Would you trade Carlos Boozer for Al Jefferson?
That’s what the Utah Jazz are close to doing, as they are close to a deal that would ship the Jefferson to Utah -- and maybe send no players back to Minnesota, according to Marc Stein of ESPN. Utah has a $14 million trade exception from the Boozer sign-and-trade and do not have to send players back to take on Jefferson. However, the details have yet to be hammered out.
The deal is not finalized and the Dallas Mavericks are still in the Jefferson hunt as well.
Jefferson is younger (25) and taller than Boozer (officially just one inch, in reality more like three). Boozer is a more efficient scorer, although Jefferson -- Boozer is a career 54 percent shooter, Jefferson hovers around 50 -- and Boozer grabs a few more rebounds. But not that much. Neither will impress you with their defense.
The difference here is not that great -- Boozer has a career average PER of 20.8, Jefferson 20.3.
What does that mean? It means Utah lost very little if anything in losing Boozer to the Bulls. It means Deron Williams should be less frustrated.
It means Minnesota essentially swapped out Jefferson for Darko Milicic. Yes, we’re pretty confused, too. But it’s Kahn.