Contract Rumors. Deron, Booze, AK, CJ & More.
Well, with the off-season now here for the Jazz, it’s time to get into other things. Free agency, the draft, resignings, trades, and… above all… rumors. And it’s rumors that I have for you right now.
Deron Williams, star PG for the Jazz, is nearing the end of his rookie contract. If it all works out, he won’t even have to worry about it. The Jazz will probably give him a 5-year max contract, which would keep Deron here through the 2013-2014 season.
That’s the plan,” Williams said. “I definitely love it here. I think we have a great team, a great coaching staff and have a chance to win. That’s the thing that’s most important to me.”
Getting him signed is huge. He’s the star & the leader of this team… letting him go would be a huge blow to the team.
Also via that link… CJ Miles will probably be back next year. The Jazz seem likely to offer him a tender offer, making him a restricted free agent and giving the Jazz the chance to match any offer that he’ll get elsewhere.
His first preference would be to stay with the Jazz, but Miles is expected to go through a second summer as a restricted free agent. The Jazz are expected to tender him a $1.2 million qualifying offer that would enable them to match any deal Miles would sign.
But, just to note…
Counting Miles, the Jazz would have 14 players under contract. O’Connor prefers not to fill the 15th spot on the roster in case he has to take back an extra player in a two-for-one trade. The Jazz also own the No. 23 pick in the June 26 draft.
The team also has two 2nd round picks. I would love for CJ to stick around… but I question if he’ll want to knowing that he’s not going to get a lot of playing time barring injury or a surprise trade or retirement or something.
Ross Siler has a couple of tidbits in his column as well.
O’Connor could opt to trade Kirilenko, but the Jazz would have to find a taker for the $50 million left on his contract.
We all know that’s an option… it has been for a while now. After AK demanded the trade last year, he seemed to settle down a bit and played a lot better this season. Plus, trading him would be hard with his contract. And you have to assume that his missing practice before Game 6 isn’t going to be looked upon too highly, even if he had gotten a previous okay.
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan agreed to a one-year extension in December and is expected back next season. Sloan said he would go through his usual practice of notifying the team this summer that he did want to return.
I guess this was expected.
Back to the first link for a second…
The Jazz are expected to exercise the third-year option in Millsap’s contract before June 30. Jason Hart faces a similar deadline to decide about opting out of the second year of his contract, worth $2.5 million.
Both Chicago and Phoenix have requested permission to speak with assistant Tyrone Corbin for their head coaching vacancies, while the Suns have inquired about assistant Phil Johnson.
With Miles’ qualifying offer, the Jazz have a payroll of $62.5 million for 2008-09. The league’s salary cap for this season was $55.6 million and its luxury-tax threshold was $67.9 million.
‘Sap’s contract was a no-brainer. No way you let him leave. Hart… he knows he won’t get much time if he stays. The question is, can he get similar money elsewhere? If so… good-bye. If not… welcome back.
I’ve never understood the point of a salary cap below the luxury-tax threshold, but eh… no one has ever convinced me that the NBA is smart anyways. I’m all for a hard salary cap… something the NBA doesn’t have.
The SL Trib also has a blurb on No Knees.
Harpring, who is in the middle of a four-year, $25 million deal he signed with the Jazz in July 2006, doesn’t have any immediate plans to retire. He takes his career year by year, he said. It was clear Friday night that while his knees might ache and his minutes may dwindle from season to season, Harpring would feel like he had cheated himself of an opportunity to win an NBA title if he quit now.
I guess he’ll be back too.
And lastly, for those of you that like torturing yourself with Jazz thoughts…
If Pat Riley and the Heat win No. 1 pick in Tuesday’s lottery, he’s put Derrick Rose ahead of Michael Beasley, according to the New York Daily News.
He needs a point guard and he’s targeted Utah’s Carlos Boozer as a candidate for a free-agent signing down the road, perhaps even next summer.
…Boozer has a $12.65 million player option for the 09-10 season…
This is kinda worrisome… even with his horrible post-season. Booze is still one of the stars of the team, and having him opt-out and leave is a little frightening to think about. Just a little.
Enjoy.
the potential booze signing is not worrisome to me…if that happened i’d go out, buy fireworks, and celebrate…
Comment by dwillfan — May 18, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
You’d have to replace him though.
I really like Millsap, but his foul trouble worries me. Starting him could limit his time even more.
