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Can Utah Jazz escape luxury-tax mess?

The Jazz have been profitable for decades. The Jazz have lot of options. They are not making short run stupid moves. Keeping Fez is prudent. He is worth a lot right now to HOU and will be worth more later. Suton is small potatoes also.

The Jazz can wait and see how the season is going. If someone offers them a deal they can't refuse then great. If not then they can see how many wins they have at the trade deadline and move someone or poney up for a run in the play offs.

It is nice to have options. The Jazz are in a position to remake a team of better quality for less money and set it up for the next 5 years or so.

This is a great opportunity and the Jazz are in the drivers seat. They are not desperate. The luxury tax is the least of their worries. The biggest concern is getting the right players at the right price.

It will be interesting to see how good Jazz management is. The moves by DET, CLE and LA are not impressive and may be high risk/low reward. SA helped themselves.

If the Jazz actually did make a run to the Western Conference Finals they would recoup almost all (if not just a bit more) than what they paid in luxury tax.
From what I've read, each home game in the playoffs nets Miller about 1 million, and they get a decent amount for the road games. If the Jazz play an average of 3 home games, over 3 series, plus what they get for road games, television rights, and merchandizing revenue, they would make up 12-15 million. While they many not get the money from the sharing agreement for going over the tax, they at least make a marginal profit. And if it looks like they aren't going to be that good, a mid season salary dump gets it done. The jazz still have lots of options. I'm not too worried.

Based on the data to date, I think the Jazz shouldn't have matched the offer for Miles. He's a good guy with potential, but not worth the money he is getting. Brewer, Korver, Kirilenko, Harpring, & D-will can cover all of the available minutes at the 2 & 3 positions. Maynor & Price can take care of the backup pg minutes. Booze & Millsap will get the PF minutes, and Okur, Koufos, Fesenko, & Suton are more than enough bodies to cover the center position. Next season some combination of Okur, Booze, Korver,& Harpring could be gone. The 2010 free agent market is supposed to be huge. Perhaps the Jazz could make a run at one or two quality players. In 2010, Kirilenko's contract will also have one year remaining, meaning it could become valuable for a team looking for some financial wiggle room in 2011. Add in next year's pick from NY and I think the Jazz are well positioned to improve the team without missing the playoffs this year.

Jazz may have not wanted Boozer back. But they will be a better team with him aboard than without him. Long term, Detroit did better getting Charlie V over CB or PM.
Let's stop calling getting CJ for 4 mil a year for the next 3 years a bad deal. It still makes sense. He would have been a Senior at Texas this last year and given the derth of talent in this years draft he would have been a top 15 pick making about that money. He started over Kyle K who makes 1.5 mil more. Plays better D than KK and is a better finisher. He isn't a pure shooter like KK but he is a scorer. If he does show some motivation in the offseason everyone on this board will be eating crow.

The only problem is half the league is dumping salaries to get ready for next year. Most star players will not come to Utah ie) Lebron & Wade. However if they can land someone like Bosh, and build around Bosh and Williams will solid role players, the Jazz will be a top 3 team in the West.

Don't forget that in an article last week Sloan (I think) said that they like to have 3 point guards in their system. So keeping CJ was an answer to that.

We've got plenty of options available to us. I still think some sort of trade for mcgrady(involving harp and AK) would make sense, not a trade for the player but a trade for his expiring contract. If he plays...great. If he doesn't...no big deal. As is, this team is not making a deep playoff run anyway. I know we made it to the western finals w/ same team, but it was a fluke and aside from Suns, the top teams have gotten better since then. Who knows maybe Deron could get tmac out of 1st round. Then we trade booz for a player who's contract is only 75% of his, and then dump Korver at deadline if season isn't looking up. Then we'll have some FA money next year to play with. I think the team needs a legit defensive center and a legit scoring back-up 2 guard and I think both wouldn't be that hard if we get aggressive. Lets not play the waiting game.

Trading expiring contracts (Boozer) for multiyear contracts (Hamilton) is the exact opposite of what the Jazz need to do in order to clear cap space.

Players with small contracts (Fesenko, Miles, Price) and players with reasonable contracts based on their productivity (Korver, Okur, Williams, even Boozer to an extent) are not the issue. The issue is AK making max money while putting up mid-level exception numbers the past several years.

Boozer's injuries have been an issue, obviously, but it is not like he tried to hurt his knee last season. AK appears to still be able to significantly affect a game defensively and with his all around game, yet is choosing not to do so. If he could get cut, as in the NFL, he would be playing hard. But he has guaranteed money in the NBA, so he does not have to play hard the way he did prior to getting the big contract. AK is problem number 1, 2, and 3.

