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Trade Our Picks This Offseason?
Posted by: Splendid Jimmy on February 28th, 2011
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.With the addition of Favors on this team, all of the sudden, we’re young again. 3 rookies on one team is a lot. We have young guys that have potential to be good. Knowing all of this, should we trade some of the picks that we have now in the offseason? If we want to be a contender next year, we can’t have 3 guys who are in their second year, and one or two more rookies.If we even want to smell a championship next year (That is, if there is a next year) we’re going to need need some savvy vets. At least 1. And no, not the Raja Bell or Brevin Knight type of veterans.
The NBA Draft is risky business. It’s very tough to scope out who is going to be good in the league, and who is going to flop. Although I don’t watch college ball as much as I should, I have heard reports that this year’s draft class is not very good at all. I’m not sure how valid those reports are, but it doesn’t seem to me like there is anything spectacular in this years class. You guys can fill me in if I’m wrong. Also, I can’t say I trust the Jazz with draft picks as must as I used to now that Sloan and Johnson are gone.
I think I’d rather see our picks (and god-awful C.J. Miles) get traded for a proven player who is still in his prime or about to enter it. Of course this is easier said than done, but If the front office see’s a possible trade that can benefit the franchise, they should pull the trigger on it and trade those picks. Maybe it’s a little too early to be discussing this, but I don’t see this team going anywhere near past the first round of the playoffs. Time to think about the future!
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30 Responses
And who do you suggest we trade for? And who says he wants to come here? I say we stick to the draft. It’s how we got Stockton, Malone and Williams and just about every great player Utah has ever had. Small market teams such as Utah can’t rely on trades to build a championship team.
This is expected to be a weak draft. There are some good power forward types to be had, but were already set at that position. Trading the Nets pick for a proven veteran shooter is something i’m sure the Jazz will definitely consider. Our frontline is strong (and that’s without Tomic on the roster). Point guard is in capable hands. If the Jazz resign AK, small forward is set. It’s just a matter of finding a shooting guard who can help now, while a guy like Gordon Hayward continues to develop in a reserve role.
I agree we need to add a solid vet or two but I don’t know if trading the picks is the answer. Not that it shouldn’t be considered, surely… but if you look at the most successful smaller market teams, one thing they usual do very well is draft. Look at the Spurs, their entire core (Duncan, Parker, Ginobli) came from the draft and they won 3 titles in this past decade. The Thunder also are an up and coming team because they have done extremely well in the draft, picking Durant and Westbrook in back to back seasons. Utah is not a haven for top free agents and we really don’t have the most desirable trade chips. We have to be able to draft well
Exactly what I’m saying TACOREV! Let’s trust in our ability to draft!
I’d say we can both keep our picks AND go sign a good veteran player like you say. AK will re-sign for much less so we’ll have the money to go out and grab a good player in free agency. Now I don’t trust the Jazz with draft picks either, but I didn’t trust them with draft picks WHILE Jerry was still here because our 1st round picks never worked out. We’ve had far more luck with our 2nd round picks, which logically is backwards but true for us. With that said, being that we will have two lottery picks, we should keep them because, while this won’t be the most memorable draft, there are a few players out there that we could use. We’re set at the PF position with Jefferson, Millsap, and Favors at that position but we could really use a true center. Yes, we should still keep Jefferson as our starter because right now him, Millsap, and AK are making a killer big three, but with Memo, Fes, and Elson as our backup centers, there is a big question mark. One name to look out for is Enes Kanter, a 6-11, 261 pound center from Kentucky. Donatas Motiejunas and Jonas Valanciunas are some international 7 footers that are projected in the top half of the first round, so out of the three mentioned names, we should use one of our picks to grab one of those guys. With our other pick, we need to grab a guard because we are really lacking at both guard positions now. So far Raja is our only true SG on our team and he is old. CJ and Hayward seem to me as a better fit at SF, but have done alright at switching in at the SG. Ronnie Price and Earl Watson have also been playing SG at times, but both of the are point guards. Speaking of point guard, Earl Watson and Ronnie Price are decent backups, but Watson is old and Price we could use an upgrade over. Also I don’t have a whole lot of faith in our new current starter Devin Harris, so we could use help at both guard positions. Now with the picks that we have, there isn’t a whole lot of stock in the SG position as far as top 10 goes, but there are a few point guards that we could take. Now if New Jersey helps us out by sucking it up big time and we get a top 3 pick, Kyrie Irving would be the dream selection for us, but if we can’t get him, there are two other top 10/top 15 point guards that we could take. One is a guy from UConn named Kemba Walker and the other is a little known guy from the small town of Provo, Utah. They call him the Jimmer. Have you heard of him yet? That reason alone makes this a very special draft this year. There’s only one draft in history where the Jimmer will be taken and that is this year and the Jazz are right in line to get him. Now Utah fans would be screaming for us to draft Jimmer no matter who we had on our team, but Jimmer does actually fill a huge need. Realistically and in an unbiased viewpoint (I’m a BYU fan and Jimmer is my hero, but yes, this is an objective viewpoint) I don’t know if he will ever be an all star in the NBA, but I think he compares very well to JJ Reddick. Reddick was a college phenom at Duke that was questioned as to whether or not his game would translate into the pros. Well, it took a few years, but it did. Reddick may never be a star, but he’s a dang good role player. Same with Jimmer. And you can’t argue with the fact that the guy can shoot the ball and the Jazz could use a deadly shooter on their team. Jimmer could be like a 3-D version of Kyler Korver if you know what I mean.
