This is what happens when your owner is more concerned about the bottom line than the standings. Utah HAD a very deep team with a great bench, but lost their depth due to financial constraints. They let Boozer walk to Chicago and got nothing back. That makes Millsap the starter. Millsap was the best back-up PF in the league. He's doing almost as well as a starter as Boozer did last season, but now they no longer have a great power forward coming off the bench and their starting front court is undersized. They also let Kyle Korver walk, again to Chicago, and again, nothing in return. There goes their 3-point shooting and instant offense off the bench. Korver was great for them last season. He had a PER of 13.9, which is pretty good for a bench player, but his most significant contribution was his league leading 0.536 3FG%. That's tough to replace. They used a lottery pick (9th) on a "meh" rookie (Gordon Hayward PER = 9.0, 0.391 3FG% - not bad, but a long way from 0.536) in an attempt to get a cheaper version of Korver. This is a big downgrade. They also traded Ronnie Brewer to Memphis for a future 1st round pick, further weakening their bench. Chicago also signed Brewer as a free agent (current PER = 13.4, but most impressive is his DRtg of 98! Look how well Chicago is doing now with the acquisition of these three former Jazz players they signed as free agents. Chicago spent the money Utah would not, and it is paying dividends in the form or wins. We stole Wesley Matthews from them. Again, they got nothing back and had to sign 34-year old Raja Bell to try replace him. With a PER of 9.0 (compared to 15.7 for Matthews), Bell is one of the worst starting SGs in the league. Matthews is a much better player than the current version of Raja Bell. Bell was once known as a lock down defender, but those days are long gone. His current DRtg is 112, compared to Matthews at 108. Bell's WS/48 of 0.058 is less than half of Matthews at 0.125. This was another major downgrade for Utah. Last season, they also gave Eric Maynor (and Matt Harpring) to OKC for some scrub named Peter Fehse who has never played one second of NBA basketball. These were all cost cutting measures that destroyed Utah's depth. It hurt their starting line-up and decimated their bench. Frankly, I'm surprised their record is as good as it is (or was). Utah has been relatively injury free so far this season. But, their lack of depth seems to be catching up with them. They have lost all four games on their current road trip, three to teams with losing records, and have looked like absolute shit. Let's hope they continue to struggle and we can eventually pass them in the standings. BNM
Exactly. We didn't give away any starters, like Utah did (Boozer and Matthews). We moved a couple bench players that would have been out of the rotation if not for all the injuries. If we had a healthy Roy, Camby and Oden, we'd have plenty of depth. Matthews would be getting almost all the back-up SG and SF minutes and Aldridge wouldn't need to play 40 MPG with so much more depth up front. If we had Oden and Camby, a three man rotation of Oden, Camby and Aldridge at the C and PF positions would be one of the best in the league. Give Oden 32 MPG, Camby 30 and Aldridge 34. Aldridge can play spot minutes at center and Camby can back up both positions. Yeah, right now I'd rather have Webster over Babbit and Bayless over nothing (currently), but who knows what the NO pick will turn into? And, while our bench may lack depth due to the injuries, we are currently 5 games over 0.500. This shows just how deep of a team Pritchard built. Oden hasn't played a minute and Roy has missed half our games and wasn't the same player when he did play. And, now Camby is out, but the team is still 5 games over 0.500. We may not be deep now, but we sure as hell are when everyone is healthy. Utah can't even say that. Talented, yes. Deep, no. BNM
Update: The Jazz lost to the Lakers by 29 tonight. That's five straight losses, by an average margin of 15.8 PPG. And three of those losses were to teams with losing records - the infamous "road trip of shit" to Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington. Yeah, we lost to the Kings at home last night. It happens. Let's just hope we don't go into a multi-game slide like Utah is in right now. They are now only 2.5 games ahead of us in the standings. BNM
that would be closer to a second round pick than the lottery. yeah at the time management was figuring it would be a late lottery pick, but still bayless' proven ceiling as a productive player was much higher than an average late lottery pick. at his age you don't give up on a player like that just because of inconsistency and/or confidence issues. that trade was inexcusable.
Salt Lake City is pretty small for the NBA. Is Charlotte or New Orleans smaller? I give a pat on the back to the Jazz for being so good year after year. They deserve a mediocre year every decade or two.
This morning's Hollinger article says the problem is that the big men are too similar. They're all slow, and just defenders. http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-110127/daily-dime
Jazz lost again tonight, by 15 to a sub-0.500 team. That's 7 losses in their last 8 games. Their only victory in the last 8 games was a home win over the hapless Timberwolves. Wanna hear something amazing? In their last 24 games, the Jazz only have one win against a team with a winning record (the Knicks on January 12). They are 11-13 over the last 24 games, and other than that one win over the Knicks, their other 10 wins are against Cleveland (twice), Minnesota (twice), Golden State, Milwaukee, the Clippers, Memphis, Detroit and Houston. BNM
Sure, here we go: Deron + Okur for Miller, Joel, Oden, Batum, NOH pick, Blazers pick, $3m Utah saves 4 million on the luxury tax, get an additional $3m from uncle Allen, Get rid of Okur, have 2 young pieces to build around (Oden, Nic), get picks for the rebuild, get expiring (Miller, Joel). The Blazers get the PGotF, Play LMA and Camby, ormove LMA to the #5 - move Wes to the #3, start Rudy at the #2, bring B-Roy off the bench to build the backup unit - and contend.
Cameron Symlar (University of Memphis) Do you think the Grizzlies will jump the Trail Blazers and make the playoffs? John Hollinger (2:40 PM) For the first time in a long time, today I'm projecting that the last spot won't come down to Memphis and Portland but rather Portland and Utah -- that's how far the Jazz have fallen. Memphis has a very favorable schedule the rest of the way and if t
