So the last few days (weeks) have been filled with post after post about how Boozer has stuffed up, how he is only going. to screw the Jazz over and how they are much better off to resign Paul Millsap rather than Boozer. The media are all over it, Larry Miller has referred to his comments as 'stupid' and Boozer is being painted as an all around bad guy.

A few points to keep in mind:

• Boozer said in the offseason that he was going to opt out, it's not as if this was a surprise....
• opting out does not necessarily mean he wont play for the Jazz again.
• yes he is injured again and is not playing, no he is not deliberately 'taking things easy'
• Yes it has been revealed that Boozer asked for a trade when his son was sick, as he couldn't live with his family. When no trade came along, he still played his heart out for the Jazz last year, and was one of the main reasons they were so successful, despite the fact his family was living on the other side of the country.
• He has stated that yes he wants to continue to play for the Jazz publicly.

Considering his comments were really just stating the obvious, I think things have gotten a little out of control. I also don't understand why Larry Miller has to make the comments that he does, it just adds to the list of reasons why players wouldn't want to play in Utah. He said a couple of years ago that Kirilenko was skating on thin ice, do these comments help the situation at all, or just help to further alienate players?

Now, onto the on court matters:

• There are very few post players in the NBA that have the offensive skills that Boozer has, he is an all-star for a reason.
• yes sometimes he 'coasts' on D, but he is a defensive rebounding machine. I haven't checked the figures, but in the games I have watched recently, the Jazz have given up more second chance points than they would with Boozer on board.
• Williams is a great point guard, but Boozer will make him look better. The chemistry that they have built up over the past few seasons does not just magically appear.
• Millsap has been a beast over the last 17 or so games that Booze has been out, but the Jazz are only 9-8 over those games. They have lost at home 4 times during that stretch. Millsap is a great player, he may even make the all star team one day, but he is not the player that Boozer is.

The main point, is that with Millsap on the team, the Jazz are a playoff team. With Boozer starting, they have a chance to be a championship team. They need to whatever they can to keep him in Utah

I honestly think that if Larry Miller was willing to bite the bullet and pay the luxury tax for a few years, so that we could keep the core of Williams, Boozer, Memo, AK, Millsap, CJ ,Brewer and Korver, the Jazz would have a great shot of being a championship team, rather than getting oh so close and just missing out yet again.

So I want to start the movement to keep both of them and lets try to get that championship for Jerry before he finally retires!