Extension Time

Give us another 2-years! Memo signs an extension for $20.8 million starting in 2010-11. I like it!

Boozer Blockbuster Discussed

The trade talks have begun to heat up, according to Chad Ford and Mark Stein of ESPN.com. Now, there's been trade discussion happening between the Bulls, Blazers and Jazz in a three-way deal. Boozer would be sent to Chicago, Hinrich going to Portland and Tyrus Thomas landing in Utah. Certainly from the Jazz point of view, cap space from the Trail Blazers would be extracted to open up room to re-sign Paul Millsap.

Is Portland playing cat-and-mouse with the Jazz? Perhaps the Blazers are forcing a Millsap signing in order to force us to beg for salary cap space... (Portland knows they're in complete control of the spending market)... which would eventually tip the scale towards a Carlos Boozer blockbuster trade. Portland would then be the facilitator of such trade... providing us with salary relief. Exciting stuff! Millsap could be the dominoe that sends this deal into the works.

Here Comes Portland

Somebody will spend money on Millsap and it looks like the Trail Blazers want nothing more than to make us pay. According to the Oregon Live, " The Trail Blazers have settled on their next target: Utah power forward Paul Millsap." Because of their interest, it looks like the Jazz may have to ante-up, or wait for Portland's offer in order to match.

"The Blazers figure to exhaust nearly all of their cap space to lock up Millsap." It's an interesting move since Portland is already set at the power forward spot with LaMarcus Alridge in place. However, the article states that "Sources say Millsap has told the Blazers he would be amicable to playing behind LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers' returning power forward and one of the franchise's cornerstones." Go figure!

If this deal does come to fruition... I believe it'll be a "toxic" deal on the front end of the contract. I could see a starting year salary of $10-12 million with annual salary decreases. This would force the Jazz to make a move... either match and pay SERIOUS luxury tax dollars, or trade one of Boozer or AK47 right away. I believe the Jazz really want to keep Man-sap. As we look at other free agents over the free agent landscape (those with similar ability as Paul), Anderson Varejao just received a 6-year, $50 million deal, while Shawn Marion will receive a 5-year, $40 million contract. David Lee has yet to get a contract offer.

In other news, rumor has it that Boozer could be headed to Chicago. The deal would be for Tyrus Thomas and Jerome James. If we could somehow get a 1st round pick out of that deal, I'd probably do it. Apparently, Jerome James' contract will be paid by insurance (80%) if he doesn't play next year... which is most likely. Interesting. You'd hope we could get a better offer than TT & JJ for the Boozer.

More Summer League Notes

Eric Maynor continues to play well and is drawing comparisons to Stephon Marbury. Given our young rookie's penchant for clubbing (recent Tweet: "On the way to NC. . . . . had a great nite at Love. . . . ") one can only hope the similarities occur on the court and not off. Something tells me Jerry doesn't spend a lot of time at Love and doesn't want his players there either, especially if they're going to tell the world about it afterwards (note: the picture above is from. . . you guessed it -- Maynor's Facebook page, which is most definitely not set to private).

And for all of those East High/Utah/Utah State/Idaho Stampede fans out there, Lance Allred is trying to make the NBA again. He sounds done with both summer ball and the D-League though, so I fear the independent bookseller's circuit may eventually prove to be a better long-term career plan.

Your Utah Jazz: Not the Whitest Team in the NBA!

The current list costs us about $14 million a year: Korver, Harpring, Koufos. The historical list reads like a who's-who of Jazz fan favorites: Stockton, Tripucka, Hornacek, Eaton, Crotty, Keefe, Ostertag. But it looks like the Jazz finally have competition in the home-grown Caucausian department.

The Indy Star is questioning whether the Pacers (the team that stole Hansborough out from under us) is attempting to do the unthinkable: an NBA white-out with only American players.

In a league where little more than 10 percent of the players are white Americans, the Pacers roster is racially split down the middle, making them one of the whitest teams in the league.

Now, to be fair, if you don't discriminate white players by country of origin, the number of signed white players on each team is the same (6). So, Goran Suton's summer league will have a lot to say about who takes the title this year. From the look of things (I'd put Goran's chances of making the squad at around 50%), I think we may have a dead heat.

