Monday, May 18, 2009

Jazz Owner Has Spoken

Greg Miller, the acting CEO of the Larry H. Miller Group, took to the mass media (KSL) to talk about all things Jazz. It's commendable to see him in the public eye in order to talk about our beloved franchise. To be frank, it truly sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Here are a few "sound" points I found to be intriguing:

On Boozer: "I do have concerns about Carlos' defense and I have some concerns about his ability to lead the team."

Regarding the Miller Group Automotive side: "If the Jazz were a Toyota dealership, they would be our fourth largest Toyota dealership in terms of revenue... But we have to make sure the automotive side does well."

What worries him most about the team: "The thing that I'm most worried about is our toughness."

Luxury Tax: "If we had to spend all the money and all the players with their options decided to come back... that would obviously put us in a luxury tax situation. If that were the case, we would be willing to go into the luxury tax realm."

On Memo: "We'd love to have Memo here as well..."

Regarding Paul Millsap: "We would love to keep Paul on the team. We feel his development has been marvelous over the years. We think he has a great future ahead of him... we would not rule out paying luxury tax money to keep him."

Would you ever sell the team in the future?
"The Utah Jazz will remain in Salt Lake City until or unless they become a burden to the rest of the organization."

KUTV believes that Kyle Korver will opt out of his contract. If that's the case... See ya later KK! It's been nice knowing you. Thanks for freeing up the spending money for us. However... I wouldn't be surprised if the Jazz re-signed Korver again this summer, knowing how much the Jazz organization AND this community (most specifically... the fair ladies of SLC) love him SO much. I'd break down laughing, if that were to actually happen.

6 comments:

Orlando said...

I can't believe David James on this one. Korver opting out?!?! Where is he getting advice? I guess he has more options (any time can offer the midlevel exception), but he will not be coming back to Utah if he opts out.

Adios, Christian soldier.

Anonymous said...

Don't believe DJ on this one! He posted a very misleading headline on his blog about Korver opting out. Korver did a radio interview in Iowa, and didn't say he was opting out.... sounded like he's keeping his options open, and hasn't decided. Somehow DJ thought that was enough to blog a headline about Korver leaving Utah. Sheesh.

Pasty Gangsta said...

This is the second time that Greg Miller has repeated his line about keeping the Jazz in Salt Lake as long as they're not dragging down the rest of the operation. I've said it before and I'll say it again. . . lotta wiggle room there.

Pasty Gangsta said...

Another interesting scenario from today's D News article:

"What Greg Miller didn't say is that another way the Jazz could address the matter should Boozer, Okur and Korver all decide to play out the final year of their current deals would be to start next season above the tax threshold.

"Then, if a title were not within sight, they could try to dump salary before next year's trade deadline and before it comes time to actually calculate final payroll figures."

Orlando said...

The DesNews scenario is tricky because you have to take back at least 90% of the salary you trade away, unless you trade with a team under the salary cap. So you are pretty limited in the number of teams you can trade with. But it is a possibility.

Pasty Gangsta said...

True, that's definitely a problem. But if we were only going to be 10% over the cap, perhaps we would risk it to resign Millsap with the thought that Boozer or Memo would always be a commodity on the open market mid-season.

The crappy thing about the cap is that not only are you paying 100% tax, you don't get a share of the other teams' money. Unless the apple fell pretty damn far from the tree, that is not a scenario Greg Miller relishes.