AK for McGrady would dump AKs salary in 10-11. Gotta consider it. That would cut something like 50 mil in salaries at the end of this next season.

Any salary cap moves by the Jazz office should come down to simply trying to move those players who are overpaid (Boozer is not one of them) and you might have to add a little incentives this year to get it done. Obviously AK is at the very top of that list. Korver is good, but still finds himself in second place on the list. Milsap at 5M-7M would be about right. All the rest of the team are priced pretty fairly for their talents in this league I would say. Ronnie Price at 1.5M this year would be a reasonable contract.

Jazz should've went after Artest... Is LA great at trading and aquiring FA talent or what! Jeez!!

"Luxury-tax mess?"

I beg to differ.

Had everyone opted in the Jazz would've been hatin' it in the bonanza summer of FA.

Now, the brass is back in charge, instead of the players.

Hoew did get in to this mess?

The answer is obvious:

by over valuing and over paying talent that would only be, at best, bench players on real championship team.

Yep. the jazz management has a penchant for giving out big long term contracts to mediocre talent.

Giving the big money to thr wrong players.

maybe they should look at REAL Championship teams and see where the big money goes to (and in this order):

7 foot true dominant big men (and who will play defense),
true star shooting guards,
true star small forwards,
true star point guards,

jazz have only 1 of 4, that is bad.

and the reason they have NEVER a won a championship.



When was last ime a "undersized" power forward lead a team to championship?

Answer: NEVER!

the only time PF under 6'9" and under did was when the league was shorter, and 7-footers were rare or nonesxistant and hence 6'8 or 6'9 was NOT undersized but typical

UNDERSIZED PFS do NOT win championships!

Malone NO
brand NO
barkley NO
larry johnson NO
boozer NO

and the list goes on an on

while the 6'10 and over list grows.

Not holding my breath for any trades this summer, but you never say never. Millsap isn't getting $10M per year either, so paying the tax would not be that much compared to what it could be. Look for the team to stand pat on its major players as is at least until February.

Peace out from the Jazz Oracle!

Jazz can get under the luxury tax, sign Millsap, upgrade the SF position and have over $35 million in expiring contracts for this year to either trade or save for next summer by making the following move:

Boozer and AK for Brad Miller, John Salmons, and Joakim Noah.

Not to mention the 10 million difference in paying Salmons and Kirilenko in 2011...

Both teams benefit from this deal like no other Jazz possibility out there...

Easy killer. That's not entirely accurate.

Since 2000 there's actually a pretty sizeble list of just such PFs.

00 LA 6-9 AC Green
01 LA 6-10 Horace Grant
02 LA 6-9 Samaki Walker

04 Det 6-10 Rasheed Wallace

06 Mia 6-8 Udonis Haslem

It could even be argued, and I'm one of those that think Duncan is a C, that the 2005 and 2007 Spurs, playing PF by commitee, mostly the 6-7 Bruce Bowen are in that categor as well.

Was LA built around ACGreen or samaki walker? NO

Was miami built around hasleem? NO! it was shaq and wade.

An I said under 6'9 so why are counting player OVER 6'9?

and rasheed is more like 6'll or 7' and played with a defensive player of year in ben wallace.

NONE of those teams you mentioned built themselves around a high scoring PF and NOT one 6'9 and UNDER.

The main problem is as it has always been... Getting the "Super Stars" to come here! In the BIG Markets even the role players make a killing off of endorsements. So for Utah to be one of the most successful franchises at least in the top 5... with the talent that we have is amazing. The system works. The team that we have now can win a championship... Last year that was what everyone thought! But it takes more than healthy players... Momentum is important and we didn't have any last year. IF we are healthy this year it would not be a far stretch to see us in the finals! Injuries to D-Will, Kover, Okur and Boozer... Now tell me any other team with there top guys going out that would even have been in the first round? None!!! And that says a lot for these guys... Give them a break this is a great group!!!

Every morning I can't wait to log on to the internet to see if my Jazz have pulled the trigger yet, so far nothing. I pray at night this will change. Please find a home for Boozer, A.K. and Miles SOON! They are lackadasical pieces of crap that just impede our progress. Milsap would be O.K. for about 6 mil but not one penney more. Get involved with another team or to in a multi-team trade and get Nocioni, Bass, and Landry types in here please! Wallace from Charlotte would be a nice fit also.

Another Jazz Relative and "sloanaholic" No momentum last year? what not a 12 game winning streak? Of course 8-17 finish


They play great team and individual defense also. Meanwhile Dallas may get Marion next. That signing would likely out Dallas ahead of us also...