Utah Jazz offseason ranked #4 by NBA.com

[Gyp Rosetti]

sap isn't an upgrade over boozer, either, guys. sap has 2 post moves (literally) and almost never gets double-teamed. he can put up similar numbers to boozer in one-month stretches, but boozer is a FAR more complete player than either millsap OR jefferson.

We won't need low-post moves. He'll be camped 17 feet out as Jefferson bangs down low.

 

[theNBAnerd]

I understand your points but let me say this.

1) AJ was a 20-10 guy on a crappy team with poor point guard. It's not hard to imagine that he could be a 24/11 guy here and therefore be better than booze. it's not also blatant homerism to believe that given his size advantage and a change in scenery, he could also be a better and more interested defender.

ah, the famed jefferson-will-magically-become-a-better-player-because-of-DW-and-the-system argue. we have locke to thank for perpetuating this half-truth.

the thing is, we all know that playing with DW is going to give him better opportunities than playing with ramon sessions. but jefferson is still fairly limited as a player. he is a MUCH better post scorer than boozer could every pretend to be, but in just about every other facet of the game, he's either inferior to boozer (passing, decision-making, jump-shooting, finishing with both hands, etc.) or roughly equal to boozer (defense). i trust jerry, deron and others to utilize his strenghts and paper over his weaknesses, but lets' not pretend that he's going to suddenly become tim duncan just because he's alongside a real point guard. his game has holes... more than boozer's.

let's also get out of the habit of judging everything by individual production, as in, "he could be a 24/11 guy here and therefore be better than booz." he could put up 30-and-15 and still make the team worse if he doesn't ease the burden on other guys. for example, when millsap started during boozer's 2008-09 injury, he put up eerily similar numbers to booz, but the team offensive efficiency dropped off a ton because nobody was going to double millsap and he was more predictable offensively. for hell's sake, tracy mcgrady has two scoring titles and has never been out of the first round, so quite clearly more scoriing does NOT equal "better" in terms of contributing to team quality.

2) I know we didn't truly address length in the form of a center (what were our options you would have proposed?) but AJ has 1.5 inches in standing reach on Booze and 3 inches in max vert reach. Hayward also has 3.5 inches in max vert reach on Korver. Their additions, along with Evans made us a little bit longer and more athletic imo. Obviously, we still need someone who can contend with Gasol and/or Bynum down low and that's why my sig is what it is.

i agree with everything here, and accounted for it in my "fit" point. al makes us better IF he makes the pieces fit better together (ie, he plays more center, ak/memo play more high post.)

I see us taking a slight step back to around 50 wins because of chemistry issues but am holding out hope that the following year, with Miles and Hayward more seasoned, Jefferson more acclimated to our offense, and Kobe another year older, we could truly do some damage.

agree. the move has good long-term potential. but let's be realistic: the 2010-11 didn't just get BETTER than the 2009-2010 jazz. if anything, we barely kept up and now it's about getting the pieces to fit better together... hopefully better than the old pieces did, but that's not a guarantee.

 

[Gyp Rosetti]

ah, the famed jefferson-will-magically-become-a-better-player-because-of-DW-and-the-system argue. we have locke to thank for perpetuating this half-truth.

the thing is, we all know that playing with DW is going to give him better opportunities than playing with ramon sessions. but jefferson is still fairly limited as a player. he is a MUCH better post scorer than boozer could every pretend to be, but in just about every other facet of the game, he's either inferior to boozer (passing, decision-making, jump-shooting, finishing with both hands, etc.) or roughly equal to boozer (defense). i trust jerry, deron and others to utilize his strenghts and paper over his weaknesses, but lets' not pretend that he's going to suddenly become tim duncan just because he's alongside a real point guard. his game has holes... more than boozer's.

let's also get out of the habit of judging everything by individual production, as in, "he could be a 24/11 guy here and therefore be better than booz." he could put up 30-and-15 and still make the team worse if he doesn't ease the burden on other guys. for example, when millsap started during boozer's 2008-09 injury, he put up eerily similar numbers to booz, but the team offensive efficiency dropped off a ton because nobody was going to double millsap and he was more predictable offensively. for hell's sake, tracy mcgrady has two scoring titles and has never been out of the first round, so quite clearly more scoriing does NOT equal "better" in terms of contributing to team quality.




i agree with everything here, and accounted for it in my "fit" point. al makes us better IF he makes the pieces fit better together (ie, he plays more center, ak/memo play more high post.)



agree. the move has good long-term potential. but let's be realistic: the 2010-11 didn't just get BETTER than the 2009-2010 jazz. if anything, we barely kept up and now it's about getting the pieces to fit better together... hopefully better than the old pieces did, but that's not a guarantee.

Agreed. During the season, what do you think our front office's biggest priority should be?

 

[theNBAnerd]

well i'd say "finding an athletic, long big that can contend with pau", but isn't that every team's priority? if it were that easy, pau wouldn't be such a rarity. they should listen to phone calls, but the thing is, there are only 4 really tradeable assets (until december 15): memo, AK, CJ and sap. for memo and AK you're going to get pennies on the dollar, so it really comes down to what a team would be willing to give them for CJ and paul.