Less Means More
‘Brady: A Team Mentality’ (Associated Press)
Gilbert Arenas did it; well maybe not as remarkable as he may believe.
Tom Brady did it. I think Peyton Manning did it.
And I’m pretty sure Stockton did it.
What did they do? They all signed contracts for less money so that the team could surround them with players they needed to remain top-tier contenders. Why do I bring this up? Well simple really: Deron Williams is in the champagne room talking contracts and word on the street is that he is concerned about what the Jazz will do to make the team better. Will they be locking people down for long term commitments? Will they be luring Free Agents in? - Can they lure Free Agents in with their payroll numbers being as they are?
People talk luxury tax; next year I think the number of people on the roster that will be currently signed is something like 10 people at 71 million dollars - right at the luxury tax threshold. Something’s gotta give.
Will D-will do the honorable thing here and take less money so that he can be on a legitimate title contender? Face it the Jazz are one piece away from being the Boston Celtics; they were one 3-ball away from taking it to game 7 with the Lakers - the eventual Western Conference Representatives.
A nagging question the little voice in my head keeps asking is: “is Deron trying to get the team to move certain non-functional parts to gain some proper role players and stars?” - you all know who they are, and everyone has a list that they think should be shipped.
Really this brings me back to a fellow bloggers post awhile back entitled “Anyone Wanna Trade” - it’s exactly what we’ve gotta do to keep Deron happy I’m thinking.
In the meantime I’d like to remind Deron that $4 million dollars a year is a lot of money. It will buy you everything you need. You can live comfortably. You just can’t buy the Bentley with the gold trim just yet… but it will come soon enough…
11 Comments to “Less Means More”
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I disagree, he could probably lace himself with a Bentley with platinum trim for under 4 million.
Just to clarify, he could by upward of 3 of the most expensive cars in the world for under 4 million. Google: most expensive cars.
Bentley doesn’t even crack that list.
Kind of missing the point with the car comments don’t you think?
I’m not really worried about Deron at this point. We are going to pay what it takes to keep him in Utah. Though I hate to admit it, we are much more likely to lose Boozer. He is the one that I think will need to be willing to take less money (AK47 too of course).
What does everyone else think?
Time to start begging
I think we should actually be looking to trade Boozer and AK47. They are playing well at the moment and we can probably get one great player for two good ones. They may not stay at this level for long; I say we make the move while we can.
Meh, they’re just comments.
if only someone would take on AK’s contract. its pretty ugly.
we’d have to throw in our first round pick to sweeten the deal.
as for boozer; it would be nice if he’d take less $$$; same with Memo for that matter - as they are both due at the end of this season for some major choices in concerns with their career at Utah.
But what if Deron leads the pack by showing them how to man-up? Leadership: it has it’s priveledges.
If DWill takes anything significantly less than what Chris Paul got, he’s getting @#$%*. From everything I hear, he loves Utah (which is refeshing). But any player that makes a commitment to the Jazz already makes huge sacrifices–endorsement/marketing money is crumbs here compared to the big market teams, and the Jazz don’t get the tv exposure that the more nationally popular teams get. I say DWill should get a contract comparable to Paul and the Jazz front office will have to find some way to make do with what’s left. The Jazz don’t need any draft picks for the next couple of years, especially because they won’t be in the lottery. No reason to keep the 1st round pick if they are just going to draft shooting guard #5 or big, tall 7ft. guy #4. DWill is a top-3 PG in this league right now (I personally can’t think of a PG anywhere that is better for the Jazz right now and in the future), and the Jazz should pay him as such.
This wouldn’t even be an issue if the Jazz hadn’t put all of their eggs into AK’s basket several years ago. That contract, and not DWill’s, will hamstring the Jazz in the years to come.
As for Booz and Memo, I think that the Jazz will be forced to choose between them. I say hold on to Booz (other than a handful of NBAers who are already locked up to long term deals, where are the Jazz going to find someone that can score and rebound like him? Not going to happen). I love Memo, and he’s earned every bit of his salary here; but with Koufos in the wings, the Jazz can replace his production with a cheaper alternative.
With DWill/Price running the point, Brewer/Korver/Almond at the 2, AK’s corpse/Harpring’s replacement at 3, Booz/Millsap at 4, and Koufos/Fesenko at 5, the Jazz should have a nice rotation in two years. It may not get them to the championship, but how many teams that aren’t willing to go over the luxury tax threshold will really have a legitimate shot at that anyway? They will certainly be fun to watch and successful.
How much money does one person think he is worth nowdays with the economy the way it is. People starving in order to have medicine and we are talking millions for a person to do a job he loves to do. The world is a little screwed up!!
Aaron - I hear ya, its not his contract that will be the thorn in our side at all. But i wonder if they will try to put some clauses in there (that he will definately earn) to keep it lower on the payroll - stuff like … oh i don’t know.. a D-Will Toyota dealership.
remember they did that for Karl and Johnny-boy to keep payroll low and bring in some other talent - why not now?
I guess I should re-frame my comments about DWill’s contract status. He deserves what Paul got; that doesn’t mean I want him to take that much money, obviously (maybe if he takes less it’ll mean that he will forever play with a chip on his shoulder against Paul and continually dominate him as he has done so far…). I just hope that the Jazz front office puts the decision in his hands. If he feels like he needs max money, then O’Connor needs to give him max money and figure out a way to continue building the team around him. O’Connor’s been imaginative before, he can do it again…
The best case scenario would be for a Russian team to throw lots of money at AK and convince him to jump ship–how nice would that be?!? Not going to happen, obviously, but it sure would be nice. How great would it have been to have participated in the Maggette sweepstakes this summer?? (the Jazz could have paid Maggette more than the Warriors and STILL would have had 5-6 $mil available)
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