Tough trade day for Jazz
From Minnesota to Detroit to Milwaukee to San Antonio, Tuesday's trades across the NBA had decidedly negative implications for the Jazz.
Start with the Northwest Division rival Timberwolves, who acquired the No. 5 pick in the draft from Washington in a trade that sent Mike Miller and Randy Foye to the Wizards and brought Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov to the Twin Cities.
That gives the Timberwolves four first-round picks to use in Thursday's draft - - Nos. 5, 6, 18 and 28 - - which jumpstarts the rebuilding process under new general manager David Kahn and a soon-to-be-named coach.
(The Timberwolves actually would have had a fifth first-rounder had the Jazz not collapsed down the stretch and held onto the pick they owed Philadelphia to complete the Kyle Korver trade, a pick the 76ers shipped to Minnesota last summer.)
Even in a down draft, that's a pretty impressive haul of picks. Now consider that Minnesota moved up in the first round without giving up Al Jefferson, Kevin Love or Ryan Gomes from its core of players.
The Thunder have similarly stockpiled draft picks and look at the results. Oklahoma City has a nucleus of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and the No. 3 pick Thursday, along with the likes of Thabo Sefolosha and Nenad Krstic.
All of a sudden, the Jazz find themselves in a division in which four of the five teams clearly are on the ascent in Denver (fresh off its Western Conference finals run), Portland, Oklahoma City and Minnesota.
The Jazz, by comparison, appear headed in the other direction. Maybe that impression will change by the start of training camp in late September, but Utah has made less progress in the playoffs each of the last three years.
Another move Tuesday that impacted the Jazz was Detroit's acquisition of Fabricio Oberto from Milwaukee/San Antonio for Amir Johnson. Oberto has only $1.9 million guaranteed for 2009-10 while Johnson was due to make $3.7 million.
Just like that, the Pistons gained an additional $1.8 million in salary cap space to chase free agents - - including possibly Carlos Boozer - - when the market opens July 1.
It's hard to say exactly how much the Pistons will have to spend, but they would have the money to sign Boozer away from the Jazz outright if and when he opts out of his contract and becomes a free agent.
By my calculations, Detroit's team salary for salary-cap purposes is about $39 million. That's assuming the Pistons renounce the rights to Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace, keep their No. 15 pick and that Kwame Brown opts in at $4 million for next season.
Assuming the NBA's salary cap comes in at $56 million or $57 million, the Pistons will have upwards of $18 million to spend.
Maybe that's enough to sign away Ben Gordon and Boozer, maybe not, but Detroit does have options that leave the Jazz facing the possibility that they could watch their two-time All-Star forward leave for nothing in return.
The implications, meanwhile, with San Antonio are far simpler. The Spurs will not watch the Tim Duncan/Manu Ginobili/Tony Parker fade away quietly. By adding Richard Jefferson, the Spurs got stronger and the Western Conference got more formidable.
On to the Bucks. At the start of the off-season, I speculated that the Jazz might have a chance at stealing away Andrew Bogut from Milwaukee, given the Bucks' payroll concerns and financial situation as one of the NBA's worst-drawing teams.
Sure enough, the Bucks made a money-saving move Tuesday, but Bogut wasn't involved. By sending Jefferson to San Antonio, Milwaukee will erase $15 million from the books for the 2010-11 season.
The Bucks also will save $4.7 million this season, with only $2 million of Bruce Bowen's contract guaranteed, and will be $9 million or so under the luxury-tax threshold, enabling Milwaukee to re-sign Ramon Sessions and/or Charlie Villanueva.
So the Bogut fantasies probably came to an end Tuesday for Jazz fans, though it's worth noting that the Bucks still have a $60 million commitment to the former Utah star and No. 1 overall pick.
However you break down the trades, I think you'd have to conclude Tuesday was anything but the Jazz's day.
--Ross Siler
Start with the Northwest Division rival Timberwolves, who acquired the No. 5 pick in the draft from Washington in a trade that sent Mike Miller and Randy Foye to the Wizards and brought Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov to the Twin Cities.