Maybe the team should look for a PF in the first round this year, just in case.
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 18, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
Hey…
I think the Jazz have some good pieces, but really need to look at a slashing SF type. I like Brewer & Miles, but not sure they’ll ever be what the Jazz need.
Still… Deron Williams and Boozer are damn good pieces - Okur’s a tough one. Sometimes he’s fantastic, and sometimes he’s… very soft. Can he keep up with the young gun centers that will be playing next year?
And lastly…
Do you think it’s time to let Sloan go?
Comment by withmalice — May 19, 2008 @ 6:10 am
Thanks for the comment withmalice. I replied to the Sloan thing on your blog… to summarize quickly… yes. I think Brewer will be fine if he can develop a bit more confidence in his jumper… the team isn’t really lacking in scorers provided that Okur is on. What he really needs is time though… 23 mpg isn’t enough. He can play more, but Sloan loves Harpring too much. As for Miles… I really like him. And if he plays, he’ll develop into a fine player on the team. But again… time. Something this team doesn’t have for wings not named Korver, Kirilenko (?) or Harpring.
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 19, 2008 @ 9:02 am
no way AK will get traded.
Comment by igor — May 19, 2008 @ 10:06 am
I don’t think he’ll get traded… his contract is too big.
But I have to think… if someone makes a reasonable offer, the Jazz might bite.
Their approaching the luxury tax (something LHM will never pay), and if they hope to add more pieces, they’ll need space.
It comes down to confident LHM/KOC/J-Slo are with the team we have now… because with 13 players under contract for next year, plus a first-rounder & then CJ, changes are going to require trades.
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 19, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
Agreed on AK47 not getting traded. Even if they shop him, no-one bites, especially given ‘visa-gate’.
I think the problem with Okur isn’t that he can’t shoot, it’s that he doesn’t mix it up in the paint as often as he should. Jazz could’ve put Boozer/Okur attacking the rim, and didn’t… then again, not Okur’s game.
Still really think that Sloan’s time’s well & done - we agree on that. For the team to ‘grow’, they need a coach who’s willing to grow with ‘em.
Comment by withmalice — May 20, 2008 @ 12:56 am
Agreed on Sloan.
I think Okur started attacking the basket a lot more near the end of the season, and in the Houston series.
Kinda disappeared against the Lakers though, in that aspect. Which probably hurt, given the absence of Booze’s inside game in the series as well.
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 20, 2008 @ 8:38 am
Sloan will never be “let go”…it is his job as long as he wants it. Deal with it. Besides, Williams and Boozer like him…their opinion matters more than yours or mine.
I would like to see everyone brought back except hope that Hart declines his option and somehow move Collins. Fesenko has more potential than Collins is worth. Might as well trade our draft picks or draft an emergency PG.
Comment by Josh — May 20, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
I know. Kinda disappointing though… it hasn’t worked out in 20 years with 2 HOF’ers, not sure if it’ll work out now. I’m still hoping, but I haven’t seen much reason to hope.
Agree completely about Fesenko/Collins, Hart & the pick.
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 20, 2008 @ 6:51 pm
You haven’t seen much reason to hope? I think the last two seasons have given us a lot of reason to hope. We have a young team that I just hope we can keep together. I get that it sucks to have had a good team for most of the past 20 years but never be able to win it all…I’m right there with you, but I think the past two years have shown that we will be a good team for awhile just like in the 90s. I’m also a Steelers fan and every year someone wanted Bill Cowher’s head because he “couldn’t win it all.” Eventually he did, but I just think it’s a mistake to ditch a coach who is a consistent winner.
One thing to remember is that since Sloan became our coach, only six different teams have won the championship. That isn’t a lot. How many of those were won by Phil Jackson, Greg Popovich, Rudy T, and Pat Riley…almost all I think. Does that mean every other coach is worthless? I can’t believe I clicked on that link on the comments to read that someone out there thinks we’d be better off with Avery Johnson. Wow.
Is Sloan clueless when it comes to coaching and basketball. Of course not. Do the players like him, respect him, and buy into the system? Absolutely, save for the AK incident. Have we been a winning team with him as a coach? No question. That’s all enough for me because in the end it will always come down to the players.
