SB Nation User Blog: Basketball John

The Downbeat - 3 July 2009 - The Independence Day (Observed) Edition

Basketball John — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:55:33 -0000

The Downbeat - 3 July 2009 - The Independence Day (Observed) Edition

Should Booze get traded, will he have a convenient injury when his team comes to the ESA? Does he become more hated than Kobe? T-Mac? Melo?
O'Connor stated that they planned on keeping Millsap unless it was a ridiculous offer. How come they didn't ask where that line was? He probably wouldn't have said anyway. So what do you think a ridiculous offer is? Poll on the right.
Time to update utahjazz.com, http://trunc.it/pdan (sorry links aren't clickable)
For those in the US, what's your favorite 4th of July tradition? Trivia question... How many countries have a 4th of July?
Programming note... There may or not be a Downbeat on Monday as I will try to take a vacation. Depends on if I have an internet connection on the day. If not, see you all on Tuesday.

via ESPN Ronald Reagan AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi President Ronald Reagan throws out the ceremonial...

Basketball John — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:59:22 -0000

Ronald Reagan
AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi

President Ronald Reagan throws out the ceremonial first pitch Sept. 30, 1988, at Wrigley Field before the Chicago Cubs played host to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Reagan later went to the broadcast booth and helped announce the first part of the game.

Jazz are 20/1 shots to win the title next season.

Basketball John — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:43:12 -0000

Jazz are 20/1 shots to win the title next season.

That's some sweet action!

via BDL

The Downbeat - 2 July 2009 - The almost a three-day weekend edition

Basketball John — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:57:07 -0000

The Downbeat - 2 July 2009 - The almost a three-day weekend edition

The KOOF vs. Chuck Norris, who wins?
5 items every morning is about to get very hard, especially after summer league is done
From ESPN: Sources: Ariza leans toward leaving Lakers. Is he going to get overpaid? Maybe not in this market.
Ben Gordon turned down a 5 year $55M deal last year to stay with the Bulls. He's about to sign with Detroit for about the same. He made about $6.5M last year. So he missed out on about $5-6M last year by not signing. Does that make Hamilton expendable? He has 4 more years left on his deal at $12.6 per. He didn't want to come off the bench last year behind Iverson and I don't see that changing. Not a great three-point shooter, but he can hit a jumper.
The answer to #1? It doesn't matter because Sloan wouldn't play either of them.

NBA Players: Kosta Koufos, Kyrylo Fesenko, Eric Maynor, Goran Suton Koufos and Fesenko each...

Basketball John — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:44:39 -0000

NBA Players: Kosta Koufos, Kyrylo Fesenko, Eric Maynor, Goran Suton
Koufos and Fesenko each shuttled back and forth between the NBA and the D-League last season, both are big men, and they put up similar numbers while playing for the Utah Flash, though Koufos is probably a better scorer while Fesenko has the rebounding edge. They also were expected to take on slightly larger roles for the Jazz this year, though who knows now that Mehmet Okur and Carlos Boozer have decided not to opt out. Maynor and Suton are both draft picks. Maynor enters Summer League as the likely backup PG, and Suton is a jump-shooting center who fits into the team's offense but might be too low on the depth chart to get much time.

Summer League Rosters - Utah Jazz - Ridiculous Upside

Eric Maynor Signs with the Jazz

Basketball John — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:47:48 -0000

More photos » by Carolyn Kaster - AP

#3 is officially a Jazz man. One backup PG down, one to go.

Browse more photos »

From the release:

Maynor is expected to participate in the Jazz’s mini-camp in preparation for the 2009 Orlando Pro Summer League. Camp is scheduled to open today at RDV SportsPlex in Maitland, Fla., and will run through Sunday, July 5. Maynor will then make his professional debut when the Jazz opens its Orlando Pro Summer League schedule vs. Boston at 5 p.m. MT on July 6.

No one in Oklahoma City is saying so, but rival teams keep insisting that the Thunder are poised to...

Basketball John — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:40:55 -0000

No one in Oklahoma City is saying so, but rival teams keep insisting that the Thunder are poised to present an offer sheet to Jazz restricted free agent Millsap that Utah can't afford to match. The Jazz are projected to be some $3 million into luxury-tax territory next season before even accounting for Millsap, after Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver all declined their opportunity this week to become unrestricted free agents.

The most frequently cited counter to that idea is that the Jazz will match any reasonable offer to Millsap because they plan to trade Boozer between now and February.

Thanks to UtesFan89 for the heads-up Marc Stein: The latest chatter on free agency - ESPN

The Downbeat - 1 July 2009 - The Canada Day Edition

Basketball John — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:30:34 -0000

The Downbeat - 1 July 2009 - The Canada Day Edition

The Jazz are going to need a lot of support to pay for all of this. Buy lots of Jazz gear. The only safe jersey purchase though is #8.
New poll up on the sidebar. When do you think Booze will get traded?
A better nickname for the opters would have been Ocean's Three. Either you're in or you're out. Right now.
For those that will boo Boozer, shouldn't there be a different word used so that he can't pretend it's just Booze? How about Mill-sap, Mill-sap.
The Orlando Summer league starts on Monday. I just found out that it's not open to the public. That blows.

