More trade chatter fodder

Some compare Okur’s shooting abilities to that of Sam Perkins, but Okur doesn’t have Perkins’ wingspan.

I promised that leading up to the trade deadline, I was going to start rumor after rumor about possible trade ideas involving Jazzmen.  I must point out the fact that I am not just doing lipservice.  I believe these trades will better the team.  No one on the Jazz has been safe this season other than Deron Williams and Paul Millsap.  Today’s proposed trade:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yl8gc6u 

I am hanging Okur out to dry a bit.  I love Mehmet Okur.  Great guy.  Special shooter.  He plays great low post defense against other low post players like Andrew Bynum and Yao Ming.  He can’t guard the rim against anybody who isn’t his man though.  I attribute this to his small wingspan.  But the nail in Okur’s coffin isn’t really his fault, but it is still true:  He can’t really coexist with Carlos Boozer.  Neither of them have shot blocking abilities and as we have seen this season, there just isn’t room for both of them in the post offensively.  Having Boozer makes things difficult for Okur.  You only have to shoot 44% from the 3 point line for half a season before teams start putting smaller, quicker defenders on you.  So this season the Jazz haven’t received tons of defensive OR offensive help from the Turk with the smokin’ hot wife.  He is shooting 2 less shots a game and scoring nearly 5 points less.  This is part of the reason that the Jazz offense has been less potent than a couple of seasons ago with the same cast of characters. 

On the flipside, who is the most potent offensive force in the league who is available in a trade? In a couple of weeks, it might be Kevin Martin.  It looks like he is trying to play himself out of Sacramento.  But the Kings maintain that today he is not available.  So the answer to the question is Corey Maggette.  The guy is incredibly efficient offensively.  If you have ever read this blog, you know how much I covet Maggette’s abilities and think he would fit perfectly on the Jazz.  Would the Warriors want Mehmet Okur?  I am not sure.  But Okur is a good post player, especially when he isn’t surrounded by other offensive post players.  He can still shoot the rock and since the Warriors are playing Maggette, Radmanovich and Devean George significant minutes at the power forward position.  I actually get the feeling that Okur would play really well and fit almost perfectly with the W’s. 

The real hiccup in the deal is what the Jazz would do to fill Mehmet Okur’s 30 minutes a game.  I don’t want to replace those minutes with Kyrylo Fesenko, only.  But I believe that the Jazz could start big Fes and give him 10-15 minutes.  I believe that AK could play a little bigger for 5 minutes a game and that Millsap and Boozer could play together for 5-10 more minutes a game.  Add the minutes that Maggette would be getting at the wing position and Okur’s minutes would be easy to replace.  The Jazz would probably be an equally good defensive team and a much improved offensive team, especially if Maggette continued to be an offensive force off the bench.  Financially, the trade makes sense.  The Jazz would be trading Mehmet Okur’s 2 years, $21 million for Maggette’s 3 years, $30.8 million.  The Jazz would only be responsible for an extra year and $10 million.  I don’t care what the economy is like in 2012, that is not a killer contract.  Golden State on the other hand, picks up a nice player and cuts that last year and $10 million they don’t need to pay while not contending.