Someone we should make a run for...

Boozer was just too athletic in the post. If the Rockets won Game 7 @ home against the Jazz and advanced to the 2nd round, the Warriors would have ran Yao out of the building and Golden State would have made it to the WCF.

Boozer would be a godsend for this team, but he ain’t Nellie-friendly, and there’d be almost no way to get him here. We can’t sign him, as we have no cap room. We’d need to cobble together a package that the Jazz would like enough to work a sign-and-trade with us — that package would need to be more attractive than the cap space it’d displace. That’d be tough.

But, for the hell of it, let’s throw a trade together. Boozer will probably command a max contract or close to it, meaning $16 million a year. That means we’d need to work at least one big contract in there, if not two. The Jazz would have no interest in Stephen Jackson or Jamal Crawford, given their contracts (I don’t see Crawford opting out). We would probably have no interest in giving them Biedrins… it’d sort of defeat the purpose of adding Boozer to the frontcourt. The Jazz do like Corey Maggette to some degree — they were one of the teams who offered him their mid-level exception in the offseason — but I don’t know that they’d be interested in him at his current price. If anything, I’m guessing they’d prefer ‘Buike, who’s a slightly worse player but much cheaper.

The only big-contract guy that might make the Jazz think twice is Monta. The Jazz have a pretty damn good young backcourt already, but Monta might be better than anyone they could sign with their cap room in ‘10, if only because Utah’s such an unappealing destination for free agents. So what about, say, Boozer for Monta and Azubuike? (I don’t know if this would work cap-wise, but I think it’d be close.)

Does it work for us?

PG – Jamal Crawford
SG – Stephen Jackson
SF – Corey Maggette
PF – Carlos Boozer
C – Andris Biedrins

…with Wright, Turiaf, Randolph, Morrow, Harpring and Watson on the bench. Pretty interesting team. You’d still kind of want a pure point guard, but that’s a BIG team, with scoring galore and credible defense. Works for us, even if Nellie would hate it.

What would the Jazz look like?

PG – Deron Williams
SG – Monta Ellis
SF – Andrei Kirilenko
PF – Paul Millsap
C – Mehmet Okur

…with Brewer, Azubuike, Korver, Miles and Price on the bench. Would that be worth it for the Jazz? Mayyyybe. If they re-sign Okur, they probably won’t be real players in the 2010 FA market even after losing Boozer… maybe this is the best they could do. But they’d be starting Monta at the expense of Brewer, who matches up better with Williams on defense. It’s not a no-brainer for them. (Another option would be Monta/Maggette for Boozer/Harpring, but I just don’t see the Jazz biting on Maggette.)

This trade would require the Jazz getting desperate and Boozer wanting to play here, neither of which is likely. It’d require Nellie abandoning small-ball, which is even less likely. But would it be good for us? Sure.

….still nice to wish though.

get your hopes up for Lebron or Bosh. Boozer ain’t happening.

seriously it is. i dont know what our cap situation is but can we afford 15mil per for the next 2 years?