In case you haven’t heard, the Utah Jazz have traded Jason Hart to the Clippers for veteran point guard Brevin Knight, much to the delight of many Jazz fans. (Well, the Jason Hart leaving, at any rate. Most Jazz fans don’t know much about Brevin Knight unless they play Fantasy Basketball.)

With three point guards, the third point guard doesn’t usually get much playing time unless they can play some at the 2 or unless one of the other two point guards get injured. In some ways, a third point guard is more of a luxury item than a need — an insurance policy against something bad rather than a real asset to a team.

Jason Hart’s numbers are likely to improve dramatically in a move back to the Clippers. Ronnie Price was picked by Sloan to back up the little time that Deron Williams left for the the other point guards, and Jason Hart wasn’t likely going to crack that lineup.

In Brevin Knight, the Utah Jazz get one of the best deals for Fantasy players that you can get.

Um, er…

Actually, they get a nice steady backup who never turns the ball over while still getting a very high level of assists, usually in the top 10 in the league even though sometimes he doesn’t get much time. He is good enough that he frequently replaces slumping starting point guards because he just doesn’t make mistakes — ever.

In fact, year after year as Brevin Knight became a free agent and the Jazz did NOT pick him up, I had to question the Jazz brass. He is the PERFECT backup point guard, and he usually comes at a very reasonable price.

The Jazz aren’t necessarily looking to get older, so I’m not sure where Brevin figures in the Jazz’s long-term plans, but I think this is the perfect trade. I just wish the Jazz had pulled it off a few years earlier.

Perhaps they want a guy who can run an offense very effectively just in case Deron Williams comes back from the Olympics and ends up not being able to play the full season (as many guys who play professionally in the off-season do more often than not).

In Brevin Knight, they get just that.

Well, everybody has their ideas on who the Jazz might select with that pick, so we’ll take a look at what the Utah Jazz need and might be able to get.

Apparently lots of people think the Utah Jazz need a big center.

Let’s see if we agree.

Point Guard: Deron Williams, backups Ronnie Price, Jason Hart
Shooting Guard: Ronnie Brewer, backups Kyle Korver, Morris Almond
Small Forward: Andrei Kirilenko, backups Matt Harpring, CJ Miles (free agent)
Power Forward: Carlos Boozer, backups Paul Millsap
Center: Mehmet Okur, backups Jarron Collins, Kyrylo Fesenko

After Boozer and Okur, you’ve got three “bigs”: Millsap (small for a power forward), Collins (a perennial backup), and Fesenko (up and down his rookie year in the D-league).

Alright.

I agree.

But can you really get a center worth taking with the twenty-third pick in the NBA Draft.

Normally, you can’t. Centers go much faster than people think they will because of the old adages “you can’t teach size” and “if you are going to make an error, err big”.

This year people think that the Jazz not only have a chance at a center, but will end up with one.

Let’s take a look at some of the centers who the Jazz might have a chance at…

Kevin Love – C – UCLA

Predicted in almost every draft to go in the lottery, but the Jazz might always be able to trade up to get him. Here is the information from CollegeHoopsNet on him.

Kosta Koufos – C – Ohio State

Koufos is all over the place in mock drafts, from near the top of the draft all the way down to where the Jazz pick. Some scouts are high on him. Others are not. I tend to think that someone will draft “big” because it is safe, and he won’t fall anywhere near where the Jazz are picking. Here is the information from CollegeHoopsNet on him.

DeAndre Jordan – PF/C – Texas A&M

Like Love, Jordan is predicted to be a lottery pick in most drafts, and won’t be available for the Utah Jazz unless they move up. Here is the information from CollegeHoopsNet on him.

Ante Tomic – C – KK Zagreb

Likely to be available for the Jazz, but he is essentially the same as Okur and Fesenko. He likely doesn’t fill the need of a really big guy down low, taking up paint and preventing other big men from getting easy hoops. Here is the information from CollegeHoopsNet on him.

Robin Lopez – C – Stanford

Nobody knows how good he good be because he played in the shadow of his brother Brook at Stanford. All indications are that he would be a pretty good pick for the Jazz here if he is available. According to most drafts, Robin is likely to be available for the Jazz at the 23rd pick. I’m a bit skeptical because lots of centers get nabbed up much earlier than mock drafts predict. Here is the information from CollegeHoopsNet on him.

Roy Hibbert – C – Georgetown

Just about everybody has the Jazz picking Roy Hibbert. If he is available here (and most drafts say that he will be), he would be a good center to pick up with the 23rd pick. He is probably the biggest center in the draft with any kind of prowess at all. Like I said with Lopez, I kind of doubt that so many teams will pick a smaller player when there is a center available (even though all of the mock drafts are telling you that they will). Here is the information from CollegeHoopsNet on him.

Joey Dorsey – PF/C – Memphis
DeVon Hardin – PF/C – California

These players are both predicted to go into the second round, and it is doubtful that the Jazz would reach down so far to nab one of them. If all of the other better centers have already been taken, they would probably be more likely to trade into the second round to take one of them rather than use their first round pick on either of them. Second round picks offer more flexibility as well as far as contracts go.

