all of which I would trade for Jefferson in a nanosecond. 1st round picks are nice to have if you can make good picks. Obviously, the Jazz cannot, so losing those two picks, if history tells us anything, is, for all intensive purposes, insignificant.

Hell, the Jazz do better in the second round. They'd be better off just giving their first rounder away every year for nothing and saving the cash from the guaranteed contract.
 
These are the first round picks of the Jazz in the last several drafts that haven't been top 6 picks (IOW - other than Deron and the picks they traded won't be close to that high)....Eric Maynor, Kosta Koufous, Morris Almond, Ronnie Brewer, Kris Humphries, Kirk Snyder, Sasha Pavlovic, Curtis Borchardt, Raul Lopez and DeShawn Stevenson.

That's 10 1st round draft picks in a row - all of which I would trade for Jefferson in a nanosecond. 1st round picks are nice to have if you can make good picks. Obviously, the Jazz cannot, so losing those two picks, if history tells us anything, is, for all intensive purposes, insignificant.

Hell, the Jazz do better in the second round. They'd be better off just giving their first rounder away every year for nothing and saving the cash from the guaranteed contract.

Excellent post...it's like you were reading my mind and wrote everything I was thinking.
 
These are the first round picks of the Jazz in the last several drafts that haven't been top 6 picks (IOW - other than Deron and the picks they traded won't be close to that high)....Eric Maynor, Kosta Koufous, Morris Almond, Ronnie Brewer, Kris Humphries, Kirk Snyder, Sasha Pavlovic, Curtis Borchardt, Raul Lopez and DeShawn Stevenson.

That's 10 1st round draft picks in a row - all of which I would trade for Jefferson in a nanosecond. 1st round picks are nice to have if you can make good picks. Obviously, the Jazz cannot, so losing those two picks, if history tells us anything, is, for all intensive purposes, insignificant.

Hell, the Jazz do better in the second round. They'd be better off just giving their first rounder away every year for nothing and saving the cash from the guaranteed contract.

I would agree. Several people have talked about opportunity cost of this deal, that we now cannot use more TPEs, that we lost some picks, but all of these can only bring OK players for the team. First and foremost you need star players, these guys you can build around. After all, only 5 guys can be on the floor at the same time. If you have these 5 great guys, the other team can have 100 OK guys, and it's not going to help them 1 bit. The bottom line is, you need to have the quality first, then think about quantity and filling out the roster. And Big Al is definitely star quality player. As far as first round picks, it's not even that the Jazz can't draft, it's that when you have non lottery picks, or even late lottery ones, it is more of crap shot. You can get a decent guy (Brewer), you can get total bust (Borch), you can even get a very good player (AK), but in average non-lotto pick is just not all that valuable. Picks at the top of the draft are the ones that are most valuable. Other than that, if you gave away 2 picks that are outside of lottery, it's just not a big deal. Getting proven 20-10 25 year old center IS.
 
I love this move and am happy to have Al. But I still think had we traded Boozer last year mid season we could have got Al Jefferson and not given up 2 1st round picks. Maybe even have got one or two back. Probably would have been a 3 way trade but still. Makes me think that Jazz preferred to have Boozer back but lost out. At least they had solid back up plans and did not overvalue Milsap.
 
We just have to sign another player though. What did Koufus make, 1.5 mill? We will probably sign a mininum contract to replace him, which is what, 750 K?

Min contract run $420 Thousand dollars. Kufos was scheduled to make $1.3 million this year and $2.2 million next year. So they can sign 3 minimum guys for Kufos's contract. So give me Rod Benson and James Augestine along with Maybe Harris. All of whom were every bit as good or better than Dufos.
 
I love this move and am happy to have Al. But I still think had we traded Boozer last year mid season we could have got Al Jefferson and not given up 2 1st round picks. Maybe even have got one or two back. Probably would have been a 3 way trade but still. Makes me think that Jazz preferred to have Boozer back but lost out. At least they had solid back up plans and did not overvalue Milsap.