So there you go. I didn’t intend to ramble on for this long, but there’s a draft update for you.
And after re-reading that, by “Utah fans would be screaming for us to draft Jimmer no matter who we had on our team” I mean people in the State of Utah, not Ute fans.
And I meant to type Kyle Korver, but for some reason I said Kyler Korver
@Adam
Not that it’s important, but Kanter doesn’t play for Kentucky. I think he was going to this past fall, but was deemed ineligible for receiving funds, or something like that. So he’s been playing in Europe. He could be a solid pick but I’ve heard he might have injury issues.
It would really be huge if the Jazz could somehow dump off Okur’s contract onto any team that will take it this summer… it would leave the Jazz with some cap space, which would make it possible to sign a solid free agent
I blame that on nbadraft.net. They still have his school listed as Kentucky. Admittedly I haven’t followed Kentucky at all this year, so I wasn’t aware of his situation and I didn’t look into it before I wrote that.
http://www.nbadraft.net/2011mock_draft
http://www.nbadraft.net/players/enes-kanter
@Adam and @Taco, guys Adam is right, Enes is still in Kentucky, not playing but still training with calipari, continuing his scholarship, and being as Calipari’s words a sort of “undergraduate student-assistant coach”, he have the right to training and working out, but not to travel with the team….. Calipari want to help him to prepare the next draft
I’m hoping that the nets will suck the rest if the year and we could get perry jones from baylor he plays like a shooting guard but 6′11″ he would be real good here and give us some hight
The target free agent for me is Jamal Crawford … unless he wants to compete for 6th man of the year forever. He could join a team directly with a pre-all star status.
The target trade for me is Kevin Martin. But Stephen Curry could also be discussed.
Now can the Jazz give up draft picks + underachieved projects (like CJ and Fes) for those guys ? I’d say yes everyday, since there are no SG of obvious value in the top 10 draft.
How could the Jazz do ? I guess KOC is smart enough to find the way …
Best suggestion is from JAZZ KING. Can you imagine a 6-11 small forward?? That is the position the draft boards says he plays.
In the Flex offense, the wings are interchangeable anyway, so SG / SF do lots of the same things, and that’s curls off screens for the elbow jumper and flare-outs for the corner three pointers.
Really, any serviceable shooter would do for the Jazz. We would probably want to stay away from the ones who need to dominate the ball in order to score, because that doesn’t fit that well into the Jazz offense.
I say keep the draft picks and get the best players you can, hopefully picking up SG/SF/C, where we have the most need. Let all the young guys develope together along with Millsap/Jefferson/Harris over the next five years, and that’s going to be a great team.
What about Harrison Barnes or Derrick Williams? Williams is projected to be the first pick, but he is a beast and a great scorer. With the New Jersey pick, we still might get a pick high enough to nab one of those two players. We really don’t need a point guard. Harris is a good player. While there aren’t shooters aplenty in this draft there are some guys that can help out. Fredette can shoot and that threat off the bench would be nice. But we really do need a big 7 foot center to rebound and take up space in the middle. Do we have any definitive statements about Tomic?
