The Downbeat - 24 February 2010 - #172 - The Boomshakalaka Edition
by Basketball John on Feb 24, 2010 10:58 AM MST
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Thanks to Bobby Joness for FanShotting this and to the theutahjazzblog for the reminder. Make sure to go vote in the NBA Jam player voting for which Jazz men will be in the game. My votes were Deron, AK, and Millsap. There's no guarantee that Boozer will be here next year. And it looks like CJ made the cut.
Speaking of Boozer, Siler makes some good points about Carlos coming back next season,
Simply put, I see only two scenarios by which Boozer returns next season, the first if the Jazz win a championship or advance to the conference finals, the second if they were able to shed salary commitments to Andrei Kirilenko and/or Mehmet Okur.
I’m not sure the Jazz are interested in bringing back Boozer, though there were rumblings in December that Greg Miller and Kevin O’Connor broached the subject for the first time since the turmoil of last summer.
From the other side, I’m not sure Boozer wants to return given the hard feelings that followed his decision to opt in for the final year of his contract, then his assertions that he and management had agreed to a trade.
Maybe time and a deep playoff run will heal wounds, but the salary cap issue it probably the biggest reason that he won't be back. Even if they could trade AK/Memo/CJ, they'd have to be taking back equal salary unless they just moved them for draft picks. Even then, the receiving team would have to have cap space to take them on and I don't see any teams with cap space doing that.
I guess they could re-sign Boozer and then hope they can trade AK before the deadline? Either way, I would say that he's not back next season but then again, he wasn't suppose to be here right now either.
Looking at the remaining schedule, is there really any game on there, other than the @LAL one, that the Jazz shouldn't be able to win? There are no more games against Denver, Portland, or Dallas.
We play Phoenix 3 more times with two of those on the road. We play @OKC as the final game of a four-game roadie. And there's a three-game eastern swing towards the end of the season. And there's Boston at the ESA. Those are the games that would concern me but really they should be winnable.
I realize I'm in full jinx mode, but the optimism is too much for me for this team right now. I realize it could come crashing down like it has in seasons past, but if the Jazz are going to have a strong finish to a season, this is it.
Sorry for no WYWS. I wasn't sleeping very much. But there were some good wins for the Jazz last night. First, Boston held on vs. the Knicks at Boston. Thankfully they didn't blow that one.
The Cavaliers took out the Hornets. They may be a ways back in the standings but as we learned from last season, every loss counts in the standings.
There was no miracle in NJ as the Trail Blazers took care of the Nets.
The Suns finally killed the beast that is the Thunder keeping OKC off our heels a bit. The downside of course is that PHX won.
And finally, we had the unfortunate return of Kobe who helped beat the Grizz in dramatic fashion. Overall, I'll give it a meh night.
Wednesday poll because I'm late/lazy
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8. Jazz have a good chance to win a number of games. I hope that they get a bit better at home while staying above .500 on the road. COUGH
5. I’d like it if the NBA Jam rosters were 4 or even 5 guys that you can switch out every quarter or so, but I don’t make the game. That said I had to go with Booz.
Why?
Because I’m going on who the game developers would rate the highest. I want Utah to be good, and we know that guys like Memo and crew get the shaft when their ‘ratings’ come out (NBA Live, NBA 2K series).
Follow me on Twitter: AllThatAmar
Visit my blog: http://allthatjazzbasketball.blogspot.com/
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Really, I'm totally not lonely or anything . . .
by AllThatJazzBasketball on Feb 24, 2010 11:07 AM MST reply actions
5. Booz.
Because of the rating. Just like Amar said.
Plus am starting to forgive Booz.
by iLoveBooks100per on Feb 24, 2010 11:42 AM MST reply actions
1. If CJ ends up in NBA Jam I’m going to be livid. I vote Karl Malone because we can sign him to a 10 day contract, vote him in, then let him go. Really though, it should be Williams, AK, Boozer/Milsap.
2. Don’t underestimate the idea that the Jazz try and do a sign and trade with Boozer. I’ve spoke my mind on the subject already. I wouldn’t mind Boozer coming back for a 2 year contract. 2 year 32 million with a team option. Front load the contract, make another run with the core of guys we have, plus the first round picks we have this year. Maybe Fes, or someone we pick up becomes the big d man we need to push us over the edge, maybe Matthews becomes a true SG. Who knows. If we decide we don’t like Boozer. That second year he has a smaller contract, and an expiring one at that. We could try and trade him.
8. If the Jazz go around 75% at home the rest of the way and above 50% on the road the rest of the season, we should be in the top 4. Realistically, We could ge tthe 2 seed and oh man I would love that. Only shot at playing the Lakers in the WCF and two other teams get shots and knock them out. knock on wood
4. I hope the Knicks nose dive right into a oblivian. Give me a top 3 draft pick PLEASE :). Anyone want to speculate on being able to draft Wall yet? I don’t think the Jazz would take him with teh first pick. Unless it was to play Shooting Guard?
5. Booz/Milsap
For the Love of the Game
Okur
has to be the odd man out. Did we really just extend him? Crap. I love the guy. He looks like a skinny tall version of one of my fat short cousins, but he’s got to go to keep Boozer. Why? Because I don’t think that Boozer works without AK47. We’ve talked about this ad nauseum. Boozer and Okur don’t work together in the front court. There isn’t enough defense. In the past I would have said, well we signed Okur because we know he and Boozer don’t work together and Okur isn’t an injury prone back stabbing plague. That logic doesn’t hold up very well now that Okur had regressed this season. It looks like we’re stuck with Okur and AK47.
Number 2
My attention was drawn to another part of Siler’s blog, where he writes,
"Sources say Boozer’s first choice is to join Derrick Rose in Chicago this summer via free agency," Bucher wrote. From what I’ve heard, Boozer has mentioned the same thing to teammates at times this season.
(Emphasis mine.)
He’s told his current teammates he wants to play with Derrick “I’m a d-bag and will sprain your best player’s ankle” Rose next year? What kind of thing is that to tell your teammates? That just seems like a really bizarre thing to me. If there is even a remote possibility that you are gonna stay in Utah next season, why are you even mentioning anything about signing with another team to your teammates? Am I misreading that sentence, or is it a common thing to tell your teammates, presumably including your All-Star point guard, that you wanna go play with this other point guard instead? I know he said similar stuff about Chicago publicly last summer that I’m sure his teammates heard, but it doesn’t seem like this would be the ideal locker room conversation, especially during the season. I don’t know, it just struck me as very odd.
The only person who really knows what is going on in Boozer's head
… is Booze. And I doubt even he’s 100% sure.
I know Siler’s a good source, but remember we can’t be 100% sure.
…this post bought to you by the faint voice of reason
Possibly the southernmost Jazz fan in the world!
Boozer really is an enigma, that's for sure
I know you can’t trust everything you hear, from Siler or anyone else, but if that’s true, it’s just … strange. Not catastrophic or anything, because obviously if Boozer has said those things, it doesn’t seem to have had a negative impact on the team as a whole, it just struck me as a really odd discussion topic between him and the rest of the team.
not to mention it says
Boozer has mentioned the same thing to teammates at times this season.
i.e. it wasn’t an isolate incident.
Boozer would never say that. He is a leader.
Guys, the truth is that we have no idea, and I mean NO idea what is going on behind closed locker doors. You would be surprised at which players are absolutely hated and which ones are liked.
The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.
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