That gives the Timberwolves four first-round picks to use in Thursday's draft - - Nos. 5, 6, 18 and 28 - - which jumpstarts the rebuilding process under new general manager David Kahn and a soon-to-be-named coach.
(The Timberwolves actually would have had a fifth first-rounder had the Jazz not collapsed down the stretch and held onto the pick they owed Philadelphia to complete the Kyle Korver trade, a pick the 76ers shipped to Minnesota last summer.)
Even in a down draft, that's a pretty impressive haul of picks. Now consider that Minnesota moved up in the first round without giving up Al Jefferson, Kevin Love or Ryan Gomes from its core of players.
The Thunder have similarly stockpiled draft picks and look at the results. Oklahoma City has a nucleus of Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and the No. 3 pick Thursday, along with the likes of Thabo Sefolosha and Nenad Krstic.
All of a sudden, the Jazz find themselves in a division in which four of the five teams clearly are on the ascent in Denver (fresh off its Western Conference finals run), Portland, Oklahoma City and Minnesota.
The Jazz, by comparison, appear headed in the other direction. Maybe that impression will change by the start of training camp in late September, but Utah has made less progress in the playoffs each of the last three years.
Another move Tuesday that impacted the Jazz was Detroit's acquisition of Fabricio Oberto from Milwaukee/San Antonio for Amir Johnson. Oberto has only $1.9 million guaranteed for 2009-10 while Johnson was due to make $3.7 million.
Just like that, the Pistons gained an additional $1.8 million in salary cap space to chase free agents - - including possibly Carlos Boozer - - when the market opens July 1.
It's hard to say exactly how much the Pistons will have to spend, but they would have the money to sign Boozer away from the Jazz outright if and when he opts out of his contract and becomes a free agent.
By my calculations, Detroit's team salary for salary-cap purposes is about $39 million. That's assuming the Pistons renounce the rights to Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace, keep their No. 15 pick and that Kwame Brown opts in at $4 million for next season.
Assuming the NBA's salary cap comes in at $56 million or $57 million, the Pistons will have upwards of $18 million to spend.
Maybe that's enough to sign away Ben Gordon and Boozer, maybe not, but Detroit does have options that leave the Jazz facing the possibility that they could watch their two-time All-Star forward leave for nothing in return.
The implications, meanwhile, with San Antonio are far simpler. The Spurs will not watch the Tim Duncan/Manu Ginobili/Tony Parker fade away quietly. By adding Richard Jefferson, the Spurs got stronger and the Western Conference got more formidable.
On to the Bucks. At the start of the off-season, I speculated that the Jazz might have a chance at stealing away Andrew Bogut from Milwaukee, given the Bucks' payroll concerns and financial situation as one of the NBA's worst-drawing teams.
Sure enough, the Bucks made a money-saving move Tuesday, but Bogut wasn't involved. By sending Jefferson to San Antonio, Milwaukee will erase $15 million from the books for the 2010-11 season.
The Bucks also will save $4.7 million this season, with only $2 million of Bruce Bowen's contract guaranteed, and will be $9 million or so under the luxury-tax threshold, enabling Milwaukee to re-sign Ramon Sessions and/or Charlie Villanueva.
So the Bogut fantasies probably came to an end Tuesday for Jazz fans, though it's worth noting that the Bucks still have a $60 million commitment to the former Utah star and No. 1 overall pick.
However you break down the trades, I think you'd have to conclude Tuesday was anything but the Jazz's day.
--Ross Siler
10:39 PM
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3 Comments:
They want Boozer? They can have him. Points and rebounds (when he actually plays) can't make up for bad chemistry and poor defense and leadership. And there's no way that we get NOTHING for him: if he leaves, we have an extra 12 million off the books
Scrum is right: Boozer playing elsewhere next year is addition by subtraction for the Jazz, regardless of how it all goes down.
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