Letting Paul Millsap leave killed the Utah Jazz

[NAOS]

The Hawks will maybe win one playoff series and then lose in the second round. Woopadeedoo. They play in the East. Get over it.

wrong. They're actually really good. Try watching some of their games.

You said it perfect!!

No he didn't. And, your sentence is grammatically incorrect -- which is especially ironic in this case.

 

[Hotdog]

It is hindsight. A retool could have very well worked out. It certainly has in Atlanta. Many other teams have rebuilt/retooled without getting rid of everyone. KOC did it once by bringing in free agents around AK, with a fortuitous draft pick of Deron. He hoped to do the same by replacing Boozer with Big Al. Then, with the surprise rebellion of Deron and departure of Sloan, by restocking with the pieces obtained in the Williams trade, along with signing some key vets (Mo, Foye, etc.). TBH, the team led by Millsap/Jefferson/Hayward SHOULD have been better. I think - had we stuck with it another season - and replacing Mo with a better PG, going after an upgrade over Foye, the team WOULD have been in the playoffs.

There are some who would have opted for the Philadelphia Experiment after Deron was traded. Just blow the whole thing up, trade away everyone for assets and rebuild from scratch. That's a valid argument. I don't think Utah fans were ready for that, and neither was management. But I do have to give KOC credit. He did a test retool by only committing to short-term deals. When DL decided to tear it down, he didn't have to deal with a ton of long-term, dead money on the books. Just look at teams like the Lakers, Knicks, Nets, etc. They've had to wait to clear bad contracts. And that's what always frustrates me when people bring up the Millsap/Jefferson "let them go for nothing" argument. Best case, the Jazz get protected 1st's and expirings (good value) or mid-level vets (which Utah didn't want). And that's exactly what Utah ended up with by using the cap space. They had amazing flexibility: they could have re-signed their vets, gone after two max-level FA's or used their available cap space to facilitate deals and pick up future assets.

Hindsight is for people who don't have foresight.

The Jazz made a huge mistake not matching on Mathews and signing Bell. Retool mistake number #1

#2 The Jazz made a big mistake trading for Jefferson. They should have done their homework on him and not get bullied by Deron if he indeed did ask for Jefferson. I was appalled at the move the day he was traded for and so were other intelligent basketball fans.

3. Jazz continued to drag out the mistakes by not bailing on the so called retool, even after the writing was on the wall. Something many people observed far before Millsap and Jefferson walked. And in the process delayed the development of its young players.

These were dumb decisions then and now. It was debated back then too. This isn't a big surprise revelation. Most people wanted Jefferson traded, but the minority (Jazz FO included) didn't.

It's ok to criticize decisions. I'm not gonna say they made all good decisions the last few years, because they didn't.

 

[Joncolton]

Hi, I used to be on here a few years back. I've just been occasionally reading on here, but not posting. Things are getting exciting again!

I'd have to agree not matching on Wesley Matthews was a huge HUGE error. KOC said his biggest mistake was letting Mo Williams walk away, and that WAS true until he let Wesley Matthews leave. Matthews was the first Jazz shooting guard to compete and be truly effective in Sloan's system since Hornacek. That's about a decade gap at the 2 position, you finally get it filled after 10+ years, and then you let that person walk because he is a little bit expensive?!

IMO, the best thing that KOC ever did (and he did a lot of good things) - was find Dennis Lindsey for his replacement. DL has a plan, and he is working that plan. Quin Snyder is on the same page, and the players are buying in as well. Jazz basketball is starting to become a thing of beauty once again. This is the grueling part of the journey, but for the first time in 3 years there is light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[freakazoid]

#2 The Jazz made a big mistake trading for Jefferson. They should have done their homework on him and not get bullied by Deron if he indeed did ask for Jefferson. I was appalled at the move the day he was traded for and so were other intelligent basketball fans.

I disagree with this, though. Utah needed to roll the dice on getting past the first round with Deron's contract coming up. Boozer was about to get paid, and Deron was leaving unless we could make a decent playoff push, IMO. In hindsight we're kind of lucky things worked out like they did. We could have easily paid Deron and Boozer a boatload of money at a time they were both starting to decline. Jefferson was about as good of a gamble as we could have taken, in spite of the fact he was probably never going to work out. If they had let Boozer go without replacing him with someone like AL, Deron would have walked and fans would have been pissed. It didn't work out the way we hoped, but at least the FO made a decent attempt at keeping Deron, even though with Hindsight we're lucky we weren't the ones to give him his next contract.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Honestly Millsap would still be here if it wasn't for Millsap. His actions on and off the court showed he wouldn't be here the following year.

