Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Utah Jazz Trade Proposal

The following is an article I just posted on the Jazz fan site, UtahJazz360.com(http://www.utahjazz360.com/alienator345/a-realistic-trade-proposal/):


There are a lot of trade proposals that get posted on this site and usually I am the first one to get annoyed that so many get posted. But here I am about to propose a trade to everyone on this site. But I feel like I have to get my idea out there because I have been thinking about this for quite some time. I know that many of you reading this won't agree at all, but I at least hope you can hear me through.

Now the Jazz have been playing quite well and I don't want to sound negative, but I don't know how long they can keep this up. We are the second best team in the West with a record of 9-4, but  if I'm being honest a lot of our wins came against average or weak opponents and I think once we hit the rough parts of our schedule we will slide a little. We have a great corps of young players that I think really gives us a bright future. But I am always thinking of ways that we could improve our team. Many times with a young team what is required is patience and experience and I think that is the case for us, but at the same time we have quite the glaring weakness in our team. That weakness is that we are quite lopsided. We have four players that are starting caliber players fighting for time at the Center and Power Forward positions with Millsap, Favors, Jefferson, and Kanter while at the same time we really only have one starting caliber player for the Small Forward and Shooting Guard spots with Hayward, Miles, Bell, Howard, and Burks. If we could tweak that just a bit and trade one of our big men for a shooter I think our team will be set.

So analyzing this. Who is it that we could give up? Kanter is a rookie that I think could be a solid true center, something that the Jazz haven't had in quite a long time. He is untouchable. Favors is the other player that is untouchable. He is our future at Power Forward. That leaves two players, Millsap and Jefferson. Who could we give up? Now I think most Jazz fans right now are going to jump on the trade Jefferson boat. I think we should do the opposite. I think we should trade Millsap. Now I know the cries for my head are going to start now, but I think that is the right decision. Millsap is playing really good right now and we could get a lot more out of him than if we traded Jefferson. Once again it is easy to say that we should trade the player that isn't playing as good or the one that is playing with less energy, but think of the other team in the trade. I think there are a lot more teams that are wanting to trade for Millsap out of any player on the Jazz. If we get rid of him, we would have a trio in the front court of Kanter, Jefferson, and Favors that can still work well. This would give Favors and Kanter more playing time and experience as we train them up to be the corps of our future. It would also give Jeremy Evans a better shot at some more playing time. Meanwhile we get help in the back court. Hayward is going to be a star. But everyone else I'm not so sure about. Burks I'm excited about, but he still needs a lot of time to grow. Meanwhile Bell puts a great effort into his game every day, but he is ancient and would be better coming off the bench. CJ Miles scares me every time he steps on the court because he is horribly inconsistent. Josh Howard has also been a pleasant surprise, but once again is getting up there in age and certainly past his prime. Better coming off the bench. If we could get one stud player to team up with Hayward at the 2-3 spots and have Bell, CJ, Burks, and Howard coming off the bench for depth with what I said earlier with in the front court I think we have a much better team both right now and in the future.

Now the question is who exactly do we get in return for trading Millsap? Thinking realistically again, we would need to find a team that is in the opposite predicament as us. Someone who has one two many SGs or SFs and not enough man power up front. Now I am open to suggestions as to which team qualifies for this and who would be a fair swap, but one team I found is the 76ers. They have Spencer Hawes and Elton Brand up front. Not a bad duo. Hawes is having a nice year, but Elton Brand is ancient and the depth there upfront for them isn't great. However, they have a logjam down at the 2-3. They have Jodie Meeks and Andre Iguadala as their starts at the 2-3 with Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young, and their leading scorer of the year Louis Williams sitting on the bench. A straight up trade of Andre Iguadala  for Paul Millsap would work great for both teams.

Here's the aftermath of that. Our starting lineup looks like this: Al Jefferson, Derrick Favors, Andre Iguadala, Gordon Hayward, and Devin Harris with Kanter, Evans, Howard, Bell, Miles, Burks, and Watson as our bench. Not a bad deal. Meanwhile the 76ers get Hawes, Brand, Young, Meeks, and Holiday as their starters with Millsap, Williams, and Turner as their main bench players. I think it would be a solid deal. What do you think? If you have any counter offers on your mind that you would think would work better and be a great deal for both teams, I would love to hear it.


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