This is what happens when your owner is more concerned about the bottom line than the standings. Utah HAD a very deep team with a great bench, but lost their depth due to financial constraints.
They let Boozer walk to Chicago and got nothing back. That makes Millsap the starter. Millsap was the best back-up PF in the league. He's doing almost as well as a starter as Boozer did last season, but now they no longer have a great power forward coming off the bench and their starting front court is undersized.
They also let Kyle Korver walk, again to Chicago, and again, nothing in return. There goes their 3-point shooting and instant offense off the bench. Korver was great for them last season. He had a PER of 13.9, which is pretty good for a bench player, but his most significant contribution was his league leading 0.536 3FG%. That's tough to replace. They used a lottery pick (9th) on a "meh" rookie (Gordon Hayward PER = 9.0, 0.391 3FG% - not bad, but a long way from 0.536) in an attempt to get a cheaper version of Korver. This is a big downgrade.
They also traded Ronnie Brewer to Memphis for a future 1st round pick, further weakening their bench. Chicago also signed Brewer as a free agent (current PER = 13.4, but most impressive is his DRtg of 98! Look how well Chicago is doing now with the acquisition of these three former Jazz players they signed as free agents. Chicago spent the money Utah would not, and it is paying dividends in the form or wins.
We stole Wesley Matthews from them. Again, they got nothing back and had to sign 34-year old Raja Bell to try replace him. With a PER of 9.0 (compared to 15.7 for Matthews), Bell is one of the worst starting SGs in the league. Matthews is a much better player than the current version of Raja Bell. Bell was once known as a lock down defender, but those days are long gone. His current DRtg is 112, compared to Matthews at 108. Bell's WS/48 of 0.058 is less than half of Matthews at 0.125. This was another major downgrade for Utah.
Last season, they also gave Eric Maynor (and Matt Harpring) to OKC for some scrub named Peter Fehse who has never played one second of NBA basketball.
These were all cost cutting measures that destroyed Utah's depth. It hurt their starting line-up and decimated their bench. Frankly, I'm surprised their record is as good as it is (or was). Utah has been relatively injury free so far this season. But, their lack of depth seems to be catching up with them. They have lost all four games on their current road trip, three to teams with losing records, and have looked like absolute shit. Let's hope they continue to struggle and we can eventually pass them in the standings.
BNM
