"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[smokymountainrain]

Yeah, ok. So say you plan to let to clear out both Sap and Jefferson after this year. That leaves you with Favors/Splitter/Kanter as your rotation next year. I will say that makes some sense. They'd play some seriously nasty interior D and likely struggle quite a bit on offense for the first while.

And I'd still like to see them maybe bring over Tomic as the 4th big.

But my assumption has always been that they'll bring back one of Sap or Al.

If they can bring in Splitter and re-sign him, I would hope they would be willing to let Sap walk. Splitter gets 11 ppg in 23 minutes on 60% FGs. Sexual Favors gets 9 in 21 minutes. I think they'd be better on offense than some might think.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

If the Jazz want back more (young piece or a decent pick), I'm guessing the requirement to pull that off would be taking back some semi-bad contract. This scenario leaves them without much of a salary consideration going forward, which they seem pretty set on these days.

That cap flexibility going forward is one reason I'd be intrigued by adding someone like Splitter for the rest of the year even though he'll be a free agent. He would be a nice front court piece that won't require a big salary to keep around, so see how he fits with the other guys, then your hope going forward is that both Kanter and Favors will show expanded offensive games and Splitter would then be a great pairing with both of them. And because he wouldn't be paid a premium salary, you still have enough cap space to address the PG position via a signing or trade.

[MarkGrace]

The NBA trade deadline journalism racket is a tricky minefield to navigate. The business is driven by rumors, many of which are founded in truth, others of which are utterly fictitious.

Distinguishing between the two differentiates the good basketball Web sites from the bad sites.

But figuring out who is available is not rocket science if you speak to the right people, and I speak to a lot of plugged-in people on a regular basis.

Here is the latest they are telling me: The San Antonio Spurs are the front-runners to land Al Jefferson in a trade with the Utah Jazz – and they are frontrunners like Secretariat was in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.

Here’s why, followed by a how.

“Those teams are practically incestuous, they are on such good terms internally,” one NBA source told me Wednesday.

Indeed, Spurs assistant general manager Scott Layden left Utah prior to this season after spending several seasons as an assistant coach for the Jazz and joined R.C. Buford’s staff in San Antonio’s secrecy vault front office. Also, former Spurs assistant GM Dennis Lindsey is now doing the legwork for Utah’s grand pooh-bah, Kevin O’Connor.

The Jazz do not want to lose Jefferson for nothing when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer, and they have a former overall No. 3 pick, Enes Kanter, ready to step in and fill the void that would be left by Jefferson’s departure.

Yes, Jefferson makes them a better playoff team. But no, the Jazz are not fooling themselves into believing they are championship material at this point.

And if Dwight Howard is not available on the free agent market this summer, Jefferson immediately becomes the No. 1 center available.

So the time for the Jazz to move him is now, and the team with the biggest need for an upgrade at center is the Spurs. The inability to protect the rim was one of the prime reasons for their collapse in last year’s Western Conference finals when they had won 20 in a row and had a 2-0 lead on the Thunder, only to lose the next four.

Next: The Jazz need a point guard, and the Spurs have two of them not named Tony Parker. So you can expect Patty Mills (who Lindsey is familiar with and fond of) to be the preferable choice over Nando de Colo.

The Jazz also need some value coming back in this trade, and the Spurs have one last Eurostash asset in Erazem Lorbek, who has been profiled on this site by writer A.J. Mitnick.

Presumably they’d also ask for Tiago Splitter, because somebody would need to back up Kanter, and because Splitter is having an improved season in the year his contract expires – meaning Utah would not be taking on any long-term financial obligation.

San Antonio throws in Stephen Jackson for salary-matching purposes (almost an exact match), and voila. Captain Jack will love Salt Lake City, hunh?

http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2013/02/06/sheridan-al-jefferson-to-spurs/

[Blueintheface]

http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2013/02...rson-to-spurs/

So the time for the Jazz to move him is now, and the team with the biggest need for an upgrade at center is the Spurs. The inability to protect the rim was one of the prime reasons for their collapse in last year’s Western Conference finals when they had won 20 in a row and had a 2-0 lead on the Thunder, only to lose the next four.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Karl Malone says he'd work with the Jazz big men for free.

Unless you count wanted attention as pay. Then he wouldn't do it for free.

[Blueintheface]

Karl Malone says he'd work with the Jazz big men for free.

Unless you count wanted attention as pay. Then he wouldn't do it for free.

I don't mind if he imparts his wisdom I just don't want him making any decisions. What Karl Malone have did in the past should have done stayed in the past.

[smokymountainrain]

Karl Malone says he'd work with the Jazz big men for free.

Unless you count wanted attention as pay. Then he wouldn't do it for free.

Just teach them how to get to the FT line.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Just teach them how to get to the FT line.

Karl was a really good power forward, but I don't think he can switch out someone's uterus.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

When Mailman has made suggestions in the past about working with Jazz players I've always wondered, is he just looking for a foot in the coaching world door or does he really love the Jazz?

The sappy (not Paul) part of me that still has a Malone poster hanging in my garage wants to believe he loves the Jazz.

[smokymountainrain]

Karl was a really good power forward, but I don't think he can switch out someone's uterus.

A good point.

[MarkGrace]

G-Time is never coming back.

[smokymountainrain]

Invite Burks to the 3 pt contest!

[MarkGrace]

Man Henson is like the definition of string bean.

[MarkGrace]

Kanter and Favors beastin' the shit out of those waifs.

[smokymountainrain]

Kanter and Favors beastin' the shit out of those waifs.

Those two guys are so damn strong.