Thoughts on the Jazz Defeat and where they go

May 22, 2008

Well, the Jazz couldn’t quite pull it out against a very defeatable Los Angeles Lakers team.

Where should the Jazz go from here?

Old Personnel

The Starters

Make sure they keep him. Deron Williams was one of the elite point guards of the season and of the playoffs. He has a drive to win that will only get hungrier in defeat to a Lakers team that the Jazz should have been able to beat.
Improved free throw shooting would definitely be a plus to his game, especially with the driving to the basket that he can do to punish smaller point guards.

Boozer isn’t likely to go anywhere. He plays the right kind of style for the Jazz offense as well, so Jazz fans should not really want him to go anywhere, either.
Anybody that watched the playoffs, though, could easily see a huge flaw in his game. He couldn’t finish a shot where he was fouled. Whether it is called or not, Boozer has to be able to make those shots. Those are potential three point plays that never happened, or points where the referee’s lack of a whistle would not affect the outcome of the game.

Kirilenko has to get his defensive fire back. His timely three pointers at the end of game 6 against the Lakers were helpful, and his improved shooting from all over the court made it difficult for the defense to lag off of him. Is he worth what the Jazz are paying him? He is if he can do defensively what he did before to earn that contract.

Keep him. He spreads the floor and is very difficult for opposing centers to guard, since he is hanging around the three point line.
The offense is already used to how he plays, and you want to keep the same team together to help it to continue to improve. Teams that change their starters often don’t ever do very well.

Only in his second year, Ronnie Brewer showed a very real ability to finish around the basket, even in the playoffs.
And nobody can argue with his huge steal numbers. He was at the top of the NBA and was able to get the Jazz a lot of easy buckets with his long arms and quick feet.
Improved ability to guard the top shooting guards in the league would make him invaluable to the team.
The Jazz will be able to keep him for at least a couple more years while under a low paying rookie contract.

That’s a great starting five. Nobody in the Jazz organization will very likely want to mess them up.

The Bench

Millsap’s excellent play is going to make it very hard to keep him. He’d be a great sixth man to keep coming off the bench, but other teams would likely be willing to overpay for his upside. Utah should obviously try to keep him if they can, but his lack of size make it difficult to justify keeping him over Boozer, even though Millsap is a better finisher when fouled.

Utah was much improved after Korver came. An entire year with Korver might likely yield a better playoff seed and perhaps a better shot at a championship.
His play in the playoffs has been suspect, both at Utah and in Philadelphia, but as a sixth man that probably isn’t quite as important as it might be otherwise. That would especially be true if his stellar play during the regular season could get the Jazz a one seed in the Western Conference, a very real possibility.

Keep him. Ronnie Price isn’t likely to get a ton of time, but he came out as the better of the two backups to Deron Williams. Improved decision making skills would definitely be a plus when he is giving Williams a breather. His timely three point shots at the ends of quarters definitely makes him a guy that you want to keep around, especially for the salary that the Jazz would be willing to pay him.

Honestly, the rest of the players are expendable for the right deal.
Obviously Morris Almond and Kyrylo Fesenko are likely to stay around with their good to average play in the NBDL and the low amount owed them on their rookie contract.
Jarron Collins will likely hang around for another year because nobody else is really willing to offer him anything more than he is currently making in Utah. He is a big body and a known commodity for Jerry Sloan.
Matt Harpring is too injury prone for anyone else to steal him away from Utah, and Jerry Sloan likes his style. He’s a good stabilizing influence in the locker room, as well.
That leaves CJ Miles and Jason Hart who are likely to make way for two more rookies to join the squad.

New Personnel

With such a young team, the Jazz would probably be better off keeping their squad together and trading their draft picks, especially with Morris Almond and Kyrylo Fesenko development a high priority already.
With a decent chance at a center in the NBA Draft, the Jazz are more likely to nab at least one more rookie (the Georgetown center will likely be available at that pick)
Any rookie pick would mean leaving Miles or Hart out in the cold unless the Jazz opt for 15 men on the roster (which they rarely do for trading flexibility reasons).

Utah Jazz Talk