What Does KOC Have Up His Sleave?

[vj_74]

Matt Barnes is a complete buffoon. Don't you remember him from the Warriors' series?

Blazer fans were begging for Steve Blake to go somewhere else.

Theo Ratliff is still in the NBA? Holy crap.

The Lakers have picked up other team's scraps while the Jazz actually got quality talent. Advantage O'Connor.

Bad comparison.

Jazz merely compensated for losing their no 1 option on offense and their best outside shooter and best defender and it remains to be seen whether the compensation is good enough. Probably it is'nt. Whereas, Lakers are just adding to their already well talented roster.
Lakers have their top 5 or 6 players intact from last season and are just adding to it now.They could have just stood pat or signed a scrub in place of Shannon Brown. So BIG difference there.The only thing that they did'nt have last year was bench depth and they have fixed it.
And their "scraps" is easily as good if not better than ours.

 

[sirkickyass]

The Jazz have more than 9 players under contract. They have second year non-guaranteed contracts on Jeffers and Gaines and a non-guaranteed deal with jeremy Evans.

That means they have these guys under some form of contract:

1. Williams
2. Jefferson
3. AK
4. Okur
5. Millsap
6. CJ
7. Raja
8. Hayward
9. Price
10. Gaines
11. Jeffers
12. Evans

Plus we have a QO out on Fesenko. Don't be shocked if they lock up Fes, hit the league minimum and stand pat.

 

[BabyPeterzz]

Don't the Jazz and Fes have to resolve the offer sheet by Friday?

 

[sirkickyass]

Don't the Jazz and Fes have to resolve the offer sheet by Friday?

Why do you say that? The Jazz have given him a QO. He hasn't signed an "offer sheet" with anyone.

I think you may be referring to the fact that if the Jazz don't revoke the offer sheet by Friday then Fes has the option to sign it per the Larry Coon FAQ.

Teams may also withdraw an outstanding qualifying offer in which case the player becomes unrestricted. This happened with Toronto and Keon Clark in 2002. The qualifying offer cannot be withdrawn after July 23 without the player's approval.

That doesn't mean the contract situation has to be resolved by tomorrow, it only means that the Jazz won't be able to force him into unrestricted free agency if they don't rescind the QO by tomorrow. We could be sitting on Fes contract negotiations for another couple of months.

 

[KhaOZ]

We don't need a shot blocking big man. Who would you replace to put him in? Jefferson? Okur? Millsap? What we need is Jefferson to block some shots. The guy's never really applied himself at playing defense like he sounds like he will this coming season, so who knows what he's capable of on D really?

As for what's up KOC's sleeve? Al Jefferson and Raja Bell. We already got more than we ever expected. If there's more, then "WOOO!", if not, then whatever. Again, it's already better than most expected this off season to be.

I'd like to see us hold on to AK, see how we play together for half a season to see where our holes might be, then use his expiring to try and plug that hole for the second half and into the playoffs.

 

[Hitman]

 

[Hitman]

The Jazz have more than 9 players under contract. They have second year non-guaranteed contracts on Jeffers and Gaines and a non-guaranteed deal with jeremy Evans.

That means they have these guys under some form of contract:

1. Williams
2. Jefferson
3. AK
4. Okur
5. Millsap
6. CJ
7. Raja
8. Hayward
9. Price
10. Gaines
11. Jeffers
12. Evans

Plus we have a QO out on Fesenko. Don't be shocked if they lock up Fes, hit the league minimum and stand pat.

I thought I was the only one on this board who understood the current roster situation.

 

[PrinceJL]

Our remaining tradable assets (in order of value) are: Millsap, AK, CJ, Memo....

I'll do Millsap/Memo for Dalembart/Landry but I doubt SAC would want to take on our add'l yrs in contracts.
A straight, AK for Dalembart doesnt really help us as a defensive unit.

 

[Stifle Tower]

Lakers have quietly added Steve Blake, Ratliff and Barnes this summer to boost their bench depth.
Whereas the SLC media cant seem to stop having orgasms about losing 3 rotation players this offseason and adding just two vets. Let's hope KOC has another trade worked away.

And when was the last time a player took LESS just to play in Utah? Sorry to burst the bubble of a lot of you fans, but Salt Lake City just doesn't have the same cachet for most players (Raja being a rare exception) as Los Angeles or Miami.

Barnes was a nice pickup for them. He commented on how it would nice playing on the same team as Kobe instead of against him. Ratliff for me, is meh. It's been 4 years since he's been relevant. Jazz could sign Araujo and get the same production that Theo will give the Lakers.

 

[NUMBERICA]

The Lakers net difference this year is probably greater than the Jazz's net difference. We'll see, though.

I'm taking a wait-and-see approach with Jefferson as oppose to being bummed or furious about the player he's been. However, one thing I'm genuinely concerned with is that Boozer's play was a detriment to AK's and Boozer was a much more able and willing passer than Jefferson, and he also played high-post a lot as well. Jefferson has the potential to make AK significantly worse than he has been.

But. We'll see. I'd like the Jazz to trade AK for a more traditional SF or C.

 

[Stifle Tower]

We don't need a shot blocking big man. Who would you replace to put him in? Jefferson? Okur? Millsap? What we need is Jefferson to block some shots. The guy's never really applied himself at playing defense like he sounds like he will this coming season, so who knows what he's capable of on D really?

As for what's up KOC's sleeve? Al Jefferson and Raja Bell. We already got more than we ever expected. If there's more, then "WOOO!", if not, then whatever. Again, it's already better than most expected this off season to be.

I'd like to see us hold on to AK, see how we play together for half a season to see where our holes might be, then use his expiring to try and plug that hole for the second half and into the playoffs.

Great points. And also to sirkicky on his roster analysis. Jazz could upgrade over Jeffers and Gaines, but it would take the right player for KOC to go in and ask for Gail to open up her purse.

I don't think AK's trade value is all that high right now. Teams don't start thinking about dumping salaries and players until they're near the deadline and pretty much out of the playoff picture. About the only team that's acknowledged they're in full rebuilding mode is Minnesota.

I've been a huge AK critic - maybe even the biggest. But I absolutely agree with KhaOZ abotu holding AK until the deadline. Right now the Jazz have a few question marks:
1. How healthy will Okur be to start the season?
2. Can Millsap play 35 mins/per without fouling out?
3. Is Raja a 30 min/per starter at SG?
4. How much can Hayward contribute right away off the bench?

AK figures prominently in all those situations.
A. If Memo isn't ready to play major minutes, Jefferson will have to be a full-time 5. And AK will have to backup Millsap.
B. If Millsap is constantly in foul trouble, AK could see some time at PF.
C. If Raja struggles a bit with trying to play 30 mins, then CJ will have to play more at the 2 - and that leaves more time for AK at the 3.
D. If Gordon can't give 10-15 mins off the bench, then the 2/3 becomes a 3-man rotation with Raja, CJ and AK all getting 30+ mins.

 

[Fishsticks]

I still think that our biggest weakness is back up PG. Sign Fes and lets hope that he and AJ improve defensivly this year. We still should be targeting Shannon Brown and Anthony Tolliver. We could use the rest of the Mid level on Brown and Vet min on Tolliver. If KOC could pull this off it would be icing on the best Jazz offseason ever. We can deal with the lux tax issues at the trade deadline.