Trade Scenario One

Carlos Boozer to Chicago and CJ Miles to Detroit along with Chicago’s Kirk Hinrich. The Utah Jazz would get back Rip Hamilton from Detroit and Tyrus Thomas from Chicago.

The Pluses
Detroit gets a real point guard (I’m skeptical about Stuckey). They also get CJ Miles who has yet to live up to predictions, but he is still very young.

Chicago gets Carlos Boozer for an expendable Hinrich and an underachieving Tyrus Thomas.

Utah gets the now expendable Rip Hamilton and Tyrus Thomas, giving them a great shooter and an up-and-coming defensive presence at the four. For the coming year, that makes them a better team, both offensively and defensively.

The Minuses

I don’t really see any minuses for Detroit. They get two very useful players with decent contracts for Rip’s monster contract. With Ben Gordon under contract, Rip Hamilton no longer makes sense.

Chicago essentially trades a valuable young defensive player in Tyrus Thomas for the injury prone Carlos Boozer. Can Boozer stay healthy? If he can, he’ll most likely be better than Thomas for the foreseeable future, but that’s a big “if”. The fact that they get to try him out for a year in exchange for Thomas seems a good deal.

These contracts don’t really save Utah any money for signing Millsap. Rip Hamilton’s contract still has a lot of years left on it. (I think he’ll still be playing at a high level, but his minutes are beginning to pile up. Of course, if anyone can manage Rip’s minutes well and give him a longer career, it’s Jerry Sloan.) If they let Millsap go to Portland, they’d probably be fine financially, but I don’t really see the Jazz doing that. Of course, they might be fine anyway, since a year from now, they have a couple more contracts come off the book, and a much easier time trading Andrei Kirilenko’s expiring contract.

Trade Scenario Two

Utah trades Carlos Boozer to the Chicago Bulls and Andrei Kirilenko to the Houston Rockets. The Rockets trade Tracy McGrady and Luis Scola to the Jazz. Chicago trades Brad Miller to Houston.

The Pluses

I don’t think there is any way the Chicago doesn’t trade Brad Miller for Carlos Boozer. That’s a no-brainer.

Houston gets Brad Miller for a year to replace Yao Ming. He’s no real replacement for Yao, but nobody other than Dwight Howard really is. They also get Kirilenko, who will give them something, rather than McGrady, who will likely give them nothing. Essentially they salvage the season, assuming that they really want to.

The Utah Jazz essentially are trading Boozer for Scola and a whole bunch of freed up money next year. They guarantee themselves that they won’t be in the luxury more than a single year. They can even re-sign Millsap without qualms if they want to (though Scola is likely a better starting power forward than Paul Millsap.)

The Minuses

There’s no way Chicago doesn’t make this trade.

Trading Scola would hurt, but Carl Landry is a very good power forward too. They’re much better with somebody playing center than nobody playing center. They also are much better with Kirilenko than McGrady. Of course, it’s all up to whether Houston really wants to compete or if they are happy tanking games for a good draft pick. In a bad economy, I would think that they would want to make sure their fans are seeing some wins and keeping butts in the seats. Yao’s and McGrady’s injuries really make it a “no win” situation.

I can’t see why the Jazz wouldn’t trade Boozer and Kirilenko for Scola and tax relief. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Trade Scenario Three

The Utah Jazz trades Carlos Boozer to Chicago and CJ Miles and Matt Harpring to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers trade Marcus Camby to the Utah Jazz. The Chicago Bulls trade Jerome James and Tyrus Thomas to the Utah Jazz.

The Pluses

The Chicago Bulls get rid of Jerome James’ contract and get Boozer for Tyrus Thomas. We’ve already discussed why this might be good and bad.

The Los Angeles Clippers get rid of Marcus Camby, who is unnecessary and would probably take away valuable time from Blake Griffin. If they’re worried about being a little slim on the front line after trading away Camby and Zach Randolph, they could simply sign some backup big men for the veteran’s minimum. They get CJ Miles, a young player with a small contract and good potential, and Harpring, who is likely to simply retire anyway. With the Clippers’ owner being very financially-minded, this deal makes financial sense.

