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Millsap Has to be Traded (I’m sorry)
Posted by: Splendid Jimmy on March 12th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.*Before I get crucified by all of you, let me start off by telling you that I am a huge Paul Millsap fan. I’ve been watching Jazz basketball almost all of my life, for about the past 14 years or so, and I can say that he is probably my all-time 3rd favorite Utah player, so saying this is really really hard.
This season is done. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. Lets talk about the future….
We have an overload of PF’s on this team. Al Jefferson is not a Center (Which explains a big part of the reason why we struggle with rebounding most of the time.) He is a Power Forward along with Favors and Evans. The main problem with this team is our lack of talented, better yet, competent players at the 2 and 3 spots. Why is it that? Because all of our talent is stuck in the same pool. That’s whats wrong with this team, plain and simple!
Now when I examine the problem, and I try to think of a solution, the only thing I can come up with is trading one of our men at the 4. But, who is it going to be? Al Jefferson who, by his play as of late, seems like he can become an all-star in the future? The second coming himself, who we are all putting our faith in to become the next big thing, Derrick Favors? No, I don’t see either of those two are leaving anytime soon.
I really hate to say this, but I think that the only way the Jazz can make progress this off-season is by trading Paul. I love watching the guy play, but we are just too loaded at Power Forward. Great teams have a balance of good players at different positions, and I want the Jazz to be a great team! We’re never going to get anywhere with so many 4’s
Keeping Millsap may just handicap our possibilities of becoming great soon. It’s nothing personal, I wish he could stay forever, but this is what would be best for the team. Jazz fan first, Millsap second.
Replies: 19
Views: 734
19 Responses
Sorry about the typo on the last sentence on paragraph three.
I completely disagree with you. Paul Millsap is one of our major go-to guys, he has great range for a 4 and his defense is stellar. He is the leader in steals on our team and in PF’s in the league.
Jefferson has mainly played Center and has put up those magnificent numbers. The reason why we HAD such a huge rebounding problem was effort, before Jefferson we had Boozer which he is one of the best rebounders in the league right now. Jefferson is 6′10. If we had Memo in the lineup rebounding wouldn’t be affected too much, it’d likely go down. Memo isn’t a great rebounder, Fes certainly isn’t, and neither is Elson. Memo is 6′11 and size isn’t everything for rebounding, it’s effort. Boozer is 6′9 and is one of the best in the league at rebounding…
Having a variety of good players at positions is important, but without Millsap we have Favors, he can’t stay on the floor long enough to backup Jefferson adequately (fouls), and you’re not going to find another PF that can replace Millsap next year.
Next year lineup:
Harris – Watson* – Price
Bell – Hayward – Miles
AK* – Miles – **
Jefferson – Millsap – Favors
Memo – Favors – Elson* – Tomic***
*If we Re-sign
**Draft Pick depending on who we draft
***If the Jazz buyout his contract and he wants to come over
We have plenty of talent right now at every position. Next year Miles will be more consistent and Hayward will be more developed (most wing players have much better 2nd years). Memo will be back 100% by then and Favors will be more developed (hopefully less foul prone).
We’ll have a good variety of very good talent next year at every position.
Who do you think we would get for Millsap? I’d like some ideas of players that we legitimately and realistically have a chance at getting.
I don’t think trading millsap is the answer either first we need some scorers then maybe we can address problems down low but that is our most solid area of the floor right now and when we get some scorers it will make it easier for the big guys from spreading the floor
Here’s an option to get a SG-SF: the NBA draft. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we have a couple picks coming up.
Don’t trade Millsap. I think he’s the ultimate backup PF. I don’t think he’s our best option at starting PF, however. IF and only IF you could get both a great starting Center AND good backup Center, then you could think about trading one of Millsap/Favors/Jefferson. That Center combo could very well be Tomic/Okur next year. Even at that, I’m not sure I’d trade Favors/Millsap/Al. Big men are hard to come by, and those five would give you some serious power in the frontcourt. Address our wing problem in the draft, get rid of dead weight (Fes, Elson, Price, Bell), and BAM! This team is looking good again.
We can draft and trade everything we want … I think the best need is confidence. Confidence in the offensive system, confidence in each other in defensive rotations, confidence in the rooks from the vets, confidence in the coach, etc.
Last night’s game was a good illustration of the lack of confidence. After being trailed by 19 points, the Jazz team rallied at 2 points behind the Wolves. They then missed 4 consecutive free throws, did not defend the paint, did not attack the paint and relied on lottery jump shots … this cocktail of bad decisions always drive to the same result.
