Due to some of the vagaries of the NBA trade market the Bulls have now become the Bizarro Jazz, which I think presents the question (not begs the question, that means something else) of which Jazz are better, especially due to the Jazz’s history with the Bulls. I have to say that I always loved the that Boozer and Brewer were really easy names to involve with drinking during Jazz games, often referring to our friends as the Brew Crew (yeah I know how frat douche that is) when going down to ESA.
I’m not going to do a position by position run down on this since it doesn’t really make sense since some of the players don’t really match up. It’s going to be more of an over all feel of the teams and what they can do and what the Jazz have lost and the bulls have gained.
To start out let me take a contradictory position to both some of my friends and the general consensus of fans around Utah about two players we lost, Boozer and Brewer. I have never really had the animus towards Boozer that most people have had, I think we had gotten so used to Karl Malone, who was in many ways the BEST power forward ever that we held Boozer up to a standard that he had no way of achieving. To think that Williams/Boozer only a few years into their carriers was going to match Stockton and Malone at the height of theirs is insane. Boozer certainly had a lot of problems, he was a terrible ball handler, dropping the ball I don’t know how many times in the paint, he was injured about 25% of the time and was a terrible defender; but he was also a 20 and 10 guy every night he played and had some real moments of brilliance.
Brewer was exactly the opposite, he was way over rated by most fans, mostly for being that Jerry Sloan kind of player, someone who played defense and didn’t open their mouths, like a good draft horse out on Jerry’s Illinois farm. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved Brewer, but wasn’t really too worried about him leaving, although athletic he couldn’t create off the dribble, he was a poor shooter, especially from 3 and while his passing lane defense was great, his on ball defense was not. Mathews, who is also gone at this point was much better at shutting down 2s, which is critical in this league and especially the west.
So what we have here is the Bulls picking up an often injured, but still all star caliber power forward and a shooting guard that can’t shoot. I don’t know how affective Boozer will be with Rose running the point, they certainly won’t be running the pick and roll offense and I think with Brewer as the 2 a lot of shots will come from Rose with minimal ball movement. The coaches obviously don’t even compare, so it’s hard to see how a very disciplined passing offense will be put into place in Chicago. Utah on the other hand still has Williams who knows the Sloan offense very well and I think Jefferson, if the knee is no longer a problem is even more well suited for that style offense with more size and frankly more desire to work with Williams in the offense.
I also think that Bell is much needed, especially with Korver gone, there needs to be two people that can stretch the floor and Bell is a much better range shooter than either Brewer or Mathews. He is also a much, much better on ball defender and that was something the Jazz really needed at the 2. Besides that he has more playoff experience and that killer attitude that everyone on the Jazz besides Williams has been lacking for the last 3 or 4 years. If Miles can continue to improve his long range game, the addition of Bell with Okur adding that unique big man 3 point option to stretch the floor in a unique way, especially if Jefferson can manage the key more affectively by himself, and Fez continues to improve this may be the Jazz team I have been wanting to see for a while now.
The Bulls also have Noah and Deng in the middle which I don’t think any of the Jazz’s big men can really compare to. The way those two rebound and fill out the key if impossible for Okur to match with his play style and Fez has a real long way to go to match them in any meaningful way. The real difference makers to me are going to be at the point and then defensively. It’s unfortunate that these two teams will only play twice this year because I think this would be a very interesting match up and have something to say about certain players and certain GM moves.
When does the hilarity ensue?
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