Jazz Summer League: a mere 31 point loss

Here are the highlights from last night's whooping at the hands of the Bill Walker-led Celtics. For your viewing pleasure they are narrated by Rod Zundel.

Summer league highlights always look like pickup highlights at the local YMCA, and the Jazz were without their "star," Kosta Koufos. But Maynor looked good, collecting nine points, 4 assists, and zero turnovers. David Thorpe (who loves just about everyone) calls Maynor "slight, but heady" and "a terrific backup for DWill."

The Jazz' second round pick, Goran Suton had four points, missing BOTH of his three-pointers. Does anyone else think that Suton (a 6"10',245 pound European who loves the perimeter) has all the makings of Sloan's new whipping boy?

Thunder Sitting Out Free Agency?

According to the Deseret News, via John Hollinger of ESPN.com, the Thunder will most likely sit out the free agent spending spree for this summer.

From Hollinger:
"My sources informed me that Oklahoma City — the team with the biggest stack of chips remaining — is highly unlikely to splurge this summer" and that "given that the best available young players (Millsap, New York's David Lee and Milwaukee's Ramon Sessions, all restricted free agents) are poor fits on the Thunder's roster, OKC plans to continue with its patient approach rather than overpaying for parts that don't fit especially well."

"The Thunder will be value players rather than big-game hunters, looking for opportunistic deals between now and the trade deadline. A year from now, they could have as much as $20 million in cap space, two lottery picks (theirs and Phoenix's) in a strong draft, and one of the league's best young rosters. About the only way to (mess) it up would be to force a big contract into the picture this summer, and with the team already selling out every game, they don't see any need to rush it."

All along I've wondered why the Thunder had interest in Paul Millsap (other than the fact that they currently have money to spend... and why not spend it?). This explanation better coincides with a "gameplan" for the future. Oklahoma City won't make the playoffs next season (with or without Millsap). There are bigger fish to acquire in 2010. Jeff Green plays the same position as Millsap. You need cap space in order to re-sign Durant, Green & Westbrook. And finally, the Thunder have 2 potential lottery picks in 2010 to continue loading up their roster (their own & Phoenix). Why go after Millsap? The good news for us might be that the asking price just went down considerably, with OKC out of the running. I don't think Portland (who has some salary cap) has interest. And Millsap really doesn't have any other suitors. His asking price may have dwindled to the mid-level exception... which is fantastic for us, because we'll easily match that.

Potential Off-season Trades

So apparently, the Jazz entertained discussions regarding a possible Tracy McGrady-AK47 trade. The Deseret News suggested that it was a distinct possibility, yet the Jazz decided to pull away… being frightened by the health woes of Tracy McGrady.

While I’m not a huge Tracy McGrady fan, and don’t believe he’d be a great fit for the Jazz… it’s quite clear to me that the Jazz must make a trade in order to re-structure the team or blow it up and start over. 1- Because Millsap will carry us deep into the luxury tax (if we decide to keep him). 2- Boozer seems like a rented-mule for another season, with the Jazz and its fans not willing or wanting to keep him around. 3- Every team in the West is upgrading their championship caliber teams. 4- Kirilenko’s contract is destroying our ability to keep our “wanted” players around. 5- We’re not good enough to win it as we're currently constituted (so why pay the luxury tax?), and we have to make a change.

I believe the Jazz should definitely make this trade. It would accomplish both of our goals… 1. Attempting an experiment to upgrade our team (healthy McGrady > AK47) in order to make one last run at a championship with this group of players. 2. If it doesn’t work, McGrady, along with the expiring contracts of Boozer, Memo and Korver, will push $50 million off of our payroll in 2010... allowing us to be a "player" in the free agent market for next summer. We’d essentially be starting over (which would be fine by me). This would allow Deron Williams the ability to recruit -and attract- the type of players that he'd ultimately desire to play with in the future.

Millsap's Destination

From the looks of it, Millsap is down to two suitors: The Jazz and the Thunder. It's like CJ Miles 2.0, except this time the winner gets a good basketball player. The other teams with cap money this summer are looking elsewhere for big men: Detroit (Villanueva), Portland (Turkoglu), and Memphis (Z. Bo). Atlanta is still a possibility, but with Al Horford cemented as their power forward, Millsap seems a poor fit in the Dirty South.