Henri thats very very true! Confidence is everything and we definitely don’t have it… The answer is trading CJ!!! he’s always talking about gettin confidence, finding confidence, and you can see it as you watch, he doesn’t have it on either end of the floor!
Mental toughness is what i want, and i would say the only player that is mentally tough is milsap! There needs to be a belief in winning, none of these players have developed it yet! you hear the phrase, learning how to win, thats not talking about x’s and o’s, but learning what it takes mentally and physically to win… we are in that mode now and we need the type of players that are mentally tough enough to bring “it” every night.
What about this, what about drafting Enes Kanter with our first lottery pick? Let him play the bench for 30 or so games, then insert him in the starting lineup once he gets experience.
PG’s – Devin Harris, Earl Watson (hope we resign!), Jimmer
SG’s – Gordon Hayward, Raja Bell/Jimmer
SF’s – AK, C.J. Miles, Hayward
PF’s – Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Favors
C’s – Enes Kanter, Ante Tomic?, Favors, Fesenko??
You saw the way we played last night and the few nights before without Milsap. Hmmm Is that the sign of things to come? Is that what you are wanting to see for our future. Everyone wants to move Al to the PF position, but why? He posts great numbers where he is. When Milsap is in there he is posting great numbers while Milsap posts pretty good numbers. They feed off of one another.. Defense in the paint is much better as well. So you want to trade away a good piece to the puzzle, and you dont even have someone in mind to trade him for? Now your truly nuts. I dont want to keep Paul Milsap because I love the guy (though I am), I want to keep Paul Milsap because he makes us better. With Al, Milsap, and in time Favors we have a pretty good core to build around. Add Okur in 70 % or better health, or a decent back up center and we are solid there.
PG is pretty Solid with Harris and Watson, and who ever they decide to keep as a 3rd. Hayward will be fine with time. Evans, well I wonder what it might take to convert him to a SF. The kid is good, just underweight for a 4 or 5. AK, if we can get him back for 5 mil a yr, keep him. He has been playing well, and will probably be good to keep.
Our problems are the terminally injured Okur, CJ miles who can put up awesome numbers but never has been consistant, Fes who is just a waste of a body, Price who though gives a lot, is just undersized. Elson, ok if you need to have someone on the floor, but doesnt really contribute much.. That leaves Bell and our D-Leaguer. Bell can contribute much in leadership and hopefully will start teaching some defense to these youngsters.. Sadly he is getting old and cant keep up the minutes. Keeping him to come off the bench may be smart..
So, for our trade Milsap people, we have a hole.. Starting SG. Would you Trade Milsap and create another hole to plug this one. You could, but in my opinion its a big mistake. You have some options in drafting, trading, and free agency. Are they the best, maybe not. If you can get someone to suck up Okurs contract for cap relief and get a good SG for him, do it. Especially if we can get the elusive Tomic here. But I dont know if we will see him..
You need to start looking at other options though. Maybe trade someone who is not a cornerstone and a draft pick. Maybe draft one, though pickings for our hole are pretty small, look to the D-League, there are some that are at least consistant night in and out who can be a temp plug until we figure something out. But dont send Milsap away and create another problem. Many want to day Evans is a PF, I want to say are you nuts? He is just too Light for that position. I say work on his shooting and move him as a backup SF behind AK. You can then put Hayward at the back up SG position until you get something better. Trade CJ and the last draft pick for a solid SG, there are teams overflowing with them, who can use CJ at the SF.. Then our draft pick is just a bonus who can hopefully play both the 2 and 3 positions, and maybe becomes an All Star.
Give them time to Gel, and a season next yr, and who knows, maybe we see a good playoff run.. I sure hope they do some Bell defense school. He may be a little old to do it himself, but he has the tools to teach the kids on the team how to play defense.. But Keeping Milsap is something that is not an option if we wish to be contenders, its a must do..
If Memo is healthy NEXT season than you start him at the five and Al at the four. I think that was the plan all along, Jerry just wanted to ease Memo back in. You say Evans cuase we all like him. Next year I can see this…
4: Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Jeremy Evans
5: Memo, Derrick Favors, Ante Tomic
I know Favors isnt a dominant five. But he’ll grow into it. Most centers are 6′10″-6′11″ with the exception of Bynum, Yao, and Marc Gasol… throw Pau in there. Favors is a tall 6′10″ and is only 19. He will be the best back up at age 21 cause he’ll know how to handle Bynum or Gasol.
Dont get rid of Paul. Keep the loto and get like… Enos Kanter and with the way the Jazz are playing they might still be able to get Jimmer. I’d put Jimmer over Kanter because we need a shooter rather than a big.