If we pick D. Williams with the New Jersey’s pick while D. Williams is in New Jersey wearing a new jersey, it would be troublesome. Pick him and give him n°8, at least to recycle the old jerseys. Then try to explain the move to your young kid … LOL
@LK, Jan Vesely, big potentiel of the draft also play SF, and he’s 6 11 and 240……
Honestly, Al Jefferson is by far the best Center we’ve ever had. I know he’s playing out of position, but he’s been awesome.
He ranks #6 IN THE LEAGUE for Centers in Hollinger’s PER (Player Efficiency Rating):
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?position=c
That’s amazing.
Now add a Okur/Tomic? backup to Al Jefferson at C.
Now we have Millsap/Favors at PF.
We have Harris/Watson PG.
And….right now we have Bell/Miles. CJ started out the season in the running for sixth man of the year and has dropped off a cliff. Don’t know why.
And then we have some fillers in Evans/Elson/Fes/Price.
I’d love to see us pick up some good wing players. Harrison Barnes looks great to me. Jimmer with our later pick if he’s available perhaps.
@James Taylor, Tomic still have 2 more years to play in his contract with Madrid, so i don’t see how we can have him for next year….
I don’t know about anybody else but I don’t trust international players a lot of them get drafted and we never hear from them again. And the crap with ricky rubio (don’t enter the draft unless you are ready to come now) makes it hard to trust international players. I would rather put our drafts to players who are already in the U.S.
Rubio is an exception @JAZZKING, every other international first round picks came in the NBA, but it’s different for secound round picks, they are rarely signed by NBA teams, NBA teams told them to take experience, to improve, but with no garanties, and in the same time, European team give them big and long contracts if they are good enough…… Don’t blame the player, it’s only the NBA teams fault if they are screwed…. just remember before Tomic signed is contract with Madrid, one year and a half after we drafted him, he never receive a call from a member of the Jazz organisation, so don’t except he’s going to wait for us…..
I just hate foreign players in general. No offense, French Dude. But with very few exceptions, they seem whinier (Fernandez), avoid physical play and are always flopping around (Ginobli, Parker). I blame the soccer influence. You’ll never see a Kevin Garnett type player from overseas.
Besides maybe Nowitzki (and he’s still just a jumpshooter), I’m not impressed with international players.
Don’t worry KC, if the player is good and hard worker, i don’t care where he come from, the US, Europe or from the Moon……
Well, in terms of foreign players, we have two of them on our team (Okur and Kirilenko) that have made a big impact for us in the last 5 or so years, so you can’t knock them too hard.
And I don’t think SF is our most pressing need. We drafted one last year in the top 10 if people forgot that already. Unless we think Perry Jones is the next Kevin Durrant, then I don’t think any rookie SF would be much of an improvement over Hayward. Lets not give up on Gordon just yet. Plus, in addition to Hayward, Kirilenko is playing pretty good for us right now at SF and CJ shows up on occasion, so I think we’re set there. Take a guard or center.
just my 200 cents worth:
PG: Harris is not D-Will, CP3, Rose, Rondo or Nash but he is as good as or better than almost all of the other PGs in the league & he has a reasonable contract with some years left on it. Watson is not spectacular, but as a backup PG he is pretty damned good & cheap, so I hope he is re-signed. Traditionally the Jazz keep 3 PGs on the roster & right now the 3rd is Price, but he has had a pretty bad season & his contract is expiring, so I’m not sure he will be back. Potentially RP could be let go & UT could draft Jimmer as the 3rd PG although I wouldn’t use the NJN pick to do it.
C: As we all know Al is not a true C, but even so he is about as good of a C as any team could hope to have with very few exceptions, especially now that he & Millsap are playing better together. Okur is still contracted & hopefully he is healthier next year; I don’t think he’ll ever really be the “money man” again, but in a backup role, the team could do much worse, & besides that, Memo wants to retire in UT & he has been mostly good for this franchise, so I want him to get his wish. Favors will likely continue to develop & get time as a C, although he’ll probably recieve more as a PF; depending on UT’s financial situation, the new CBA & on how shortened the season will be, Tomic could be bought out & brought over to add further depth at this position. Elson might be re-signed because he is a cheap 2 position insurance policy & teammates call him “sensei” because of his veteran leadership. The Fes project is likely over after this year. There is very little reason to draft a C, unless trades are forthcoming. Also Kanter, who is definately very talented, has a history of knee troubles, which makes me think that he is destined to be a Blazer-like bigman.
