Each offseason, every NBA team must separate its wants from its needs. The bad economy has made this distinction even more important this offseason. Franchises are expected to have less money than they typically do to spend on signing free agents and re-signing their own players, and most cannot afford to take a risk that doesn’t pan out.
The Utah Jazz need to re-sign Carlos Boozer should he follow through with his plans to opt out of his current contract. Not bringing him back would be too much of a risk. His skills are too special, and his ability to score in the post is too rare in today’s NBA to let him walk away.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of Boozer is his inability to play defense. It is a fair assessment. He’s terrible on the defensive side of the ball, but don’t get too carried away with the basketball proverb, “Defense wins championships.” There’s truth in it, for sure8212;often defense is what sets one team apart from another. It is a team’s offense, though, that gets it to that point where the defense can make such an impact. You can say what you want about the Boston Celtics’ defensive prowess last year, but the biggest reason they won the championship was that they had three big-time scorers8212;Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen8212;and timely offensive contributions from Leon Powe, James Posey and Rajon Rondo.
Don’t get me wrong8212;defense is important, and I find low-scoring games to be beautiful. But an adequate defensive team can win a championship. A merely adequate offensive squad struggles to make the playoffs. Boozer, like every other Jazz player, needs to improve his defense, but he doesn’t need to be a great defender. To help the Jazz be a contender, he only needs to continue to score 20 points per game and learn to make scoring in the low-post difficult for opponents, while occasionally coming up with huge stops at the end of games.
Should Boozer take his game elsewhere next year, his replacement is expected to be Paul Millsap, who took over the majority of Boozer’s minutes when he was injured last season. Millsap has proven himself to be a worker during his time with Utah, but so far he hasn’t shown the capacity to match the offensive output that Boozer provides, and his low-post capability is nothing more than below average. Millsap’s extended minutes this past season also exposed his Boozer-like defensive shortcomings.
Despite his cheaper price tag, Millsap is a bigger risk than Boozer. As hard as he works, his tenure in Utah hasn’t shown him to be an offensive force. Besides, Boozer was also once a second-round pick, hungry to prove he belonged in the NBA and was worthy of a hefty contract. In fact, there is speculation that Millsap was more fixated on achieving the statistics that would bring a big payday than on the success of the Jazz.
Yes, it would be nice if Boozer played defense with more purpose, wasn’t such an injury risk, had a personality that wasn’t so grating at times and did a better job at hiding his personal agendas. Having a Boozer with these turn-offs, though, is better than not having Boozer at all. Without him, playing and losing in the first round of the playoffs next year might be considered an accomplishment, not the disappointment it was this season.
For Utah, it’s worth giving Boozer the raise he is asking for if it means keeping him in a Jazz uniform.
Lee Horton