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Jazz Speculation: What is the Market Value for Raja Bell?

The Utah Jazz really do not see a future where veteran shooting guard Raja Bell is with the team. They have been saying it non-verbally for a while now. (They've used their proxies to do the verbal incepting of the fanbase already) In an ideal world the Jazz will trade Bell to some other team. This is what they'd rather do than buying out Bell, because "we don't pay people not to play." First of all that statement is a lie because the Jazz bought out Luther Wright years ago (or at least paid for him not to play); and the Jazz have been paying guys like CJ, Mobe, Fes, Kosta, and other young players not to play either, if we're gonna be honest about it. But paying a player not to play and paying a player to be off the team are different things.

It's also an entirely different thing when you try to trade away a player with very little market value. What do you expect to get for Raja Bell? He makes $3.48 million in 2012-13. His talent, age, and production say he should be worth at the most a future second round pick. A future second round pick does not logically have the price tag of $3.48 million though. Especially not when the going rate for a late first round pick is a little over $1.10 million though. No one is going to take back more than three times the going rate for something that's no where worth that much.

If you continue to not move any of your other assets along with Bell, trading Bell is hard. Why? Because he kind of sucks.

Rajabellws

Full image here. This data taken from Basketball-Reference.com -- where they give an explanation of Win Shares (WS):

WS -- Win Shares; an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player.

It's an easy way to boil down a player to his base elements. Raja does not help you win games anymore. He's at the end of the road here, having had taking a leisurely route down the 'success' mountain. He's not going to get better, only worse. And no team really wants that.

Which is bad news because the Jazz don't want that either. Especially because last season he became a distraction, at a critical juncture of the season. He wanted more playing time despite being less effective, and despite the fact that the Jazz were finally winning important games with him out of the lineup. Raja did not even play in a single playoff game last year. It is clear the Jazz want to be rid of him. To do so they may just have to break their rule again and pay someone not to be here. But it's not like the team doesn't break their own rules now and then. It's just up to their proxies to cover it up.

We know Raja has to go. Raja wants to go. There's no trade market for him, unless he's used as part of a package for an even larger move. If you want to get rid of Raja while not making any other moves to your roster (not bringing in another dude of his price tag and crappy play) then you have to negotiate a buy out. It's simple. Every team does it. There is no honor in banging your head against a brick wall. There is no market for Bell. Throw him some money to go away.