Trade Target: Nick Collison

[coyotes_geek]

hmm, I don't see it that way. if healthy they are one of the best frontcourt tandems in the league. if the Jazz can somehow re sign Millsap for a reasonable price, they will have a big rotation that is as good as any in the league. If it doesn't work, either Boozer and Okur will be very valuable trading chips at deadline.
considering the Jazz are closer to being contenders than to rebuilding, this isn't a bad situation. and next season they will also know better what they can expect from Koufos and let Okur walk, if Koufos is ready.
so IMO they are not screwed. in fact their overall situation looks pretty good.
(of course, assuming they are willing to pay some lux tax)

Boozer and Okur staying pushes Utah's payroll into the $72 mil range. That's without Milsap. It remains to be seen what kind of offers Milsap will get, but I'd think he won't have any trouble getting >MLE. That's pushing Utah up near $80 mil. Are they really willing to pay that much for a team that would still be in the second or third tier of western conference playoff teams?

[mountainballer]

Boozer and Okur staying pushes Utah's payroll into the $72 mil range. That's without Milsap. It remains to be seen what kind of offers Milsap will get, but I'd think he won't have any trouble getting >MLE. That's pushing Utah up near $80 mil. Are they really willing to pay that much for a team that would still be in the second or third tier of western conference playoff teams?

no. but they will have plenty of time to find out. they can solve the tax problem at deadline and I have no doubt that they could find a taker for Okur (in a dump move) at that point.
I don't think they would match a max offer for Millsap (which he won't get anyhow). I can see that Millsap gets a 5years/40-45 million offer, significantly better than MLE, but not out of this world. I think the Jazz would match, start the new season with Okur, Boozer and Millsap and then trade Okur at deadline, if they don't see the chance to really compete with the Lakers and Spurs.

[Mel_13]

no. but they will have plenty of time to find out. they can solve the tax problem at deadline and I have no doubt that they could find a taker for Okur (in a dump move) at that point.
I don't think they would match a max offer for Millsap (which he won't get anyhow). I can see that Millsap gets a 5years/40-45 million offer, significantly better than MLE, but not out of this world. I think the Jazz would match, start the new season with Okur, Boozer and Millsap and then trade Okur at deadline, if they don't see the chance to really compete with the Lakers and Spurs.

To solve the tax problem at the trade deadline they will need to trade him to a team with 9M in cap space or a trade exception. There might not be any such team available at the deadline. If there is only one left, they will get bent over the same way Phoenix did with KT and have to pay with future 1st rounders to get the contracts off their books. Remember that Utah owns New York's unprotected first rounder in 2010. They probably want to avoid being in a position where they have to choose between keeping the pick or exceeding budget by 10-15M.

[coyotes_geek]

Not to mention that Okur is probably the guy they should look to hang onto if they're going to lock Milsap up long term. Boozer and Milsap, while both fine players, aren't exactly compatible in terms of being able to use them together on the same front line. Okur-Milsap is a much more functional front court.

[mountainballer]

Not to mention that Okur is probably the guy they should look to hang onto if they're going to lock Milsap up long term. Boozer and Milsap, while both fine players, aren't exactly compatible in terms of being able to use them together on the same front line. Okur-Milsap is a much more functional front court.

agree about this. (I thought Okur because of a possible development from Koufos).
Milsap plus Boozer is not the best fit.
but let's play it the other way. if this was the Spurs, wouldn't you also hope that they match a Milsap offer, go into the season and then see how things go on? I would, so why do we care more about the money of the Jazz than of the Spurs? (and no, I'm not wishing to have their problem)