Where should the Jazz go from here?

Old Personnel

The Starters

1. Deron Williams
• 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.
2. Carlos Boozer
• 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.
3. Andrei Kirilenko
• 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.
4. Mehmet Okur
• 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.
5. Ronnie Brewer
• 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

1. Paul Millsap
• 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.
2. Kyle Korver
• 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.
3. Ronnie Price
• 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.
4. Everybody Else
• 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).

They came into the Energy Solutions Arena and beat the Jazz, largely behind the play of one man — Tracy McGrady. The Utah Jazz are known to allow high profile shooting guards to have their way offensively — which is largely the reason why they picked up Jason Hart and Ronnie Price in the offseason.

Well, apparently they haven’t improved much in that department as McGrady went off for 47 points, but it is still early in the season. Jason Hart and Ronnie Price combined for 9 minutes. The Jazz big men did limit Yao Ming to only 11 points.

Carlos Boozer, in another stellar game, got 30 points and 16 rebounds. Deron Williams had 18 points and 13 assists. Mehmet Okur finally had a good shooting outing with 16 points to go along with his 10 rebounds.

In our continuing Ronnie Brewer watch, he had 13 points (5-7 FG) and 3 steals.

Does this mean that the Houston Rockets are better than the Utah Jazz now? That all of their offseason movement pushed them ahead of the Jazz in the rankings?

Hardly.

It was just a regular season game, and only the second game of the season.

Some things we did learn are…

1. The Jazz still have a problem guarding high scoring shooting guards. Time will tell if Hart and Price will help, or Brewer will be improved enough this year to take on that role.

2. We’re not sure if the Houston Rockets are really any better. The game was more McGrady and company than an improved Houston Rockets team, and McGrady’s back is not likely to support that kind of activity 82 games into the NBA season. McGrady’s teammates are going to have to provide more offensive support if they hope to beat the Jazz in the playoffs.

They didn’t make too many off-season moves, but they didn’t really need to make too many either. They have a nice core of Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, and Mehmet Okur, and some other great players including veterans Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko, and second round surprise Paul Millsap.

The big question that every Jazz fan is asking himself or herself this year is “Will the Jazz be better this year?”

Acquisitions verses Losses

Jason Hart and Ronnie Price are likely to be better than Deron Williams previous backups of Derek Fisher and Dee Brown, but not by too much. They could grow into excellent backups, but they are not likely to be much better than Fisher was backing up Williams (when he wasn’t starting at shooting guard). It’s not likely that their play off the bench will influence games that much anyway, except by giving Deron long enough breathers that he can be effective at the end of games.

Rookies Morris Almond and Kryrylo Fessenko are not likely to play at all, unless you happen to be attending the Development League games 50 miles to the south of Energy Solutions Arena.

Current Player Improvement

Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur, and Andrei Kirilenko played over the summer. Deron Williams probably gained the most from this, and that should be a real asset to the Point Guard Heavy offense of Jerry Sloan. Okur didn’t play well over the summer. Kirilenko was fantastic, but he didn’t really do anything that we didn’t already know he could do.

Gordan Giricek, likely to be the starting shooting guard, is said to be in great shape. Whether this translates into more consistency or not remains to be seen, but he has always been a good shooter, at least in spurts. A more consisten Giricek would be a very good thing. Add to that the fact that he is in his contract year, and we may be fine even though we missed out on picking up Morris Peterson.

Ronnie Brewer, the likely backup to Giricek, is said to have made the largest improvement in the offseason and all Jazz fans hope that to be the case. Whether coming off the bench or starting at shooting guard, Ronnie Brewer could potentially provide the atheletic scoring the the Jazz have long tried to acquire — but never successfuly.

Paul Millsap already played very well in the Rocky Mountain Review, garnering MVP honors. He is likely to be even better this year than he was last year, and that would be extremely helpful.

Answering the Question

Will the Jazz be better this year?

Yes. The Utah Jazz should be a much improved team over a stellar year last year, especially assuming that they can give Kirilenko some love.

Will that translate into a 60+ win season and an easy return to the Western Conference Finals?

Not necessarily.

The Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs are likely to still be better than the Utah Jazz.

The Phoenix Suns should still be extremely potent. The Jazz didn’t have much trouble with them last year and are likely not to have any more trouble this year — even though just about every other team in the league will not be quite so fortunate.

The Houston Rockets made some significant improvements as well, and they were pretty even with the Jazz last year. Whether they leap-frogged the Jazz in the standings remains to be seen, but they should make it difficult for the Jazz to even be in the top 4 (record-wise) in the West. Of course, everybody is still going to wonder if Tracy McGrady can win a playoff series.

Other teams in the West also made improvements, but none are likely to be significant enough to have overtaken the Jazz.

Conclusion

The Jazz should be much better this year.

Their bench, if nothing else, should be much improved with the development of Brewer and Millsap, the additions of Hart and Price, and the continued hard work of Matt Harpring and Jaron Collins anchoring it.

Whether that translates into a more successful season than last year’s miracle run remains to be seen.