The Utah Jazz get one of the best defensive players in the NBA in Marcus Camby and an up-and-coming defensive player in Tyrus Thomas. They also get Jerome James, who they could keep for depth in the front line or buy out. None of the contracts are for longer than a year, unless the Jazz extend the contracts, so there isn’t much risk.

The Minuses

The only minus for Chicago is letting go of Tyrus Thomas.

The Clippers don’t really get better from this move, they get worse. They also most likely save money and give valuable time to Blake Griffin.

I don’t see any minuses for the Jazz. None of the contracts are long. The Jazz get much better defensively.

I have to say that I prefer some of the trade proposals in my previous blog to the ones he presented here.

The one that he likes the best and really favors the Jazz, Shane Battier and Luis Scola or Carl Landry for Carlos Boozer, will never happen. The Houston Rockets have got a really good statistician in their front office, and he knows exactly what he’s got in Battier and Scola. I really like that one, too, but it’ll never happen. I came up with the same trade myself and discounted it almost immediately as too one-sided in the Jazz’s favor.

I actually like the Emeka Okafor one as well, but I don’t see why Charlotte makes that trade unless they are having second thoughts about the huge contract. Boozer can’t really fit in their plans, can he?

And please?!? Would the Hornets trade their second best player for Boozer?

Here are a couple of trade scenarios that might work for the Jazz, especially considering that they Jazz have made it known that they have to trade Boozer (thus reducing the amount they can get from him).

With the Miami Heat

1. Carlos Boozer to Miami for Udonis Haslem and others (e.g. Chris Quinn, and Dorell Wright)

Miami probably makes out better in this deal, but Utah gets rid of Boozer, gets a capable PF in Haslem (who would probably be languishing on the bench behind Beasley and Boozer) and a nice backup for Deron Williams in Chris Quinn (since the Jazz want a third PG). Plus they save some money ($1.5 million) to help pay down the luxury tax. Because Quinn and Wright are so young, it’s hard to say who might get the better end of this deal.

This one might be plausible because Boozer has a lot of ties to Miami and Dwyane Wade has publicly said that he would like Miami management to go after Boozer.

With the Chicago Bulls

1. Carlos Boozer to Chicago for Tyrus Thomas and Tim Thomas.

Much has been said about the three-way trade, but an equally valid trade can be made with Chicago alone for Tyrus Thomas. The Jazz would save $1.4 million and would get back two power forwards in return to shore up their front line.

2. Carlos Boozer and CJ Miles for Brad Miller and Linton Johnson.

In a much more drastic cost-cutting maneuver, the Jazz could get Brad Miller and save $3 million. Miller is in the last year of his contract so he might be able to be re-signed next year for much less to help out in the post, or be let go.

The Jazz would definitely want to re-sign Millsap if they took this one, as Brad Miller is definitely not a long-term solution. He would provide toughness on the front line for as long as the Jazz could keep him, though.

With the Philadelphia 76ers

1. Carlos Boozer and CJ Miles for Samuel Dalembert and Jason Smith.

Another cost-cutting maneuver by the Jazz, saving them $3 million. This move also allows the Jazz to bring in a shot-blocker to play next to Okur and cover up for his deficiencies. If the 76ers threw in a draft pick or money, it might almost make it even.

The Jazz could do a smiliar move with the Phoenix Suns for Ben Wallace, but Ben Wallace is not as good as Dalembert, in my book.

With the Cleveland Cavaliers

1. Carlos Boozer for Zydrunas Ilgauskis

With the acquisition of Shaq, Ilguaskis is no longer needed. I’m not sure Okur and Ilgauskis are the best pairing, but Ilgauskis is 7’3″ and can block some shots. Heck, who knows? Maybe Okur, Ilgauskis, and Kirilenko are a perfect fit. Either way, I think it’s worth a try. The Jazz do save a little money on it, too, to help pay for Millsap.

I would think Cleveland would welcome the move, because it really makes them the favorite in the East, maybe even enough to throw in a draft pick to get it done.