Regardless of what? - Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, and Kyle Korver opt in.

Basketball John — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:20:40 -0000

More photos » by Melissa Majchrzak - NBAE/Getty Images

Booze: "So there's this website called SLCDunk who though it would be funny to put an opt-out countdown on their site." Memo: "Yeah...?" Booze: " Wouldn't it be funny if we didn't tell the Jazz until the last second whether or not we were opting out?" Memo: "Well..." Booze: "That would show them. It would be hilarious. They would go crazy.." Memo: " Whatever." Booze: "Oh yeah, 'AND-1!'"

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"I'm opting out. No matter what, I'm going to get a raise regardless" - Carlos Boozer

So, what just happened?

Just as you were recovering slightly from the uppercut of Boozer not opting out next year, Memo drops the hammer with his news that he too is going to be staying. Add that to Korver opting in yesterday and the Jazz are one big happy family again.

Well, a financially strapped family for the next year at least. Hey, they're like almost every other family in the US right now. This family also has a little brother that's on the outside looking in right now in Paul Millsap.

It's as if your family had been saving up money for you for college the past 18 years. Then, when you're ready to head off to school (you know, after scholarship deadlines have passed), your parents tell you that there was a wedding for an older brother, another wanted to open a business, and another wanted to go backpacking across Europe to find themselves. They had to clean out your account because they put a claim in on it first. They could get the money for school for you, but they'd have to pay 100% interest on a loan to do so.

Your parents have promised to do whatever it takes to get you to school, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you wonder if it's really going to happen.

I don't have to tell you the awful financial situation the Jazz are in right now. Just Google "utah jazz salary cap screwed" and you should find what you need.

We were over the luxury cap as soon as Korver opted-in (assuming that everyone else opted in as well). Now that they have, keeping everyone together for one year could cost the Jazz between (raising pinky finger to corner of my lip) $30-35 million dollars

My first thought as soon as I heard that Memo was opting in was, "See you Millsap." According to Randy Rigby today on Locke's show, the Miller family is committed to paying what they need to to keep Millsap. They had to have hoped that at least one of the opters (that's what I'm calling them) would opt out so that they could have a little room to work with.

So, let's assume that the Jazz do come to terms with Millsap or match an offer by another team. We have pretty much exactly the same team as we do last year minus Collins and Knight and add in Maynor.

I think most Jazz fans had kind of come to terms with turning a lot of the team over and starting somewhat anew. Some fresh blood thrown into the mix and while it wouldn't be a contending team, it could have been an exciting team to watch. I for one was starting to look forward to the transition.

But for now we have the same team for a lot more money. You can't be disappointed with the team that we have. I feel like it's 2008 again, but this is the team that's suppose to contend for the WC crown and be a force in the West.

That said, we could get better. We're not going to be able to save much money if any this year, so once you get over that, the rest of the season starts to look a lot better. As long as the Miller family is fine with it and it's not going to lead to the collapse of the team, then what does it matter?

Once I came to grips with that, I got my hopes up, just a little. Locke stated on his show that the Jazz have a lot to work with now. They have the expiring deals of Harpring, Korver, Memo, and Carlos that would look good to some team trying to free up space for next year's FA frenzy. Maybe AK can be packaged with something (someone) to bring in a shooter. They have a ton of options now.

And should the Jazz just hold pat with what they have now, crazy I know, they have 4 huge deals coming off the books next summer. That's about $33 million in contracts with those four. I'm not a cap expert or even a noob really, so I don't know how much the Jazz will actually save, but that's a significant chunk.

What I would like to see, and what I've said before, is to swap Booze for a shooter, move Ronnie to the 3, Millsap starts at the 4, and bring AK/Korver/Koof off the bench. The Jazz can do pretty much what they want with the three opters now.

I have these words for Booze though. First, hire a PR firm now, yesterday. Do not speak a word in public without running it by them first. As long as you're in Utah, every free minute should be spent in the community trying to win fans back.

Second, you had better hope that the team can and do keep Millsap. If he's not back with the team, you will pray for road games. You will feel the wrath of 20,000 fans every home game. Misguided hate or not, you've seen what happens to other players that the fans felt have wronged them.

Finally, regardless (see, this is the proper use of that word) of whether Millsap is back or not, you better bring it every single night and every single minute you're on the floor. Every missed assignment, missed rotation, and missed layup will bring out the fury from Jazz fans. Everything you do will be magnified 100X. I hope you can handle the pressure.

UPDATE 2 - Carlos Boozer opting in, regardless, Now Okur is opting in.

Basketball John — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:24:43 -0000

More photos » by Steve C Wilson - AP

Will this be the last time we hear an "AND-1!" from Booze in a Jazz uni?

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Will Booze follow through on his promise to opt out? Will a deal get done for Memo today? Discuss all of your opting out fears here.

UPDATE [Note by Basketball John, 06/30/09 3:31 PM MDT ] - Boozer opt in or does he?