• Jazz Need To Make A Deal

    January 14, 2009 -
    When asked about the potential of the Jazz making a trade before the February deadline, Jerry Sloan recently said, “I’d rather keep guys together so you have better continuity.” While that sentiment is understandable and may actually be the best course of action much of the time, it feels a little narrow-minded at the moment. The problem here is the core of this Jazz team has now been together for four seasons...and they seem to be getting worse every year.

    Continuity is great if you’re winning. The Jazz are not (at least not enough).

    Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The Jazz organization may not have received a clinical diagnosis yet, but the neighbors are beginning to point and whisper.

    So who to trade? Honestly, for the right deal I would part with anyone on the roster aside from Deron Williams. With any trade, however, I would expect Carlos Boozer to be the centerpiece.

    Many NBA analysts feel the Jazz will keep Boozer for the remainder of the season. That would be an enormous mistake, in my humble opinion. Follow my logic here:

    1. The Jazz have no shot at winning the NBA title this season. In fact they’re not even in the playoff picture right now.

    2. Carlos Boozer will be gone this summer. The Jazz can’t afford to pay him what he wants, and unlike this past summer, there will be a number of interested teams with the cap room to sign him.

    3. It would be incredibly short-sighted to keep a player you know isn’t part of the team’s future just to potentially win a few more games this season. If the Jazz were legitimate title contenders, it would be a different story.

    4. Even if they can’t get fair market value for Boozer, the Jazz would be better off receiving some kind of asset in return rather than losing an all-star for nothing.

    I refuse to accept excuses from Utah’s front office that they can’t find a trade for Boozer that makes sense. I’ve heard the argument from some fans that no team will give up anything of value for Boozer when they know they could just sign him as an unrestricted free agent this summer. Again, I don't buy it. The team that traded for Boozer would have his Bird rights and be able to offer him more money and a longer contract than any other team. At worst, they would have the ability to make a sign-and-trade or free up cap room to go after another free agent.

    Rod Thorne, GM of the New Jersey Nets, recently said, "if you make a deal for an expiring free agent of the major variety, you’d have to feel your chances were very good to re-sign that player." Interesting comment, as I believe New Jersey could be a legitimate trading partner. I don't know Boozer personally, but he certainly seems to be motivate by money. Pay him, and he'll sign.

    I could probably come up with at least 30 “realistic” potential Boozer trades that I would willingly accept. In fact I'll try to make good on that in my next post.

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