We need to get rid of Fes. All he does is pick up fouls and turn it over. Against Phoenix a while back… we had a four point lead. Brought him in… went down by four.
GMAFB.
Trade Millsap, ugh. Crucifixion is too good for you.
Ante Tomic?
I’ve only seen this guy on youtube, not in the NBA, so let’s not get too excited about him yet.
Trade Cj, Fes etc
I don’t know if anyone knows this, but those two cant be traded for a sack of basketballs.
The NBA Draft?
This is one of the worst drafts in decades. Our pick might not even be as high as we think, considering that NJ has won 4 in a row. Please, don’t even mention Jimmer, I’m tired of it.
If memo gets healthy?
That’s a big IF. He’s had almost a whole year to get healthy and he still isn’t. He’s not going to be the same anymore. I actually would of liked it if memo was traded a few years ago when he still had some value.
Lets hear some more realistic suggestions please. Millsap getting traded is not all that bad if we can get someone BETTER than him.
I really don’t know who we can get for Millsap (I was kind of hoping you guys would suggest someone), but we can definitely get something for him.
You re right man, now we have at least 5 players that can play at PF, and we need help in other positions.
Yeah let’s trade away Millsap because we are so much better without him, as clearly demonstrated by our performance against the mighty Timberwolves
Quit talking about Tomic & Canters! I’ve YouTube’d both of these guys and they’re a poor man’s Okur(with no outside shot). We have 2 great picks this summer and if you watched Barnes today, that’s something to be excited about-40 points! He’s projected to go to the Jazz as of “now.”
I agree about letting go of Fes, Miles, Price, Elson, and trading Bell if you can.
We’ve been plagued with injuries all year. But next year we could easily have a strong lineup.
Harris-Watson-?
Barnes-Hayward
AK-evans-?
Jefferson-Millsap
Okur-favors(still could grow another inch or so)
Lots of options…
SG is probably the easiest hole to fill in this league. Don’t trade Millsap.
The Center position in the NBA is gradually getting smaller. More and more natural PF’s are playing the 5. Jefferson has embraced his Center position. He’s played it before and he’s putting up good numbers right now. He only struggles against good defensive centers. Which aren’t in abundance.
I’m actually ok with trading Millsap. But what we get out of him has to be a dynamite rebounder with a huge inside scoring threat. Millsap I love his outside shot. But remember when Millsap didn’t have that and he got all his points from rebounding and picking up the loose balls and laying them in. The garbage man he was refereed to. He racked up major rebounds and scored his points in the paint. Now he’s the one taking the outside shot and hoping his rebound falls to him. Which lowers our rebound percentage. He needs to go back to the basics of being in the paint, battling, and rebounding his heart out. Getting offensive boards. The reason I fell in love with Millsap. This cheap Boozer impression works sometimes but it’s very inconsistent. I love working on the outside game, but not have it be your go to move. Battle inside. Thats what Millsap is about.
I’d rather not trade him though and keep him around. He’s a good defender and a tough player on the court and that’s contagious sometimes. If we can lower cap and make some decent pick ups in the off season via free agency or draft. Then maybe we can keep him.
Okur is done. That old three point shooting, fall away jump shot, 20 points a game player is no more. He’ll never be fully healthy by the time his 10 million contract expires in 2012. Fesenko is not going to be the player we wanted him to be. Ante Tomic is probably not going to play in USA anytime soon and if he does i’m very weary of what he’ll bring to a NBA game. Jefferson is a stud he’s playing the center well. We got Favors and Millsap at the 4 with AK rollin in on occasion in where I think he plays some of his best basketball. I think the 4 is ok, could be better but were fine. It’s another solid center and a glorified scoring guard.
Sorry I kinda rambled back and forth off topics but yah…
i meant to say we need a glorified scoring guard who can put up numbers.. there at the very end ha.
I almost agree with you JC. Except Tomic would make a good backup at center. That and why take Al away from the center position. He thrives there with Milsap at the PF. I would us Al, Okur at center, and Milsap, Favors at the PF until Favors beats Milsap out for the starting job.
Eveyone gives this size thing too much credit. Once we get some outside defense and some 3 point shooting which will spread out defenses, our rebounding will come up on both ends of the court. For the most part when our guys are healthy we are winning the points in the paint. I think in time everything else will work itself out. Personally I would like to see Milsap, Favors, and Al do a little side betting on who can get most rebounds. Maybe it would make them a little more hungry for them..
Any which way, unless your getting one heck of a proven SG, and you know Okur is coming back 100 percent, trading Milsap is only going to hurt the team.. You dont get rid of your strengths when your buildint a team. You get rid of the weak, and find the talent to fill your holes..