karl malone
Well-Known Member
Management was still waffling on keeping Paul. That was a trade that was not going to be made. As for Big Al, there were only 3-4 teams that could have legitimately traded for him. As an UFA, he wouldn't have fetched a top draft pick. And KOC ABSOLUTELY did not want to take back a multi-year deal. Right or wrong, he thought the Jazz COULD be players in free agency, just as DL did this season. Didn't sign a player, but we did get the deal done with GS, which wouldn't have happened if we had a lousy vet with another year left on his deal all in return for a couple of 2nd round picks.
This is all true, which is why I said it was a possible misstep. Personally, I think we had already made up our minds to turn the reigns over to Favors & Kanter so I think it had already been decided that Millsap would be allowed to walk (otherwise we would have re-signed him considering the bargain of a contract he received). There's no point in questioning it tho as we have no way of knowing if the trade offers outweighed what we ultimately received in the GSW trade. My guess is that we wouldn't have done much better considering the promise that Hood has shown up to this point.