Just to expand…

…on #4 of yesterday’s Odds and Ends (figured I better get this out ASAP given Greg Miller’s tweet below and everyone and their mom saying the Jazz have acquired Al Jefferson):

First, let’s go back a few weeks in time. When asked for their reaction to Carlos Boozer signing with the Chicago Bulls, Kevin O’Connor and Jerry Sloan both talked about their confidence in Paul Millsap’s ability to start, and noted that they had Andrei, who’d made the All-Star team while playing a lot of 4, to back him up. In the same breath, however, KOC talked about finding someone to back Millsap up.

O’Connor on Wednesday said the Jazz would seek someone to back up Millsap…”We’ll look for a player that can help us win games,” he said, “and it doesn’t have to be somebody that scores 20 points.”
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“You know,” O’Connor said, “Andrei made the All-Star team (in 2004) playing 4 at lot of time.” (desnews)

Sloan, reiterating what general manager Kevin O’Connor suggested earlier in the week, indicated that usual starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko should plan on playing much more power forward in 2010-11. “I think there will be opportunities for him to play there,” Sloan said. “When John and Karl left, he played some 4 then. And he had a pretty good year, played pretty well.”
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In any event, Sloan said, Kirilenko will “probably get a lot more opportunities.” (desnews)

If the Jazz have really traded for Al Jefferson, then this is where I stopped giving the Front Office the benefit of the doubt. I was so happy when Boozer signed with the Bulls because it was the start of a new era for us. We were moving ahead with a roster of hustle guys that will make basketball fun to watch (for me at least).

Signing Al Jefferson puts us back on the same boat as we were before (no defense, overpaid, injury-prone), and it so feels like a reactionary plug-the-hole-in-boat move resulting from panic that so many free agents have already signed with other teams. Sometimes, you need to take the boat apart and figure out why it keeps cracking in the same spot, rather than gluing it back together and hoping that it doesn’t fall apart again.

Additional note: As an AK fan, it almost seems like the Jazz refuse to put him in a position to succeed. He makes the All-Star and All-Defense team at the 4; they go out and sign Boozer to start at the 4. Years later, Boozer is gone and AK gets the chance to return to his strength backing up Millsap…and the Jazz go out and get Al Jefferson? (The same argument could actually also be made for Millsap.)

I would totally love to a fly on the wall in Paul Millsap’s house right now…

Then again, there are also some “sources” out there saying that the Mavs are super close to signing Jefferson, so who knows…