PF: Millsap is the most popular Jazzman, continually works to improve his game during the offseason & has finally started to find real chemistry playing with Big Al. Favors will be his primary backup & hopefully will continue to develop as a defensive stopper. In a pinch Kirilenko, who will hopefully re-sign for $7.5 million or less, Big Al, Evans, Elson, if re-signed, or even Tomic, if he is brought over, can all play time at the PF. So, to repeat my C remarks, there is very little reason to draft a PF, unless trades are forthcoming.
SF: For whatever reasons AK has thrived since the departure of D-Will & I hope he continues to do so & re-signs as per my above statement. Hayward is a capable backup. Evans is a somewhat more limited option, but always hustles & gets the crowd into games with his dunks. Miles may not be re-signed & maybe that is for the best in order to have more time to develop younger guys. We may draft any number of potentially good SFs, like Barnes, with the NJN pick. So, all-in-all we should be in pretty good shape at this position too.
SG: If Miles & Price aren’t re-signed, we are left with an even older Bell, a still developing Hayward & the NJN pick which is likely to be a true SF like Barnes, the potential UT pick, which could be the undersized, defensively-challenged, sharpshooting combo-guard known as Jimmer. In any case the Jazz will need help in this position. Here are some realistic options (i.e. Kevin Martin & Monta Ellis aren’t likely to be coming to Utah via trade, while Jason Richardson & Jamal Crawford aren’t likely to be coming via FA): Minnesota was interested in Bell before the trade deadline so maybe getting Wesley Johnson would be doable in some package including Raja; Courtney Lee was being shopped by Houston, & maybe a sign-&-trade with Fes plus a pick of some sort could get him; Mayo would be a long shot & in some ways a gamble, but if McRoberts was almost enough for MEM, surely UT has something that could make this happen; CLE’s Parker will be a FA, but he is getting long in the tooth; the Nets might deal Morrow for a CJ sign-&-trade package if that’d help them re-sign D-Will by bringing in one of his friends; there are probably other options but this is already a very long post. So, this position is our weakest link & something will have to be done about it, & that something is likely not doable via the draft because of the types of players available this year or through FA given UT’s history of not attracting FAs, so trading is probably the best option.
like Kanter, Dejuan Blair have an history of knee problems, how many games did he miss since the Spurs drafted him………. None, 142 games in a row
If the Jazz could get Kanter with the 37th pick like the Spurs did with Blair, I’d be all for rolling the dice. I’d also be for taking him with UT’s own pick (probably around 14-16) if he was somehow still available. I’m just not in favor of taking that kind of risk on a fairly redundant player, for this team, with the NJN pick.
and by the way, i really think this “history of knee problems” is just a legend, he only miss 5 months when he was 16 for a tendinitis…..
Maybe the later trade we could use to bring in Javale McGee since the Wizards are looking for a good rookie core. Just a thought since we would have a great, high energy center. Then we fill in the need we have for Small Forward or Shooting Guard…
Harris only has two more years on his contract. Getting a PG in the draft may not be a bad idea. How much longer can Watson be good for?
Wow. Head is swimming after all that. Tried to look back and see what suggestions were, but coulnt do it. So If I repeat, sorry, not stealing thunder, just what iffing.. I looked at the top picks and there are a lot of what ifs involved in them. Toe problems, lazy though very talented, knee problems. Then you go to Scoring PG who cant handle the ball, are undersized for the 2, and play no defense..
Ones I did see who may or may not impress, do the reading before you say no way… Jordan Hamilton SF, Jonas Valaciunas C, Brandon Night PG/SG, Nolan Smith PG/SG, Jan Vesley SF, Kyle Singler SF. Of course none of these are the top picks, but they are all hard working talent who can fill our needs… They all put up numbers, fit needs, play defense, are coachable, and are not one dementional. Sorry, no Jummers, he just isnt what we need. If he were bigger, could play some defense, handle the ball better then maybe. Maybe even if he were available at our pick at 16 or 17 where ever that one lands, but not the initial pick. Maybe he could develope some of those skills in time, but he cannot step in and contribute right away.
Smith only made the cut, because even being a senior, he can step right in, if we didnt resign price again. Do your reading, but I think the ones I chose dont have any real question marks, pretty solid all the way around. Let me know what you think…