Thanks for posting this here UtesFan. This will likely dominate the season unless something is resolved prior.

He will opt out. That’s one thing for certain. He can get more money from the Jazz and from others that way.

So we have to look at what the Jazz will do once he opts out. The biggest thing is that they’re going to have to decide between AK and Boozer. I used to think that they would trade AK and sign Boozer. But with Greg Miller running the show now, I don’t know how it will play out.

It sounds like it was his idea to sign CJ. Larry stated that he thought it was too much to pay him. So he probably would have let him go.

I think re-signing CJ was good. The amount did surprise me a bit, but it’s not outrageous. So if it was Greg’s idea, he won me over a little with that one.

But in reality, he’s a brand new owner so to speak. Larry’s name is still listed as the franchise owner, but he’s not going to be doing as much going forward.

So what they decide now with Boozer and AK, I don’t know. I really need to write something up on Greg. I don’t know much about him. In his press conference and interviews after being named CEO, he said he wouldn’t have much to do with the Jazz for now. But it sounds like he’s already taken the reins. It’s a interesting time for the franchise. I’ll be looking forward to how things play out.

But this is based on the problematic conclusion that the Jazz can simply use whatever money Boozer was going to make if he didn’t opt-out as salary cap space to be used on other players. They can’t, at least not in 2009.

Take a look at the Jazz’s salary situation next offseason. Including the options for Boozer, Okur and Korver, their total team salary is over 73 million, putting them just under the projected luxury tax level. If Boozer opts out, all that does is lower the Jazz’s team salary down to the projected salary cap, meaning they can only increase their team salary through exceptions (e.g. mid-level, low-level, etc). You cannot combine exceptions, so that 12 million cannot be used all at once.

The only time you are allowed to go over the salary cap (not the luxury tax) without using one of those exceptions is to re-sign your own players (e.g. Bird Rights). You cannot go over the cap to sign someone else’s free agents, unless it’s by one of the exceptions.

Basically, the only thing gained by letting Boozer walk for “nothing” is more room under the luxury tax. Even now, the Jazz can use all their exceptions if they wish, though it’ll cost them double because they’d be over the luxury tax.

Now, if Okur opts out as well, the Jazz have about 9 million dollars of cap space to use, but I assume that if both opt out, you’ll want one of them back, so that cap space will be gone.

What you seem to be saying is that maybe it wouldn’t be too catastrophic to roll with the roster we’ve got right now, sans Boozer? Because Prada’s right; letting Boozer walk does nothing as far as new acquisitions, aside from taking us further from that luxury barrier. We would have precisely the same salary cap exceptions to use in signing new players as before, only without Boozer’s money, using those exceptions would not put us in luxury-tax range. That’s the only difference.

So what you’re saying is, let Boozer leave, resign Memo and Korver, which keeps us under the luxury tax, and use our exceptions to sign some other forward as a free agent, or simply go with what we’ve got. Well, I see what you’re getting at, but for all his faults, I’ll say this: we are NOT a better team if we simply subtract Carlos Boozer. We’re a much, much worse team, in my opinion.

Your roster ends up looking like this:

PG: D-Will, Price, Knight
SG: Brewer, Korver, Almond
SF: CJ, Harpring
PF: AK47, Millsap, Koufos
C: Okur, Fesenko
(this assumes we re-sign Price, Almond, ‘Sap, Fes, and Ronnie B, and we don’t re-sign Collins)

Even if you add a solid free-agent big man (someone on the level of, say Andries Biedrins), that just isn’t a championship roster, in my opinion.

Obviously, losing a talent like Booze will hurt (look at Cleveland… they still haven’t recovered and tried to fill the void by trading for Ben Wallace). But the Jazz have the talent to overcome the loss

Don’t get me wrong… I hate The Snake. But I think you’re up in the night if you think that the Jazz have the talent to overcome the loss. Okay… they can “sort of” absorb the loss, but they lose 6-7 wins a year in my opinion. They are definitely not as good a team, and to me, that isn’t really absorbing the loss.

You bring up some good points but letting Booze go for nothing does hurt this franchise.

one thing that brings this thought around is the fact that he might end up leaving.
Even if the cash isn’t greater elsewhere, the altitude here isn’t good for his son (and his wife hates it here, it seems)... and that could be enough to force him out the door after the season (or during).

i’m all for boozer being gone. obviously the first choice would be to get someone back for him, but letting him walk suits me fine too. i heart AK at the four, and while i don’t think sap is ready to step into a bigger role yet, he will improve and hopefully become less foul-prone. i don’t think the stat dropoff would be significant with ak/sap/committee manning the 4, and defense would improve.

as for the 6-7 difference in wins, boozer could easily cost the jazz that on his own with the points he gives up, especially if he doesn’t “bounce back.” who here is willing to see him go through a 20-10 regular season only to have “playoffs boozer” return in april/may?

if the jazz draft again in the 20s next year, i can see them trading the picks with the full roster. but let’s not forget we will in all likelihood be, in all likelihood, getting a lottery pick the year after that. space has to be made on the roster.

Paxson would be someone who is fooled into thinking Boozer is a dominant low-post player, when that really isn’t true all of the time. A trade involving Luol Deng (yes I know they just signed him) could alter the Jazz lineup towards a stronger defensive unit. AK47 is an upgrade at the 4 defensively over Boozer, and Deng is more than capable at the 3, and also provides a good offensive option for Deron Williams as a very good cutter and efficient midrange jumpshot.

I just can’t see AK going one-on-one with the likes of Pau Gasol or Amare Stoudemire in the low post. AK’s probably most effective when he’s helping from the weak side, challenging/blocking shots.

I would be very interested in Boozer-for-Deng if I were the Jazz. How do their salaries match up though? They still need to re-sign Okur, ‘Sap, and KK. And I’d want to make sure D-Will was cool with it. He needs to feel good about what’s goin on