Oklahoma City on the other hand has money to burn. The team has a great salary structure right now. They have no bad salaries (worst is Collison's deal with two years left at 6.5). They have a bunch of talented youngsters who are still on their rookie deal. They are in a good spot. But, in a year or two they are going to have to pony up max money for Kevin Durant, and good money for Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook. Add those four to Millsap's expected deal (just south of 10 mil/yr) and you are probably paying around $60 million for 4 players. That's the same pickle that the Jazz are in.



The other tricky issue for the Thunder is where does Millsap fit on the team. Right now, the Thunder play Jeff Green at the four. Green is a slasher who is slightly undersized for a power forward. Are they thinking of playing Durant at the 2 and moving Green to the 3? Positionally I'm not sure that Milsap is the ideal fit.

But the Thunder couldn't give a damn about what I think. And the way their salaries are structured (cheap now, will be expensive later) is the exact opposite of the Jazz' structure (overloaded now, relief comes next year). If the Thunder offer Millsap a deal that is heavily front-loaded, the Jazz may blink. On the other hand, the Jazz can offer Millsap a deal that is cheaper up front and gets larger next year.



So, it all may depend on where Millsap would prefer to be. He can control his destiny, to a great degree. If he wants to be on the plains, he can sign a front-loaded deal that the Jazz probably can't stomach. If he wants to be in the mountains, he can just sign with the Jazz.

Jazz Summer League

Eric Maynor has signed his rookie contract with the Jazz, paying him $1.3 million for his first NBA season. He’ll join several others on the Utah Jazz Summer League team which starts next week in Orlando, Florida. Of those who’ll join Maynor from the Jazz in Summer League are Kosta Koufos and Goran Suton. Kyrylo Fesenko won’t make the trip to Florida because he’ll be choosing to participate instead with the Ukrainian national team in Europe. Morris Almond, former Jazzman, will play for the New York Knicks in Summer League.

Those players who’ll be playing for the Jazz this summer are:

James Augustine, Cedric Bozeman, Justin Reed, Gary Wilkinson, Kevin Kruger, Andre Ingram, Kevin Lyde, Jim Baron, Josh Duncan, Wes Matthews, Reyshawn Terry, Larry Turner and Derrick Brown (from the Bobcats).

Augustine, Reed and Bozeman are interesting players because they’ve had small stints playing in the NBA. Augustine played for a couple years with Orlando, and now plays overseas for Gran Canaria in Spain. Reed played for Boston and Minnesota for a few years after falling to the D-League. Lastly, Bozeman played briefly for Atlanta, and now plays as a D-League Superstar, posting Magic-like stats. Go D-League Star!

Wilkinson is local (Bingham Miner & Utah State Aggie), and everybody knows about Kevin Kruger (former UNLV point guard, played for Utah Flash). Josh Duncan and Reyshawn Terry are pretty talented players, while Kevin Lyde is the perennial Jazz Summer League stat-stuffer. Of the rookies who might actually have an shot at making the team… Watch for 6-5 guard, Wes Matthews from Marquette. He could have a chance to impress, after a solid senior year (18 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 47% FG). His Pops once played as a back-up for the Showtime Lakers.

After doing a little research, I can see why the Jazz decided to draft Goran Suton in the 2nd Round. Suton absolutely flourished (and at times, dominated) during the NCAA tournament. He was the primary reason for Michigan State’s run to the championship game… doing it against some impressive competition along the way. Against Robert Morris, Suton scored 11 pts and collected 17 rebounds. He shut down Taj Gibson from USC in game 2 (3 pts, 0 rbs), while scoring 7 pts and 10 boards. He then had his best performance of all against Cole Aldrich of Kansas (20 pts, 9 rbs, & 5 steals). Michigan State advanced, and then beat #1 seeded Louisville behind Suton’s extraordinary game of 19 pts, 10 boards and 4 assists. Against UConn in the Final Four, Suton wasn’t quite the same spectacle, but he came back to post a solid game versus UNC in the championship game… matching Psycho-T stride for stride with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks. Sparty got blasted… but Suton was very impressive. So, in this light, I can see why we drafted him. Let’s hope that he can continue his fabulous tournament play into Jazz Summer League, and eventually make the team.