| Jazz Trade Bait On The BLOCK Authored by Ben Wilkinson - February 24, 2005 - 1:13 am
With the draft deadline for the 2004-2005 season less than 24 hours away (and by time some of you read this it will already have passed), it’s fair to assume that most GMs around the league are spending more time these days on the phone trying to make their team better than they are flipping back and forth between ESPN and NBATV. The trade deadline always adds to the stress level GMs and owners carry with them on a day to day basis, so it would be a safe bet that most will be headed out of the office once the 12:00pm EST deadline hits.
With that in mind, Kevin O’Connor the wonderful GM of the Utah Jazz has been discussing (although not publicly) some possible situations that might help the Jazz avoid their inevitable fall to last place in the Western Conference. Here are some possible scenarios that could do nothing but help them:
Trade Carlos Boozer for Lamar Odom: Most people would consider this trade insane, mostly because Boozer is averaging more points per game, and at this point the Jazz can use all the points they can get. However, there is a clear reason why Carlos is scoring more than Lamar: it’s because Lamar plays with a guy by the name of Kobe Bryant. Kobe tends to control the Lakers offensive set and when both he and Odom are basically mutually exclusive when they are in the game together because their talents are so similar. If the Jazz and the Lakers were to swap players (across the board) both teams would benefit. The Jazz would get someone who could control the offensive flow, thus making them more efficient on offense, while the Lakers would be getting someone who would be more than happy to take a low profile role in comparison to Bryant.
Trade Carlos Boozer and Jarron Collins for Steve Francis: This trade would solve the Jazz’ most immediate need of finding a point guard. With the Franchise’s up tempo style of play he would immediately make an impact on a traditionally boorish Utah offense. What’s more, he would complement Andrei Kirilinko immediately (think of Franchise throwing Alley-Hoops to AK47). Francis would help the Jazz be much more efficient-21 points, 6 boards and 7 assist season averages in 37 minutes are much more efficient than the combined averages of 21 points, 11 boards and 4 assists that Boozer and Collins combine to average.
The ultimate Fantasy trade for any Jazz fan would be to trade Matt Harpring to Cleveland for LeBron James. Of course, this in reality would never ever happen. But day-dreaming is always fun to do. The immediate impact to the Jazz is fairly obvious. They would get a proven player with ball-handling abilities (again, a much needed necessity). With James currently developing his shooting touch, he would become the focus of the offense, which would open things up in the corners for Kirilinko and Boozer.
The bottom line is the Jazz are sinking faster than the Titanic. Even if a major deal goes down before the deadline (cough, cough Boozer for Odom), don’t expect to see the Jazz still playing in late April/early June. Their focus for the near term needs to be on the upcoming draft and how they can get younger and better.
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