Utah Jazz GM O'Connor must get it right this time

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Utah Jazz GM O'Connor must get it right this time

By Gordon Monson Tribune Columnist
May. 23, 2009 12:00 AM

Kevin O'Connor is piloting the Jazz into and through one of their most
important offseasons ever. Half the team could leave, including some of its
key players. Over the past three postseasons, the Jazz have regressed, from
the Western Conference finals to the semifinals to first-round elimination
this year, after an alarming collapse in the last few weeks of the regular
season.

It's left to O'Connor, then, with considerable input from Jerry Sloan, who
Larry Miller once said is actually just as powerful, if not more, than
O'Connor in Jazz dealings, to make the right moves at a critical juncture.

In tough economic times, fans are watching, wondering if they should buy or
renew season tickets, or tickets of any kind, whether the Jazz will be bold
in securing talent in their alleged quest for a championship. Or whether
they'll play it safe, satisfying themselves from a business standpoint by
putting another good-but-not-great team on the floor, all while they rocket
toward the luxury-tax realm, a legitimate title shot still nowhere in sight.

Right now, O'Connor's not saying much about the specific direction the Jazz
are headed. All anybody has in the way of indicators regarding the future is
his track record over the past decade, a span when he bridged the gap between
the Stockton-and-Malone years and whatever it is the Jazz are now.

The club's severe rebuilding swoon was relatively brief, crumbling from 55
wins in 1999-2000 to 44 wins in 2001-02 to 42 wins in 2003-04 to 26 wins in
2004-05. Thereafter, the Jazz climbed back to 41, 51, 54, and 48 wins.

The personnel moves pulled by O'Connor on his watch have been mostly tepid,
rarely dramatic, with the exception of one summer five years ago, when, by
his standards, he went berserk. O'Connor showed up for an unscheduled visit
at Miller's office -- which Larry said almost never happened -- and that
surprise resulted in the Jazz acquiring Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur.

But let's look for hints chronologically.

After O'Connor was named vice president of Basketball operations in August,
1999, the Jazz promptly signed Olden Polynice to a two-year contract. They
also signed Pete Chilcutt and Armen Gilliam.

The following year, O'Connor selected prep star DeShawn Stevenson in the
first round of the draft. He subsequently signed John Starks and John Crotty 
to two-year contracts. He also signed Danny Manning and acquired Donyell
Marshall via trade.

In 2001, O'Connor made a major mistake in drafting point guard Raul Lopez 
instead of Tony Parker, a move that is said to have been an economic decision,
considering Lopez would not immediately come from Spain to play for the Jazz.
O'Connor followed that by signing John Amaechi to a four-year deal. Not good.
He also signed Andrei Kirilenko, who was drafted by Scott Layden, to a
three-year contract.

The next offseason, O'Connor drafted Ryan Humphrey and Jamal Sampson and
traded their rights to Orlando for the just drafted Curtis Borchardt. The
Stanford big man was damaged goods, a wasted pick. O'Connor also signed
Jarron Collins, Calbert Cheaney, Matt Harpring, Carlos Arroyo, Scott Padgett,
Lopez, and Mark Jackson to deals, Harpring becoming the only real success in
that bunch. Within a few months, both Lopez and Borchardt underwent major
surgeries.

In 2003, O'Connor drafted Sasha Pavlovic and Mo Williams, each of whom turned
out to be good players, especially Williams, but the Jazz subsequently let
both players get away -- Pavlovic left unprotected in an expansion draft and
Williams signed by the Bucks. Big oops. Amid a swirl of other minor deals,
O'Connor also signed Raja Bell and Mikki Moore. He acquired what could yet be
a significant gain -- in the Knicks' first-round pick in the 2010 draft. He
also traded Stevenson for Gordan Giricek.

O'Connor took a double-hit in 2004 when he drafted Kris Humphries with the
14th overall pick and Kirk Snyder with the 16th. Both were awful and neither
lasted. He made it a triple-bad when he re-signed Arroyo to a four-year
contract. O'Connor also re-signed Giricek to a four-year deal.

He made the aforementioned strong moves to sign free agents, Boozer and Okur,
and followed with a max multi-year deal for Kirilenko, blowing the Jazz's
stockpile of cash in the process. The huge extension to Kirilenko has put the
Jazz in a financial mess since.

In 2005, O'Connor made what might have been his best move with the Jazz, and,
yet, it ended up being controversial. He jumped up three spots in the draft,
from No. 6 to No. 3, swinging a deal with Portland, to pick Deron Williams.
In doing so, he left Chris Paul on the board, spawning an argument that
persists, still. At least it was a bold, purposeful move, something that is
rare in O'Connor's tenure. A stupid move, a move that underscored the Jazz's
inept drafting, came a couple of months later, when the Jazz traded away
three former first-round picks in a deal that landed them a useless retread:
Greg Ostertag.

O'Connor had two draft successes in 2006, taking Ronnie Brewer with the 14th
pick in the first round and Paul Millsap with the 47th overall selection. He
also traded for Derek Fisher, a deal that worked out nicely for the Jazz for
one season -- until the guard asked to be released supposedly because of his
daughter's illness.

Morris Almond was taken with the Jazz's first pick in the 2007 draft. The
rights to Kyrylo Fesenko were also secured. Ronnie Price was signed to a
multi-year deal. And O'Connor picked up Kyle Korver in a trade.

Last year, O'Connor took Kosta Koufos in the first round of the draft, also
signing Williams to an important contract extension. He got Brevin Knight in
a trade, and matched restricted free agent C.J. Miles' bigger-than-expected
offer from Oklahoma City, a move to forget.

And that's it.

Evaluating O'Connor's decisions could be done thusly: He's cautious. He's
orchestrated a lot of moves that haven't made much of a difference. And he's
made a few that have profoundly affected the franchise. He's alternately
thrown away money and squeezed nickels. He's drafted poorly and smartly.

Now, with the Jazz on the brink of significant transition, with their
respected longtime owner gone, with opt-outs and free agents springing loose,
with a need for a competitive boost against a conference growing stronger
with talented, young teams, with the Jazz's cap crunched, O'Connor will have
to be at his best, he'll have to be right this summer, he'll have to step up
and take risks. He cannot shrink away.

If he does, if he embraces the status quo or fumbles and bumbles around, and
the record shows it could go either way, he'll do more than lose games and
ground against the West. He'll lose credibility with the people who matter
most: his customers, his team's fans.



                                http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9605768 

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推 amox:Raul Lopez、Borchardt、Kirk Snyder換Ostertag..有差嗎
推 species:是沒差,但O總管似乎常常做一些沒什麼差的交易
推 CarlosBoozer:老有所終 - Ostertag
→ CarlosBoozer:壯有所用 - Snyder
推 CarlosBoozer:廢疾者有所養 - Borchardt、Lopez
→ CarlosBoozer:算是符合儒家思想
推 tonometer:廢疾者Lopez不是已經隨隊練球了嗎