This one probably wouldn’t happen, because of the history, but it makes perfect sense.

Since everybody else is getting into the trade rumor arena, I figured it was time for me to throw my hat over the wall.

The Jazz could easily trade Carlos Boozer and CJ Miles (or Matt Harpring) to the New York Knicks for David Lee (via sign-and-trade) and Jared Jeffries.

Why would the Utah Jazz do it?

They wouldn’t need Millsap at this point, but they could keep him on as a backup if they didn’t mind the hefty up-front price tag. (His next 3 years were much more reasonable.) They would have a bigger player to play power forward at a nice salary of $8-9 million per year. Jared Jeffries is another big body to help them out. Carlos Boozer, his history of injuries, and his bad locker room influence would be gone. They would have a nice nucleus of young players at most of their positions for several years to come.

Why would the New York Knicks do it?

Jared Jeffries is one of the last multi-year contracts that the Knicks have on the books going into next year. They’d be taking back a multi-year contract in CJ Miles, but it would be less money than Jeffries’ current contract. They would also get the Bird-rights to Carlos Boozer, and a lineup of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Carlos Boozer would be devastating indeed (if they could actually woo Wade and James away from their respective teams). If they really wanted to shed all the multi-year contracts, they could probably persuade Utah to trade Matt Harpring instead of CJ Miles (especially in light of the fact that Harpring might just be retiring this year anyway).

Apparently they really like the strategy of “leaking” rumors to gauge the interest of fans, commentators, and/or other teams to the principles of certain signings or trades.

The principles of this trade involve Utah sending Carlos Boozer to the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Bulls sending Kirk Hinrich to Portland and Tyrus Thomas to Utah. Portland can absorb some (but not all) of the Hinrich contract because they are below the cap, so what they would send to Utah or Chicago in return is unclear.

Because it’s fun, lets examine this trade to see if it makes sense.

Chicago Bulls get Boozer for Hinrich and Thomas. The fact that Boozer will be playing alongside a defensive-minded center would help alleviate the deficiency that Boozer has in his defensive game. Obviously the Bulls are trading an expendable point guard away, and are otherwise swapping Boozer, a 20-10 power forward, for Thomas, who has yet to be as impressive as a lot of people thought he would be. Of course, having Boozer for only one year doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless they plan on re-signing him. Having him traded to them should make it easier to have his services for a long time. (They could probably get rid of Hinrich to Portland anyway, and Thomas isn’t all that expensive to keep on the roster.)

Utah Jazz get Tyrus Thomas for Carlos Boozer. Getting a defensive-minded power forward to play along with Mehmet Okur (who just signed a two year extension) makes a lot of sense. Add to that the fact that Utah would be taking back a lot less money in the deal and it makes even more sense. Less money would make it easier to sign Paul Millsap, would prevent Portland from even offering him a contract, and would give the Utah Jazz a nice sized trade exception.

Some people already argue the Boozer doesn’t fit well with the other players in the locker room, and if that’s true, trading Boozer for absolutely nothing would also have been an improvement. If that is indeed true, which I’m not so sure I believe, it would make even more sense for the Jazz to make the trade, even if Tyrus Thomas isn’t as good offensively as Carlos Boozer.

Portland gets Kirk Hinrich. Although Portland would have to give something away (Travis Outlaw, Steve Blake, or Martell Webster) in this trade, it certainly wouldn’t be a crucial piece. Portland would get a top-notch point guard to play alongside Brandon Roy. The only way this would hurt Portland is that it would move the team well into the luxury tax with the signing of extensions to Roy and Aldridge in the upcoming months. If Paul Allen can afford to pay a lot of luxury tax, then it really doesn’t hurt Portland at all.

If the Portland player were being moved to Utah, Utah would probably prefer Steve Blake (to be their second string point guard) or Travis Outlaw (less money, good defense), most likely Outlaw.

If the player were going to Chicago, it would most likely be Martell Webster or Travis Outlaw.

Conclusion

Either way, it seems like a good deal (or potentially good deal) to all of the teams involved.