[唱衰] Buyer's Guide: Carlos Boozer

[CarlosBoozer (枷鎖一鍋籃框一鍋)]

Buyer's Guide: Carlos Boozer

Don't feel the need to correct anyone who slips and mistakenly calls the Duke
alumnus Carlos "Bruiser." That's actually an apt nickname that works on two
levels: Not only does Carlos Boozer punish opponents physically, he also
tends to get himself hurt -- a lot.

The big question surrounding Boozer this summer will be his durability going
forward. The 28-year-old's career has been littered with a variety of leg
injuries. All told, he's been placed on the injured list seven times since he
arrived in Utah six years ago, and he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his
left knee just 19 months ago.


A second-round pick, Boozer will go down as one of the greatest draft day
finds ever. He's one of just six active players to average 15 points and 10 
rebounds in four of their first eight seasons. The others? Shaquille O'Neal,
Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett and Elton Brand.

So will teams be willing to stomach the risk that comes with signing Boozer?

Given the ravenous buyer's market and Boozer's rare productivity on the
block, someone will likely fork over big money to land him. He's the most
talented and aggressive rebounder in the fruitful crop of free agent big men,
and he's a proven commodity as a nightly double-double.

From a scoring standpoint, Boozer is more versatile than he probably gets 
credit for. He can flush it with ease using either hand, and he's able to
stretch the offense with the occasional 18-footer. While the jump shot adds
another dimension, he punishes the defense most when he takes it to the rack.
According to Synergy, more than one-third of his scoring plays this past
season came from the pick-and-roll or through a cut rewarded with a feed from
Deron Williams. As a barrel-chested tank, Boozer is one of the best finishers 
off the pick-and-roll -- he converted 106 of his 168 attempts resulting from 
Jerry Sloan's signature play.

Fellow free agents (and competitors in the power forward class) David Lee and
Chris Bosh will likely sell themselves as unfinished products with room to
blossom, but teams won't have to pay an upside premium for Boozer.

"[Overpaying Lee and Bosh] won't be quite the same thing as when you grossly
overpay Boozer," one league executive said. "You know what Boozer is. He's a
really solid player. He does everything pretty well offensively and in the
post. He's going to offensive rebound. He'll do a lot of things that make
your team better, but he's also going to be injured a lot and he's not going
to be a terribly good defender. He is what he is."

Is Boozer really a net positive on the court? Not if you look at his
alarmingly dreadful plus/minus numbers the past couple years.

According to basketballvalue.com, the Jazz were nearly two points worse with
Boozer on the court over the past two seasons, even after adjusting for the
strength of his teammates and opponents. How could a 20-and-10 guy be a
detriment to his team? Well, don't forget that defense is half the game.

It's an irrefutable fact that the Jazz were better defensively without Boozer
this past season. The Jazz allowed six more points every 100 possessions 
while Boozer was on the court relative to when he sat the bench. His
offensive exploits failed to make up for his defensive deficiencies, as he
improved the Jazz's scoring by only four points -- a net margin of minus-two
points.

Boozer's ineffectiveness on the defensive end was often hard to notice
because of the ubiquitous security blanket that is Andrei Kirilenko.

"Boozer hasn't quite been exposed for as bad as he can be defensively because 
he's played with guys who cover up for him a lot," one Western Conference
executive said.

Another high-level league source agrees with the sentiment that Boozer
necessitates someone who can clean up his defensive messes.

"Boozer at least tries," the source said, "but players can get around him,
and he isn't a shot blocker."

Suitors have to hope the embarrassing failed rotations during the
second-round playoff matchup against the Lakers were an aberration, as Boozer 
hardly put a dent in the Lakers frontline. Championship teams need a
defensive anchor. Despite his lofty price tag, Boozer will never be that guy.

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT

The cases of Boozer and free agent companion Amare Stoudemire provide an
interesting conundrum for potential suitors to solve: How much of their
successes have been tied to their Hall of Fame-caliber point guards?

“


To be fair to Boozer, he certainly has flourished alongside Williams, but his
peak also coincided with the prime years of his career. What's more, he
established himself as a monster on the boards and an able scorer on the
block well before he teamed up with Sloan and Williams in Utah.

The key to maximizing Boozer's abilities will be pairing him up with an 
athletic big to clog the middle.

"He's not one of those guys that's gonna be very productive in a Boston
Celtics defensive scheme," said one league source, "because he's not going to
cover up for other people, but he's also not terribly long."

How does Boozer differ defensively from the other big men on the market?

"You need to pair him with a long athletic guy, whereas Lee and Stoudemire
are really much more limited to being on an up-tempo team, and they need
long, athletic defensive guys with them," the source said. "And Boozer can do
that for someone, and he's a space eater. He's a totally different cat."

Boozer will likely have to wait for Bosh and Stoudemire to sign before he
receives attention from teams desperate to add muscle inside as he's clearly
a notch below on the totem pole.

Few teams, if any, can provide a better environment for Boozer than his
former digs in Salt Lake City, especially if they select Greg Monroe or Cole
Aldrich with the ninth pick in the draft.

Pragmatic front offices will disentangle Boozer's intrinsic value from the
surroundings in Utah and establish a hard bidding offer that reflects his
worth, independent of Sloan and Williams. Teams caught in a bidding war would
be wise to consider the compatibility of their existing pieces.

Boozer would fit nicely alongside Nets 7-footer Brook Lopez, but it's tough
to imagine Boozer as the centerpiece of owner Mikhail Prokhorov's big splash
this summer. Furthermore, given the draft class and their position, the Nets
will probably look to the draft and the likes of DeMarcus Cousins or Derrick
Favors as their avenue to replenish the power forward slot. Then again, it's
possible they could hedge Boozer's injury risk by pairing him with a
developing Favors.

Another hot rumor has the Heat chasing Boozer to pair with Dwyane Wade. In
that scenario, he'd work well as a secondary option and could give Miami the
post scorer it needs to take some pressure off Wade. The move would make a
lot more sense if -- odd as it sounds -- the Heat are able to bring back
Jermaine O'Neal, who has even more injury issues, on the cheap. He's the type
of shot-blocking presence required next to Boozer.

In the end, there's a good chance someone will see Boozer as a 20-10 guy and
offer him $13 million to $15 million annually to quell the public backlash
after striking out on Bosh and Stoudemire. But rest assured, investing 
near-max money for an injury-riddled power forward with serious defensive 
weaknesses can have long-term, franchise-paralyzing effects.

Just ask Philadelphia about Elton Brand.



來源: ESPN Insider


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推 monmo:你有買Insider唷!? 至少要付個翻譯說明啦吼~~~~
推 MOTONARI:快推!不然會被人知道我看不懂!!
→ moamo:希望我看完Buzzer Beater時已經翻好了(茶)
推 stevenlovego:快推...不然別人就會知道我懶的看原文了
推 Actus:簡單說就是Boozer賣相沒表面上那麼好 因為 1.傷病史 2.防守
推 enemy:但是搭配一個有活動力的防守大個  能將Boozer能力發揮到極致
→ duke7814:籃網表示：剛好我們有 ya
推 Maxslack:他們有嗎 肉培茲防守也是頗爛...
推 aagun:么午有
推 flyintmtc:公牛的Noah防守的確不錯,滿拼的~
→ monmo:其實某程度Rose比較想用JJ是對的 Rose JJ Boozer Noah就超強
噓 gratitude:Boozer的問題不是簽約前...而是簽約後