Nitwits like you should shut the **** up as a rule.

 

[JAZZGASM]

This is crazy. Yes, Millsap has done well in ATL, but I don't think he would have had the same success for the Jazz in the much deeper West. If we had kept him, what draft picks would we have lost out on? What would our roster be comprised of? The Jazz realized that the AJ/Millsap front court wasn't going to do it. They took a gamble on Favors and Kanter as the future, and hopefully they are patient enough to see it through. It is crazy how fickle fans on this site can be. I have seen Kanter carry this team on a lot of possessions. He is our one big that can create for himself consistently on the post. A very valuable resource to have on a team, especially since Gobert is somewhat limited on offense at this point, and Hayward is the only other consistent high % creator we have with Burks injured.

I think our current front court could be something really special. In fact, I think it already is, they just need a better back court to support them and time to jell. Also, Snyder needs to make spacing adjustments due to Gobert's presence in the post. Weak side players do not need to sag nearly as much when Gobert is in the game (but it still happens, and we give up a ton of weak side open threes).

Exum has the tools to be special, we are already seeing it on defense. He needs confidence, and he is slowly building it. But he hasn't developed enough to push this team over the hump. And I don't think Burke ever will. Lets shore up our back court and watch this team turn into something special.

I would take our front court of Gobert, Favors and Kanter over AJ/Millsap/etc. any day of the week.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Millsap is almost 30, Favors is 23. I'd rather have Favors now and I'll reserve judgment on which player is better for a couple of years. How good was Paul at 23?

Remember when Boozer went down and Millsap had that crazy double-double streak and was getting buzz as an all-star? That good (and he got SO MUCH BETTER).

 

[NAOS]

Hindsight is for people who don't have foresight.

The Jazz made a huge mistake not matching on Mathews and signing Bell. Retool mistake number #1

#2 The Jazz made a big mistake trading for Jefferson. They should have done their homework on him and not get bullied by Deron if he indeed did ask for Jefferson. I was appalled at the move the day he was traded for and so were other intelligent basketball fans.

3. Jazz continued to drag out the mistakes by not bailing on the so called retool, even after the writing was on the wall. Something many people observed far before Millsap and Jefferson walked. And in the process delayed the development of its young players.

These were dumb decisions then and now. It was debated back then too. This isn't a big surprise revelation. Most people wanted Jefferson traded, but the minority (Jazz FO included) didn't.

It's ok to criticize decisions. I'm not gonna say they made all good decisions the last few years, because they didn't.

it's funny when you confidently declare yourself as belonging amongst the intelligent crowd.

 

[Hotdog]

I disagree with this, though. Utah needed to roll the dice on getting past the first round with Deron's contract coming up. Boozer was about to get paid, and Deron was leaving unless we could make a decent playoff push, IMO. In hindsight we're kind of lucky things worked out like they did. We could have easily paid Deron and Boozer a boatload of money at a time they were both starting to decline. Jefferson was about as good of a gamble as we could have taken, in spite of the fact he was probably never going to work out. If they had let Boozer go without replacing him with someone like AL, Deron would have walked and fans would have been pissed. It didn't work out the way we hoped, but at least the FO made a decent attempt at keeping Deron, even though with Hindsight we're lucky we weren't the ones to give him his next contract.

Trading Deron away was a good decision. As soon as they traded him they should have bailed. That's when it was no longer a retool and it was a rebuild.

I'll accept the argument they had to take on a chance on Jefferson (I wouldn't have), but not trading him I can't accept as an argument.

Jefferson' s tenure here was a distaster. I don't care what numbers he put up. I couldn't stand watching him play.

 

[Hotdog]

it's funny when you confidently declare yourself as belonging amongst the intelligent crowd.

You didn't say "LOL"

I don't think you really think it's funny.

 

[NAOS]

Guis, I wish Hack was our GM. Since he isn't, I look forward to when he reaches further back into history to tell us what he knew, and to tell us what he would have done with perfection. On jazzfanz.

 

[Hotdog]

If I were GM of the Jazz, the Jefferson deal would have never happened. Jerry Sloan never would have retired. Because I would traded Boozer and Memo for a real defensive center to put next to Millsap. That person was most likely going to be Kevin Garnett and we would have won a couple championships. I was campaigning for a Kevin Garnett deal back then. The salaries matched up perfectly. Memo was at about 8 or 9 mil per, Boozer was 12, Garnett was at 20. We could have thrown in a pick or two to sweeten the deal. Boozer and Memo had high value then and Minnesota would have taken the deal.