More on Matthews,
From Coach Nate McMillan,
He'll be a wing defender," McMillan said. "A guy who can play the two and the three. I looked at some tape of him in the playoffs. He had the assignment of guarding Carmelo and Kobe. You don't stop those guys, but I think that says a lot about him when Coach Sloan feels ... that he's strong enough to take that challenge... I'm surprised I'm sitting here talking about it because he's not mine.
Well, it's nice to see that they at least met with their latest RFA target in person this time.
One of the biggest concerns giving Matthews that money was that he's just a rookie and while he had a great rookie season, you have to ask if he's worth that kind of money? If he continues to improve, then yes, he will be worth just about what he'll be making in a couple of years. If he's hit his ceiling, then he's probably not worth the $6M a year he'll be making.
So the question as to whether or not you match the offer is if you think he's going to get better. Where can he get better? Ball-handling for one. He could also work on his rebounding. He'll also learn more of the defensive tricks of the trade with some more time.
So while it's easy to spend other people's money, I think the Jazz have to match. One, I don't think any of the other FAs out there are a better option than Matthews. Others would be cheaper but are they going to get you more wins? Also, are you going to be able to lure those other options to Utah? From the twittersphere it appears that the Jazz have been chasing other players but haven't been able to land anyone. Matching Mathews guarantees you bring a quality player in.
Next, I talked about players having it and Matthews has that. Those players are hard to come by. This is the type of player that you have on a championship team. I'm no saying that's happening this year, but if you're building that type of team, players like Matthews are a must-have.
Finally, I think Matthews improves. Is he going to regress now that he's not fighting to stay in the league? No. He's going to get better. While he's not worth the $9.2M he's getting this season, he'll grow into the $6M player after this season.
If Al Harrington is on your list, it looks like he would be eager to play with DWill,
@Mosesstone1980 DWill is Cold as Ice. Would be my pleasure to RUN with Him!
al harrington
a7harrington
Of course he'd have to give up #7 which he wore last season and probably return to #3. The headband would also have to go and that might be a deal-breaker. Would anyone on the court even know who he was without that? That's like putting glasses on Superman and turning him into Clark Kent.
The Jazz will need a scorer for the upcoming season and Harrington can put points on the board. He's an above average three-point shooter and took no less than 500,000 in his last few seasons with New York and Golden State.
He would be an intriguing option should the Jazz not bring back Matthews.
Deron won't be playing in the World Championships. In an interview over the weekend at his gold tourney, he strongly hinted that he wouldn't be playing. From Yahoo! we learned that he declined due to a family matter. Rajon Rondo will be on the guards that replaces Deron and Chris Paul.
The KOOF won't be playing for Greece and it doesn't sound like AK will play either. Even though Memo was playing in Deron's golf tourney, I can't imagine he would play either despite it being in his home country.
So while I would love to have the US win the World's, I'm a little selfish in that I would like to have a healthy and rested team to start the season. We simply can't afford any injuries this season, especially to start the season.
While I'm one that thinks that the Jazz will be fine with Millsap filling in for Boozer, I couldn't help but have a bit of a sinking feeling when I saw pictures of Boozer holding up his Bulls jersey. Maybe it was the finality of the Boozer era being over in Utah. Part of it was that feeling of seeing someone move on to truly greener pastures. He'll excel in Chicago with Noah there to help on D.
All of this will probably hit me again when Korver gets announced tomorrow.
Final Matthews poll,