There have been reports that Carlos Boozer would consider playing in China if an NBA contract didn’t come around.
It’s almost the end of August and Boozer is still a free agent. So is he going to head West from Los Angeles?
Nope. Not according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Yahoo Sources: Likelihood is free agent Carlos Boozer waits for NBA season to start, sees where a need and fit develops with playoff team.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 28, 2015
Boozer has a place in the NBA, but that role is shrinking.
He can help a team on offense — he averaged 11.8 points while shooting 49.9 percent, and grabbing 6.8 rebounds a game last season for the Lakers. His PER of 16.8 is above the league average. He has value as a scoring big off the bench who can run the pick-and-pop.
But his defense is a mess, and that scares teams off. While it’s always trendy to say, “NBA players don’t play defense” that usually comes from people who don’t know the game or don’t follow the NBA closely. Defense in the league is still up and down, but it’s improved over even a decade ago. (Go watch some regular season games from the ‘80s and tell me about defensive effort.) Boozer hurts teams on that end.
That said, Boozer is making the right play here. Some team will go into training camp and either suffer an injury to a big man, or realize the guys they have aren’t as good as they thought, and Boozer’s phone will ring. He’s flawed but a solid NBA veteran you can bring in and know what you will get. The man can still put up points.
If he’s patient, his time will come. And apparently he’d rather be patient than play in China.