true. we were unlucky because of his injury, but a player of memos caliber deserved this kind of money.
No, no, and no.
Even before the re-signing (and the subsequent injury), he was starting to slow down. His defense was clearly subpar (not that Boozer was helping appearances much).
It was clear that Boozer + Okur was a liability defensively, and Boozer was just as likely to be gone before the new Memo contract began. Ten million plus is too much to pay for a taller Korver.
we tend to underrate him a little bit. a healthy memo in his prime is a pretty good 18 and 8 player, a borderline all-star...
Um, Okur hasn't averaged 18 and 8 (or even 18
or 8) since 2005-06--and that was in nearly 36 MPG.
And sure enough, following the signing (but not even in the new contract yet), Okur's scoring plummets to 13.5 PPG (<14 PP30).
Ah, your irrelevant nostalgia.
o'conner could not wait with the extension, so we have to live with it.
Patently false. O'Connor could've waited on the extension, just like the Jazz could've waited on Kirilenko. In this case, MO wasn't even a player in big demand. Okur wasn't essential enough to the team to secure him one year early. Now, in just 1-2 short years, the Jazz have the deepest frontcourt possibly in their history but are still saddled with Okur's albatross eight-figure contract. And they could've definitely gotten him cheaper off a 13.5 and 7 season (at 38.5% from the trey) than a 17.0 and 7.7 season (and 45% from the trey). With him reaching his 30th birthday prior to the re-signing, it should've been foreseeable that he wasn't gonna get more expensive by waiting a year--even if he would've been a free agent.
it could have become worse if we gave him a longer extension. he was playing pretty good basketball when we gave him his new contract, but it was risky because we had the chance to wait a year...
That's the spirit! When faced with justifying a sucky contract, your argument is: "It could've been longer!"
If/when you make bad love to a significant other, do you use the same argument ("It could've been worse")?