Joe Johnson, Trevor Booker: The Utah Jazz Nightmare Begins
Although Trevor Booker’s departure from the Utah Jazz was a near certainty this summer, some were taken aback when it happened. Hayden Van de Maat thinks the team will rue the day they let it happen.
After day one of free agency, the Utah Jazz made a big move by acquiring Joe Johnson, but made a bigger mistake by letting Trevor Booker move to Brooklyn. Despite all of the hype and trade rumors, I thought the Jazz re-signing Booker was a near certainty, but obviously I was wrong, and Jazz fans everywhere will pay for it.
Booker has been the heart and soul of the Jazz franchise. He’s been responsible for as many Jazz wins as any player on the roster over the last two years.
In his two seasons with the Jazz, he missed six games due to injury or suspension. The Jazz won two of them; the four Jazz losses without Booker were by a combined 47 points, pure annihilation. His polish and finishing ability on offense was never too impressive, but the energy he gave his teammates and the crowd was huge.
You can’t even count the times the Jazz were in a tight ball game, where the ring looks smaller, rebounding seems harder and free throws become nerve-wracking, when Booker hit the floor and injected energy into every play on offense and defense, resulting in a big Jazz win.
I dug deep into the stats from his two seasons with Utah, and found out how Booker’s hustle translates to wins. Since there is no stat for monster dunks, I looked at blocks. Booker had multiple blocked shots in 17 games over the past two seasons; the Jazz won 16 of them.
The key detail that decides whether the Jazz should win or lose lies on Booker’s hustle. Now, Brooklyn has it. You could very easily make the case that Trevor Booker contributes more to the Jazz success than Favors, Hayward, or Hood.
On a cheerier note, the Jazz signed a seven-time All-Star in Johnson. With the signing, the Jazz have gone from having one of the more shallow benches in the league to having arguably the best.
They have George Hill (starting caliber point guard), Alec Burks (legitimate threat to win Sixth Man of the Year if he stays injury-free), Joe Johnson (seven-time All-Star and quality starter) and Trey Lyles (possible All-Star in the near future).
The Jazz have a very nice problem at the moment in deciding how wings Gordon Hayward and Rodney Hood, along with Burks and Johnson, will split 96 minutes.
The signing is a win-now decision from Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey and should help propel the team to the top end of the tough Western Conference.
Statistics courtesy of ESPN.