Utah tells Dallas: Boozer better than tax relief

[RonnieBrewer (Reverse Dunk)]

Utah tells Dallas: Boozer better than tax relief

By Marc Stein 

Utah general manager Kevin O'Connor loudly insisted Monday that those of us
who presume that the Jazz will do anything they can to get under the luxury-tax
line between now and June 30 have it way wrong.

The Dallas Mavericks got the same message when they tested Utah's resolve
early last week.

The Mavs made a long-shot attempt to convince Utah to part with Carlos Boozer
by proposing an all-about-money trade that would have provided the Jazz with
another sizable chunk of payroll relief to follow up the significant savings
from their recent swap with Oklahoma City, ESPN.com has learned.

Yet sources close to the situation say that the Jazz weren't about to be
tempted.

Using Drew Gooden's partially guaranteed contract and two players it wound up
trading to the New Jersey Nets days later – Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams
– Dallas could assemble a package of contracts high enough to reach the salary
range of Boozer's $12.3 million expiring contract to make the trade math work
... but low enough to net an initial savings of $2.5 million for the Jazz.

Waiving Gooden before last Wednesday -- which was the last day he could be
released and still clear waivers -- would have then sliced another $2.6 million
from Utah's payroll to essentially take the Jazz out of tax territory. It's
believed that the Mavericks also would have been prepared to throw in some cash
to help offset the $3.2 million due to Humphries next season.

The Jazz, though, have been telling teams for months that they won't give
Boozer away. A recent slump that dragged its record to 19-17 before Saturday's
thumping win over the Mavs in Dallas apparently hasn't changed that stance.

As noted in this cyberspace when Eric Maynor and retirement-bound Matt Harpring
were dealt to the Thunder in December -- which sliced its luxury-tax bill this
season from $12.6 million to a much more manageable $4.8 million -- Utah set
itself up to be a lot more choosy when such attempts to steal Boozer inevitably
rolled in.

Since the summer we've heard repeatedly that the Jazz want at least one keeper
in return in addition to payroll relief if they're going to consent to a
Boozer deal. And that was when their luxury-tax bill was going to approach $13
million.

Now?

ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard reported Monday night that Jazz coach
Jerry Sloan is hoping any decision about Boozer’s future is put off until
free agency starts July 1. 

Sloan's superiors might ultimately decide they want to move Boozer before the
Feb. 18 trading deadline, but they certainly don't have to if. Instead they
might deem a tax payment in July in the $5 million range – even though that's
way more tax than the Jazz want to pay – to be a one-season hit they can
absorb to let the current group finish the season.

O'Connor tried to get that across in Monday’s media session when he said:
“I think you guys are so focused on the luxury tax. We're not.” The Salt Lake
Tribune's ever-sharp Ross Siler also quoted O'Connor as saying that the Jazz
are not determined to getting under the luxury-tax threshold “at all costs.”

Only that sort of mentality would have led Utah to seriously consider this
offer from the Mavs, who are presumed to be out of any upcoming Boozer bidding
now.

They're no longer in a position to pitch the same sort of payroll-relief
package because Humphries and Williams became Nets property as of Monday and
since Gooden's $4.5 million expiring contract became guaranteed Jan. 10.

Offering one of its core pieces for Boozer, meanwhile, would appear to make
little sense for Dallas. Erick Dampier and Josh Howard both possess what amount
to expiring contracts, since neither's salary is guaranteed in 2010-11, but how
could the Mavs part with either one for Boozer when – before we even get to
the basketball concerns – they'd have no guarantee of re-signing the free
agent-to-be this summer?

The idea that Gooden would be the best player Dallas surrenders in a Boozer
swap is one thing. Given Utah's need to immediately release Gooden to maximize
its savings, there might even have been a chance to re-sign Gooden after a
30-day wait.

A hypothetical Howard-for-Boozer swap, by contrast, would obviously force
Dallas to surrender one of its two best trade chips for a player who – even if
everything clicked offensively – would make the Mavs defensively vulnerable if
they tried to finish games with a frontcourt tandem of Boozer and Nowitzki.




http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/
12243/utah-tells-dallas-boozer-better-than-tax-relief 

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