Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Trade Machine Fun

I don't listen to rumors, I start them. Here are some possible trade scenarios involving the Guru's hero.

1. The "Screw the Luxury Tax, Let's Win" Trade:
Example:
We give up Boozer and CJ and get Battier and Hinrich in return.

Boozer has value around the league. Teams that want to compete next year and that need a scoring presence in the post (BULLS!BULLS!BULLS!), will give up assets to rent him for a year and obtain his Bird rights. The Bulls have made it clear that both Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas are available. However, they don't want to give Hinrich away because they'd be thin at guard. So, here's a proposal that would soothe all of the Bulls' fears and keep Tyrus Thomas' throat away from Jerry Sloan's vice-like grip.

Why it won't happen: I think the Bulls would jump at this: they get to test drive Boozer for a year, ditch Hinrich's long-term deal, and they get Miles as a cheap reserve. The Rockets would save about $7 million over the two years and get a shot blocker for the year Yao is out. So, who doesn't do this? Our Utah Jazz. The problem is this deal saves us zero dollars this year, and we commit to Hinrich and Battier long term. The Jazz are DESPERATE to cut some salary now, so this deal is highly unlikely. However, if the Jazz are likely to commit long term to anyone, it would be a white guy from the University of Kansas and a cerebral Dukie with below average athleticism.


2. The "Jazz fans get a pseudo-Boozer replacement and Greg Miller is 4 million dollars richer" Trade:
Example: The much talked about swap of Boozer for Udonis plus spare parts.

The Jazz save about $2 million in salary (plus the same amount in luxury tax) and they get a power forward that doesn't worship satan.

Why It Won't Happen: The Jazz aren't convinced that Udonis instead of Boozer is worth $4 million. I'll bet that changes by February.


3. The "Complete Salary Dump" Trade:
Example: We give up Boozer and get Dorrel Wright and Yakhouba Diawara.

This is the Jazz' preferred choice: give up an all-star for potential D-leaguers. It's all about the money right now. In such a scenario, we ship Boozer to a contender and a third team with cap space (Memphis, OKC, or Portland) takes a player from that contender for free.

Why it won't happen: The third team is the key in this scenario. Does Portland want anyone on Miami? Does Memphis? The most likely team is Portland, since they are the only team with cap space that has a shot at contention next year. The Jazz desperately want a deal like this. But the Blazers and Jazz aren't exactly buddy-buddy.

5 comments:

Draft Guru said...

Solid post. Difficult decisions to be made... I suppose we could wait and see if anybody coughs up a legitimate talent... not likely. Otherwise we get on with our lives without him (my preference) by acquiring future assets.

Ryan said...

I have seen talk about a trade with Golden St. What do they have to offer? Nellie might just be crazy enough to give us something useful for the Booze.

Orlando said...

The Golden State deals I've seen typically involve GS getting Boozer with the Jazz getting a decent but not great young player (like Branden Wright) and then a third team absorbing salary from Golden State.

Ryan said...

I really like Brandan Wright and would gladly ship Boozer to Golden St. for him and Belinelli, who now looks very expendable with Curry on the roster. Both are young, talented and could develop into nice players. I don't think we can expect to get more than that for Boozer.

mainlymilitary said...

Wow, there is a great deal of useful data above!