If the Jazz Drafted Evan Turner!

In my previous post I talked about the Jazz odds of getting the 1st pick and said if they did that they should select Evan Turner. I am going to continue day dreaming on this really happening and figuring out what the Jazz roster would look like in 2 years.




Since we would add Evan Turner that would give the Jazz the option with Wes Matthews. What I mean by that is they can trade CJ Miles either as a salary dump or to pick up a big man; which, will create the money needed to sign Matthews. If they trade Miles it would be for a big... Maybe someone in a contract year like Jason Boone from the Nets or maybe the Magic will want to reduce their pay roll and trade Marcin Gortat.







Keep in mind this would all work to setup for a great team in 2 years. Next season we would be fighting to make the playoffs and that is about it. The reason for this being 2 years and not 1 is because we owe Andrei Kirilenko $17,822,187!!! The good news though is that AK's contract is up after next season. That means the Jazz will be roughly $20 million under the salary cap!! Meaning we can sign a big time player.







Here is some of the players that are going to be unrestricted free agent next year (that are bigs): Kendrick Perkins, Troy Murphy, Samuel Dalembert, Reggie Evans. Also Nene Hilario will also be if his early termination clause is excised. The list that is more interesting is the restricted free agents! Restricted means that the team has the right to match any offer signed within 7 days for that given player. The names on that list follows: Al Horford, Brandan Wright, Jonas Jerebko, Marc Gasol, Jason Smith, Greg Oden, Spencer Hawes, Joakim Noah. The Jazz in the past have tried their luck with restricted free agents over unrestricted. Examples: Jason Terry, Corey Maggette, Mehmet Okur, and Carlos Boozer. Look for the Jazz to do the same here. I think the Jazz would try for Marc Gasol or Joakim Noah.







It might work for the Jazz to land Marc Gasol seeing that Memphis drafted Hasheem Thabeet a 7 ' 3" monster this past year. They could look to insert Thabeet to the starting line up in 2 years and not be willing to pay Gasol $10 million plus a season. I do not see the Bulls allowing Noah to leave unless the financial cannot match the offer.







So in 2 years the Jazz starting lineup could be:








PG, Deron Williams


SG, Wes Matthews


SF, Evan Turner


PF, Paul Millsap


C, Marc Gasol








I love this lineup! The Jazz would have to go scorers in Williams and Turner. This would also take pressure off of Millsap and Gasol on the scoring end. What do you think? Good? Bad?