With Boozer, Korver, and Okur all back for one more year, the Jazz can’t just sit back on their laurels and expect to win a championship. They may only have one more year of this team, and they can’t afford to waste it. They also aren’t good enough right now to actually win it all.
So here are moves that the Jazz ought to consider…
- Paul Millsap – Millsap has a lot of hustle and is a fan favorite, but being an undersized power forward in the league, Paul just isn’t going to be able to get it done night in and night out. There’s no way. Carlos Boozer’s extra size and talent makes him a much better power forward now than Millsap ever will be capable of. If Boozer never got injured, we would never even be making this discussion. My feeling is that the Jazz should match any offers at the mid-level exception, and let him go for anything more than that. Bringing Millsap back doesn’t make the Jazz any better. It makes them the same as they were last year, which isn’t good enough. My feelings are that Millsap will be overpaid by some team — hopefully it isn’t the Utah Jazz.
- Allen Iverson – Why has their been no talk of picking up Allen Iverson with the mid-level exception? Very few teams are in a position to win it all with an addition of a player or two, and Iverson really doesn’t make sense as a short term solution to teams that aren’t in that position. The Jazz are. Allen Iverson plays hard. He’d be perfect for the Jazz, playing the starting shooting guard for the Utah Jazz for the year, and backing up Deron Williams at the point. Rumors have it that the Jazz might even be able to pay less than the mid-level exception for him with so little money available out there. A 3 year, $12 million deal might be just the ticket to put the Jazz into the elite teams capable of winning a championship this year.
- Andrei Kirilenko – Move him back into the starting lineup. I know that Jazz wanted to try playing with CJ Miles starting, but Andrei Kirilenko has much more potential to help out in games. You gave CJ his chance. Start the best lineup.
- Jarron Collins – You need one more big. He knows the system. He plays hard when he gets in. He’ll come cheap.
Dropping Millsap, picking up Iverson, and re-signing Collins gives you the following lineups:
PG: Deron Williams, Allen Iverson, Eric Maynor
SG: Allen Iverson, Ronnie Brewer, Matt Harpring
SF: Andrei Kirilenko, Kyle Korver, CJ Miles
PF: Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko, Jarron Collins
C: Mehmet Okur, Jarron Collins, Kosta Koufos, Kryrylo Fesenko
With some of the players switching over to back up other positions, you should be able to have plenty of time for some of the backups to get some good minutes. And I didn’t even put in a few of the line possible lineups, including allowing Boozer to play some minutes at the 5 if needed.