Comment by Josh — May 21, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
Maybe it’s time to ditch some of the players then. The roster this year was pretty much the same as last year, save Brewer playing a bigger role with Fisher gone. Would the presence of Fisher have led us farther? Doubt it. Next year, the team will be the same (barring a trade). Only they’ll be a year older. In some cases, that’ll probably be could. In others, not so much… Maybe it’s time to make some minor changes to the team.
Maybe get rid of some of the 1-dimensional players to add guys who can do more than one thing… Flop (he flops), Harpring (he’s “tough”), Hart (he plays PG)… I don’t know how much that’ll do.
I’m just worried that the team over-performed (with a ton of luck) last year and if that’s the case, the lack of change in the team over a 3-year span might be a bad thing.
How many years did you give Cowher though, and more importantly… how many do we give Sloan? I mean, if it gets to the point where we’re like “Okay, Sloan’s 70 (4 years from now) and we still haven’t won it (god forbid)…” do we give up? What about at 75? Or do we let him keep coaching because he leads us to the first round (maybe the 2nd round) every year?
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 21, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
Cowher was about 15 years, but I would have given him longer. He was a good coach and I’m not going to blame him for Neil O’Donnell and Kordell Stewart hitting the opponents defensive backs in the chest with passes in playoff games.
Our team will be a year older, but that’s a year of experience and I think we’ll be even better because of it. Only Harpring is getting up there. I think the main thing this team is missing is an athletic, defensive center with decent offensive skills. I don’t know if Fess is that player, but hopefully he develops into something. I think Collins has little value and we should somehow move him. Hart is worthless and I hope he leaves. However, not everyone needs to be a superstar. Role players like Harpring are great. I think we have enough talent on this team but we’re inexperienced and we lack that defensive big man to plug up the middle. I’m thinking we should draft a center in the first round, 3rd string PG with one of the second rounders, and the other second rounder will probably just be cut.
It sounds like we want to blame Sloan for Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan being good during his tenure. Look how good the West was this year and we’re pissed at Sloan for not winning it all? Obviously that is the goal, but I don’t think we completely underachieved this year or overachieved last year. We’re a great team in a great conference. I understand the frustation in not winning it all, but we’ve got to take some satisfaction in having a good team. I’m also a Pittsburgh Pirates fan and they haven’t had a winning season in 15 years and I’m a lot more critical of their managers.
The only reason to fire Sloan is if we’re flat out underachieving from year to year and I don’t think anyone can say that. We have a good coach, but the question every year is whether or not we have the talent and a little luck. I think we’re close.
Comment by Josh — May 22, 2008 @ 11:42 am
Agreed with the Pirates… I’ve gotten to the point though where I don’t really expect anything from them.
I like Fesenko and I really hope he pans out. I just think that adding another big man in the draft would result in Fess getting no time at all, which would suck.
And if KOC is serious about only having 14 players under contract to start the season and Hart leaves, the team would either need to take a 1st round PG to be the 3rd stringer, or waive good-bye to CJ Miles.
I agree that the team is close… I’m just not sure what more they can do (player wise) to get over the edge. The team will pretty much be the same. You’re not going to see the team all of a sudden stop fouling. Deron keeps getting better, but he can only do so much on his own. Brewer needs to develop more confidence in his jumper… Almond needs time (and probably needs work on his D).
I’m just not sure what to do. I’m not saying that a new coach would help… that’s questionable, because as you said, in the end it comes down to the players.
Comment by UtesFan89 — May 22, 2008 @ 2:31 pm
Yeah, I just agree we’re close and being one of the youngest teams in the league, experience can’t hurt. We’ll be better next year. You can’t look at these ages and not think that’s awesome:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams/roster?team=uth
I think we were better this year than last, but the West was just tougher. If we do get another center he’ll be D-League material next year for sure, but wouldn’t hurt to get someone to compete with Fess. I agree about Miles though. I’m not sure there’s a way we can keep Korver, Miles, Brewer, and Almond. Personally I think Miles probably has more potential than Korver has value. I love when Korver gets hot, but Miles has a lot more dimension to his game…he’d be the odd man out at this point though unfortunately. Anyway, we do need roll players on the team because there isn’t enough money or minutes to go around otherwise.
Comment by Josh — May 23, 2008 @ 11:33 am
[...] ended, news came out that Pat Riley was interested in having Booze go play in Miami (I mentioned it here). As one could expect, that talk isn’t going to die. Via the Truth & Rumor section at [...]
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