Memo's injury will have some rippling effects on the team for the off-season and for the next. Fesenko's value probably just went up a bit in the eyes of the Jazz. Since he's restricted, they can wait though and see what other teams will offer him. He'll probably get a couple of looks but unless he turns into Shaq for the rest of the playoffs, he's not going to get a huge offer. I'm guessing that he'll be matched if the Jazz don't work out something with him beforehand.
Of course that #9 pick couldn't have come at a better time. If the Jazz don't luck out and get into one of the top two spots they almost have to take a big man now. That might have been the plan already but is probably even more so now. Can O'Connor work some more magic and move up? Is Cole Aldrich on a LOST-type collision course with the Jazz?
Of course what will this mean for re-signing Boozer? There's a little more cap room now and without Memo out at least the first 2-3 months of next season, we'll need another offensive weapon even if Booze is gone and Millsap is the starting PF. If Booze doesn't come back, do you start AK and Millsap at the 4,5? Does Fess get the start with Millsap? How does a starting lineup of Deron, Matthews, AK, Millsap, Fesenko look? If Boozer isn't back and Memo not back for a bit, we suddenly have a pretty thin bench. The only ones we have signed right now are the KOOF, Price and Miles. Korver should be back. We'll have the first-round pick. I'm going to say Gaines will be back. Jeffers will get a shot no doubt.
So bringing Boozer back gets looking more and more likely.
Could be some big changes coming though.
So I'm finding a bit of solace in tonight's game in that while Carmelo will still probably get his, he's got to come down some, right?
Before last season, Melo hadn't played all that well in the playoffs. It wasn't a coincidence that last year was the first time he had not pulled a McGrady. He's not going to disappear like he has in years past, but he's going to come down some, even if it's just a bit.
However, that usually means someone else, like Billups, will pick their game up a bit. I don't know if the Jazz can really stop them defensively especially being down two guys now. They're going to just limit their second chances and be near-perfect on offense to keep up.
I'm hoping to see more of this CJ tonight,
CJ Miles'dan Kenyon Martin'e Poster.flv (via YlmzBrky)
If there's a silver lining to Memo's injury, it's that we'll get to see how Fesenko and the KOOF play. We benefited from injury early in the season with the discovery of Matthews. The difference here is that Fesenko and the KOOF have been around a relatively long time so I think we know what we're going to get. I don't know if either of them are going to suddenly make even a semi-jump. We'll get a lot of Millsap and Boozer but if there's foul trouble, and why wouldn't there be, it's Millsap we're talking about, we're going to get a huge dose of the 7-footers tonight.
Did we by chance sign Ostertag a couple of months ago and it just slipped under the radar? No? Okay, just checking.
Monday poll