Don't be cheap. Who gives a **** about a few non lottery picks? We just got a 20-10 center on the team, who is 25 years of age. And got rid of Koufos in the process.
 
I would agree. Several people have talked about opportunity cost of this deal, that we now cannot use more TPEs, that we lost some picks, but all of these can only bring OK players for the team. First and foremost you need star players, these guys you can build around. After all, only 5 guys can be on the floor at the same time. If you have these 5 great guys, the other team can have 100 OK guys, and it's not going to help them 1 bit. The bottom line is, you need to have the quality first, then think about quantity and filling out the roster. And Big Al is definitely star quality player. As far as first round picks, it's not even that the Jazz can't draft, it's that when you have non lottery picks, or even late lottery ones, it is more of crap shot. You can get a decent guy (Brewer), you can get total bust (Borch), you can even get a very good player (AK), but in average non-lotto pick is just not all that valuable. Picks at the top of the draft are the ones that are most valuable. Other than that, if you gave away 2 picks that are outside of lottery, it's just not a big deal. Getting proven 20-10 25 year old center IS.


Good post. I always liken the Jazz' situation to the Memphis Grizzlies under Hubie Brown. They had fantastic depth 1-10, but not enough star power. Several people have said you need 3 "stars" to contend or 1 all-star and a superstar, Detroit being the only one-time exception in recent memory. Deron is one star. If Jefferson puts up 20/10 that's another. AK, Millsap and Okur are solid, but not stars (AK was for 1-2 years, but that time is long past). So we need 1 more, IMO. That's why I'd like to see Utah sign Brewer on the cheap and stand pat. Then AK's contract can be traded for a great veteran SF or SG. Then either CJ or Hayward starts and the other serves as a 6th man.
 
I love this move and am happy to have Al. But I still think had we traded Boozer last year mid season we could have got Al Jefferson and not given up 2 1st round picks. Maybe even have got one or two back. Probably would have been a 3 way trade but still. Makes me think that Jazz preferred to have Boozer back but lost out. At least they had solid back up plans and did not overvalue Milsap.

Why would you trade him when they 1 or 2 games out of the #2 seed in the West? So they come out during the middle of fighting for a one of the top seeds and say we think we can do better next year with draft picks? Be rational here....
 
Why would you trade him when they 1 or 2 games out of the #2 seed in the West? So they come out during the middle of fighting for a one of the top seeds and say we think we can do better next year with draft picks? Be rational here....
Yes, because he had proven that even in a contract year, Boozer was not interested in playing/able to play consistent defense.

CB's midrange jumper is beautiful, but he also proved during the regular season that he is ineffective against the Lakers (and Nuggets, for that matter; fortunately he stepped up in the playoffs, at least for the first round--only a additional sign of Boozer selective effectiveness).

And sure enough, Utah ended up with an underwhelming 5 seed, when the 2nd or 3rd seed would've likely garnered them a WCF visit.

That being said, trading for Jefferson before he had shown a string of impact games would have been very risky. But I would've wondered what other trades might have been available. Some combination of a defensive center (Camby) and a wing defender, maybe, involving multiple teams if necessary?

The better option would have been for the FO to actually tell Sloan to enforce his own philosophy of defense and not letting his "cornerstones" off the hook.

As I have often said, the strategy is to sit Boozer or Okur down until the next whistle when he is dogging it (except maybe in clutch time, although such a situation would send an even stronger message). Watch him start to be more focused when his stat-building minutes are shaved).

But fortunately, Boozer is gone. Because I'm an equal-opportunity virtual coach, I would recommend the same practice for AJ and Augustine and the healed Okur and whomever else the Jazz bring in.
 
No kidding. I think it's time for sjf to fade back into Bolivian.

I think you meant to say Bolivia. Therefore, he would be a Bolivian. Or am I being oblivious? But really, I could care less for all intensive purposes.
 
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