I’ve listened to a lot of the absolutely great sports radio we have around here in regards to the Jazz and their moves this off season and free agency, it seems to mostly be at the level of two guys at a bar and by bar I mean Lumpy’s. Not that Monson and Kyle and all these other guys don’t know the players and don’t have a rudimentary understanding of sports, but the lack of discussion of the operating aspects of professional teams is astonishing. And while I haven’t been paying too close attention to the Jazz blogs, which I probably should do I have heard no mention of salary, contract length or the CBA.
While I have no problem with letting Boozer and Korver and Mathews go in principle and also very much like the pick up of Bell (Jefferson is probably a wash for Boozer and I always have concerns about knee problems) it wasn’t until listening to Simmons a week ago that the moves really started to seem excellent to me. While I don’t have the time or even care to go spelunking through the sewer that is the current CBA like the Sports Guy does so that I can faux GM every trade possibility out there, nor do I think that the new CBA will be the nuclear bomb option that he seems to think it is, I do take these into account and believe that the business side is as critical as the actual game being played on the floor.
Because of this I really like both of these pick ups, not just for the money savings, which is very important, but because both of these contracts are at least two years shorter than what would have been needed to secure the current players. Not only does this prevent a mistake from being on the books as long, but doesn’t saddle the Jazz with a long term contract that may be way over priced when the new CBA is negotiated, looking at you Hawks!
Two years from now when there is a whole new CBA, there could be players available at prices that we can’t even imagine now and having the flexibility to get them, while still maintaining a competitive team for this season and the next two might just be what it takes to put the Jazz in a realistic position to be a contender.
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