Sunday, June 28, 2009

One Trade Away from a Championship

OK, so maybe I'm a little overly optimistic, but I really think the Jazz aren't far from being a championship level team and here is my suggestion for how they could get there.

On Tuesday, Okur is going to opt out and Boozer and Korver are not. That will leave the Jazz with a gaping hole at center and a log jam at power forward. Cue the Charlotte Bobcats. They have four centers under contract and are looking to cut salary and rebuild. My proposal is this: Boozer, Korver and our unprotected first round draft pick from the Knicks for Okafor and Wallace.

The Jazz fill their hole at center and add a small forward in Wallace who can create his own shot and play lock-down defense.

The Bobcats assure themselves of two lottery picks in the deepest draft in recent memory and with Boozer's and Korver's expiring contracts get salary cap space to allow MJ to attract a big name free agent during the 2010 free agent bonanza. A trade like this would jump start the rebuilding process and put them on the fast track to assembling a core of good young players to build around.

The Jazz would be left with a starting lineup of
Pg: Williams
SG: Brewer
SF: Wallace
PF: Millsap (resigned)
C: Okafor

All five of them are 26 or younger and capable of playing solid defense. We would be strong on the glass and could rely on William and Wallace to create shots. Okafor would give us an interior shot blocker for the first time in a long time and with the exception of Brewer, everyone would be under contract for the next four years so we could allow them to grow together and add pieces as necessary.

Pull the trigger Kevin O'. Go Jazz.

-00Tag

8 comments:

The Golden Griff said...

This is a great idea, which means Booner will probably dislike it.

Tucker McCann said...

It won't happen.

But having said that, I would be interested to hear some of Golden Griff's proposals. Perhaps resign Brevin Knight and trade him straight across for Dwigh Howard?

Jazz Fan said...

Let me start off by saying that I hope that Okur stays with the Jazz. I really love the fact that he pulls centers away from the paint. I just wish that the Jazz would realize that the paint is wide open and decide to drive the ball instead of passing to Boozer for a crappy jumpshot from 18 feet away and........sorry, I got sidetracked. Anyway, I love the Idea of trading the Knicks pick with someone attached to it. Do I think it will happen??? Not anytime soon. In my opinion, I think we will hang on the to the pick for most of the year. We will wait and see what the Knicks are doing and if they are playing well, we will trade it, If they are sucking (as expected) we will hang on to it. I have no evidence to back this up, I just think this is a likely senario. I have seen a lot of articles on the internet lately that accuse Kevin O'Connor of being complaceant. He is satisfied on just making the playoffs, not necessarily winning a title. I hope that this is not true and that this will finally be the season that the Jazz finally enter the the trading game. WE NEED TO MAKE SOME MOVES....So far, we are not hearing anything about how we want to improve our team. I keep watching other teams make moves to improve theirs, why arent we doing anything?? I dont know about you guys, but I want to make improvements.
Oh yeah, I would love if Okafor played for the Jazz. Finally we have someone that could play defense.

Sorry I got on a tangent. I promise that I will take my "calm down" pills.

THanks,

Lacy J. said...

horrible trade...especially including the knicks pick. who is going to score in your proposed starting line-up aside from dwill? we would still have the same problem of no three point shooting. wallace nor brewer can't shoot and milsap and okafor can't score consitently from the post. don't like it one bit. how about kirilenko and a pick to the warriors for brandond wright, marco belinelli, and corey magette?

Ryan said...

G. Wallace averaged almost 17 points a game last year and Okafor averaged just over 13. Add D-Will's, Brewer's, Millsap's, and AK's scoring to the mix, and I don't think we'd have a problem putting points on the board. Plus, we would have some interior defense for a change and wouldn't need to put up 115 a night to win.

I also think that Millsap's post game will improve so he can give us a consistent low-post threat.

torrey ellis said...

How about we sign and trade boozer and Korver to Toronto for Bosh. All Boozer wants is money and Toronto know they are losing bosh after this season. We would start the season with a lineup of:

Dwill
AK
Brewer
Bosh
Okur
6th man Milsap

We would only have Bosh for this season, but maybe after our run to the title he would want to stay plus we could keep the Knicks pick. Toronto would get a good player for a long time (Boozer) which they couldn't get any other way. Plus they get a shooter in Korver to replace Kapono who they traded.

Orlando said...

I'm not a huge fan of Gerald Wallace. Nice player, solid defender, but he's always played on terrible, terrible teams. Although I would love Okafor, starting Millsap and Okafor would leave us with no post game.

Draft Guru said...

I suppose that I'm the resident, Jazz pessimist. I'm not sure there's a realistic trade out that makes us a big-time contender. Okafor would be great for the Jazz though.