The General Manager of the Utah Jazz mentioned in June, speaking on the behalf of the entire Utah Jazz organization, the Utah Jazz would be "very active" in the free agency. Now I am not here to to bad-mouth anyone, only speak the truth and facts as it comes out. The words "very active" actually scared me when I heard them because I thought, compared to what? That of the past? What does very active mean to DL? To me it meant going after big name free agents even though we probably didn't have a chance in the world at signing them. Even if we ended up with nothing, but we tried to land the big names, that is something I was ok with, because we would've been at least trying something. What I didn't know is that "very active" meant an attempt to sign anybody that we possibly could regardless of talent, age or desire to win.
What's sad is we succeeded our biggest free agent signing that we've had in years. That isn't the sad part, the sad part is, we signed 35 year old Joe Johnson. Not a bad signing, but when told we would be "very active" this isn't quite what I had in mind. The words "very active" don't exactly paint the picture of an arthritic NBA great that once was nearly over a half decade ago. In past years one would say that we have been more active in letting talent walk or negotiating trades to which talent is traded or walks onto other teams without taking another player back in exchange. (See Kanter, Burke) I am not a fan of either but you can't tell me that we couldn't have tried to get something for Kanter and have been successful. And Burke traded was the right idea, but in exchange for a 2nd round pick?
Let me guess, "what about Hill?" has got to be coming up next. Hill a great player, no doubt about it. Imagine what he could be on our team if we acquired him prior to his decline. Would've been a really good acquisition. We needed age on our team, no doubt about it, but again, thought we would go in a little harder than we did.
But what about the trade for Boris Diaw? = either way you look at it, we were willing to shed a 2nd round pick for a grey haired, overweight, old man. Very active? Based on what? Very active in the free agency is something that we couldn't do, and active in the trade market is something that obviously isn't up our alley. And that's fine, but come out and say it. DL needs to say, because of lack of interest from other NBA players throughout the league, we have realized that we won't accomplish much more than what you think we will from year to year. Don't get your hopes up, I wouldn't. Not trying to be negative, but I will be realistic, which is what I see and hear from the Jazz organization.
