LHM once said with the laugh when Clippers drafted someone talented in top 5 (not sure who it was), here is a guy who whill be available in 4 years. Well, here you are Larry, now the same can be said about the Jazz. We drafted a star who led us to play-offs 4 straight years, including 2 WCSF apeparances and 1 WCF. 5 years later, he was available. Don't forget that before Deron got to Utah, we had a pathetic season. The season before was 500 season and no play-offs. Only after DWill's rookie year (where he was benched), did we become play-off team again. Now, it's going to be rebuilding all over again, and who knows wheh (if ever) will we get a superstar like Deron to lead us to even play-offs wins, not to mention WCF finals. I just don't see us being better positioned at this point than any team in the West. Even teams on the bottom of the West now have building blocks that are better than ours. I mean we don't have players today that are of caliber of the players in most pathetic teams in the League, such as Blake Griffin, Gordon, Kevin Love, Evans, Ellis. And these are just the worst teams in teh West now. We are in even worse shape than most of them. With DWill, we had a building block who was superior to any one of the pieces above. Now we have inferior blocks than the worst West has to offer. But we have a certainty (of the medocrity) that we got in trading an outstanding building block, as Greg Miller likes to spin it. What a disaster for this franchise.
Name one other team that loses 2 HOF'ers or all-stars and is immediately competive. LA after Magic and Co. left? Nope. Boston after Bird? Nope. Chicago sans Jordan and Pippen? Nope. SA? Well, they tanked the season when Robinson went down. Let's see what happens after Duncan leaves.
Utah won 41 games with a bunch of non-namers. The next season, the team was decimated with injuries. Kind of like that SA situation.
Hindsight is 20-20. I think Jefferson for Boozer is a wash. The real contract that hurts the team is AK's. And that is Larry's fault, not Greg's or KOC's. Trades were on the table and Larry vetoed them.
Matthews, yes, that hurts. But there were few who wanted Utah to match that contract. Wes had 1/2 season starting and was not very good in the playoffs. In hindsight, yes, the Jazz should have kept him. But in doing so, they would have not been able to bring in Jefferson. Tell me how much better the Jazz would have been with Fesenko and Elson in the middle?
You have to consider budgets. The Millers aren't Paul Allen. They can't spend $20M in luxury taxes.
If you read the articles that have been posted, Greg and KOC have met repeatedly with Deron and his representatives. They WANTED to keep Deron as the cornerstone of teh franchise - just like Cleveland bent over backwards trying to retain James. But in the end, there was a real, tangible fear, based on the language of Deron and his posse, that Williams would leave anyway. So kudos to Greg and KOC for not getting "LeBron'd."
Yep, Utah will be rebuilding. But Favors was the #3 pick for a reason. And Devin is very good PG. I suspect he'll average 16/8 with the Jazz. Jazz also get out from under AK's and Deron's MAX deals. Then Utah gets perhaps two lottery picks this season and one future (provided GS's doesn't turn into a couple of 2nd's at some point).
Personally, I think the Jazz will be much better than most suspect next year. They certainly have improved their depth. I'll take Favors over Elson any day of the week. And who knows who we get with NJ's pick...hopefully a "making" guard. We have shooters in Bell and CJ, but those guys usually can't hit the basket. Hey, maybe that's where Favors can really help. Just stand on the opposite side of the bucket, waiting for the airball "pass."
