THIS TEAM HAS A FEVER AND THE ONLY Rx IS MORE COWBELL, I MEAN A TRADE

There once was this team that had a lot of talent, but they struggled to play consistent basketball.  They were meddling with a .500 record and following inspired wins with disappointing losses to inferior teams.  The stories about the team were about off the court controversies as much as the happenings of the previous game.  The star point guard was frustrated, especially with a disappointing loss to a very talented, but not invincible Boston Celtics team.

I am not talking about this current Jazz team.  I am talking about the Jazz team from the 2007-2008 season.

The Jazz need another facelift.  Joan Rivers does not.

On December 30, 2007, the Jazz had just lost to the eventual champion Boston Celtics at home and fell to a record of 16-16.  A fanbase was going crazy and the team seemed unable to figure out how to win.  Just a week prior, the stories were as much about Jerry Sloan’s sideline dispute with Gordan Giricek, as they were about the game.  The Jazz had just lost disappointing road games to Charlotte, Atlanta and Miami.

And then everything was okay.  The Jazz made a trade for Kyle Korver and the rest is history.  The Jazz went on a ridiculous streak winning 17 of 19 games and finishing the season going 38-12 for the 50 games after acquiring Korver.  This Jazz team is really, eerily similar to that team from 2007 and like that team needs a trade to get the heart pumping blood again.  I am not usually one for dramatic reactions.  I have never called for Sloan’s head.  I don’t even remember saying that Giricek needed to be traded as much as just thinking that he needed to sit on the bench a bit more often.  But I have known and still know that this current team needs a facelift right now.

Cases in point:  This team doesn’t win, on the road or at home.  They don’t play efficient defense.  They don’t play efficient offense anymore either.  I do believe that the returns of CJ Miles and Kyle Korver are going to help quite a bit.  But they aren’t going to improve this team enough.  Maybe they will squeak into the playoffs.  But this team needs a trade and everybody knows it.  Go read every NBA analysts breakdown of the Jazz.  They are rated as average unless they can trade Carlos Boozer.  I don’t want to pile it on Carlos Boozer.  He knows that he needs to win the fanbase back.  He wants to play good basketball.  He is trying so hard right now to play well.  And the last couple of games, he has.  But he needs a change as much as the Jazz need a change.

To prove my case further, I will draw upon some numbers and stats that surprised me a great deal.  These numbers are from the 2007-2008 season, but the results are similar to results that continued on in 2008-2009 and so far this year.  What exactly changed about the Jazz after the Korver trade?  Korver scored about 4 more points/per 36 minutes than Giricek did that year, but that isn’t the only thing that happened.  But let me summarize what did happen before I pull out the non-fancy stat charts.  Basically, the more efficient offensive Jazz players got more shots per 36 minutes and less efficient offensive players shot less.  When I have heard what Kyle Korver did for the Jazz, the pat answer comes out: “he spread the defense so that there was more room to operate in the lane.”  And if you asked how Korver helped Boozer, you will hear that Korver gave Boozer “room to operate down low” or some version of that.  But what Korver actually did for Boozer was take his number of shots away.  I proceed to the charts.

GP      Mins       PPG       APG       RPG      Shots/game       FG %

Deron Williams

-Before Korver trade

32        37         19.4         8.9        3.1            14.2              50%

-After Korver trade

50        36         18.5        11.5       2.9            13.2             51.7%

Carlos Boozer

-Before Trade

31       35.5       24.2        3.1        11.4           18.2             55%

-After Trade

49       34.5       19.6        2.7       10.0          14.6              46%

Mehmet Okur

-Before Trade

25      30.2        11.4        2.2        5.1            10.4             38%

-After Trade

48      34.9        15.9        1.9        8.9           12.0              47%

Ronnie Brewer

-Before Trade

32       30.2       12.9        2.2        2.8            9.0               52%

-After Trade

44       25.5       11.4         1.3        2.9            7.9                57%

Andrei Kirilenko

-Before Trade

31        34          11.6        4.9         6.1            8.5               46%

-After Trade

43       27.1       10.0       3.2         3.5            6.5                54%

Did you see what I saw in those stats?  There was only one player out of the main 6 contributors to the team that season that played worse after Korver came to the team.  Deron Williams scored a little less in the same playing time, but he also increased his assists by nearly 3 a game and shot a better field goal percentage.   Mehmet Okur was the biggest benefactor from Korver’s arrival.  I am not sure why.  But he shot the ball much, much better and took more shots a game.  He is the only Jazz player who increased his shots per game after the trade.  Not surprisingly, Andrei Kirilenko and Ronnie Brewer took the biggest hits in minutes played, but they both were much more efficient offensively after the trade.  They improved.

But Carlos Boozer’s numbers are staggering to me.  He was simply ripping it up before the trade averaging essentially a 24 and 12 in the 32 games before Korver came to town.  But guess what?  The Jazz weren’t winning games before the trade.  In fact, Boozer is the only Jazzman who decreased in offensive production efficiency after Korver’s arrival.  What happened to having more room to operate?  Boozer shot a much worse percentage and scored 5 less points a game in one less minute of play. And most tellingly, he played the same amount of time, but shot 22% less shots a game.   He took 4 less shots a game.   To sum up the Jazz’s offense in one sentence, “the Jazz got better offensively when Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams stopped shooting and scoring so much.”  Deron Williams would be the first to tell you that the Jazz are better when he doesn’t have to score.  But would you have guessed that Carlos Boozer’s volume of shots hurts the Jazz offense?

You can point out Carlos Boozer’s defensive flaws and most have.  But you could also argue that Carlos Boozer can really hurt the Jazz’s offense, even when it appears that he is being a great offensive force.  That’s what I am arguing.  Because truthfully, Carlos Boozer isn’t an efficient offensive player.  He’s a great defensive rebounder, but not efficient offensively.  In short, the reason for this is that Boozer takes a lot of long 2-point shots, the most inefficient shot in basketball, and he doesn’t shoot a lot of free throws per shot attempts.   And just for fun, go check out how many shots Paul Millsap takes inside of 5 feet and how many Boozer takes from the same range.  And then ask yourself, “if I am guarding a power forward in the NBA, would I rather guard someone who is going to take a jumper of some sort, or someone who might go right to the rim?”  Just some food for thought.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, because Boozer has been fantastic the last couple of games in Philadelphia and Cleveland.  He took good shots and attacked the basket and played passable defense even.  But more often than not, Carlos Boozer hurts the Jazz offense.  I am not saying that if Boozer has a “big game” offensively, the Jazz aren’t going to win.  But the next time that Boozer puts up big numbers, go check out how many shots it took him to get those points.  And more importantly, look at the scoreboard.

When was the last time the Jazz were truly great at basketball?  Right after making a midseason trade.  I think it is time to recreate that magic that made the Jazz darkhorse contenders in the 2008 playoffs.