Laker/Jazz trade going down????

FatTony · Feb 21, 2005

<TABLE class=bdy cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=770 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>Lakers reportedly to get Boozer from Jazz

<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Story Tools: </TD><TD>

</TD><TD>Print </TD><TD>

</TD><TD>Email </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>FOXSports.com

Posted: 6 minutes ago<SCRIPT> // front-end hack to remove postedTime from Rumors page until a better way can be determined if (document.URL.indexOf("/name/FS/rumors") != -1) document.getElementById("postedTime").style.display = 'none'; </SCRIPT>
</TD><TD width=10></TD><TD align=right><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=bdy cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=770 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=5></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=bdy cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=770 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=5></TD><TD width=450>A crazy season of turmoil and upheaval in Los Angeles might be taking another turn.

Fox Sports Net's Jack Haley is reporting the Lakers will trade Vlade Divac, Caron Butler and Devean George to the Utah Jazz in exchange for big man Carlos Boozer, pending league approval.

Trade rumors swirled around the Lakers all through All-Star Weekend in Denver, particularly forward Lamar Odom. One report Sunday said Odom had been offered to the Kings for All-Star forward Peja Stojakovic. And another said that Odom was dangled to Utah in a Boozer trade.

But the Los Angeles Times reported Monday that the Lakers said Odom had not been discussed in any trade talks.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=444 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>

</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>Trade rumors have swirled around both Carlos Boozer and Lamar Odom. (Lisa Blumenfeld / GettyImages)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

The NBA's trade deadline is Thursday.

Butler and Odom, along with Brian Grant, were acquired by the Lakers last July from the Heat as part of the Shaquille O'Neal blockbuster. Divac came to the Lakers in an off-season attempt to help fill the void left by O'Neal's departure, but Divac has been injury-plagued and played only eight games all season. Boozer spurned the Cavaliers in the off-season to sign a six-year, $68 million contract with the Jazz. He came under fire from the Cavaliers when they claimed he bolted for Utah after reneging on a verbal agreement to work out a long-term deal to stay in Cleveland. And recently Boozer has also caught heat in Utah, with owner Larry Miller saying that he overpaid for Boozer "for what we expected."

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Journeyman · Feb 21, 2005

Wow, Boozer should have stayed in Cleveland.... perhaps he will get off the hook and join LA.

MadCapper · Feb 21, 2005

Boozer would be a superb addition for LA...

If they get Peja for Odom they would have a solid team heading into the stretch run.

CHOPTALK · Feb 21, 2005

What the hell are the jazz thinking?

dmmd98 · Feb 21, 2005

Cap relief and Butler is a decent player. I believe Divac and George contracts come off the books next year where as Boozer had another 60+ million coming to him. If this trade does go down boy he mind of pissed off Jerry Sloan to get run out of town so quickly.

Muddy · Feb 21, 2005

I cant beileve Brian Grant is making over 13 million for sitting on the bench!

cadillacman · Feb 21, 2005

has Devon George even played this yr?

MrTeaser · Feb 21, 2005

choptalk said:
What the hell are the jazz thinking?

These are my thoughts exactly.

cadillacman · Feb 21, 2005

choptalk said:
What the hell are the jazz thinking?

They are realizing they overpaid for him, now they're trying to get him off their hands.

aceduecetrey · Feb 21, 2005

I was watching a Jzz game the other day and they were talking about how trading Boozer would allow Kirilinko to play the 4, thus creating matchup problems.

rude_awakening · Feb 22, 2005

I thought this was an entertaining editorial article on the subject from the LA Times:

February 22, 2005

T.J. Simers:
Haley's 'Scoop' on Trade Is Up Against the Clock

I talked to Jack Haley and Mitch Kupchak on Monday, and now you know why I need to take so many days off.

The NBA trading deadline is Thursday, and Haley has already traded three Lakers, including Caron Butler, to Utah, predicting the announcement will be forthcoming in less than 24 hours, while Kupchak says he hasn't brought up Butler's name to Utah, and hasn't even talked to Utah about a trade.

Kupchak is the Lakers' general manager, and he made it clear he's done nothing, and I've been saying that for some time.

Maybe Phil Jackson is calling the shots in preparation for his return, talking to Jeanie, who is relaying it to her dad, who is sharing it with one of Dennis Rodman's babes, which explains how it got to Haley. These are the Lakers, you know, and anything is possible: even breaking news from Haley.

Haley says the big three-for-one Laker trade is going to happen any hour now, while Kupchak says not so fast. Who's telling the truth?

IT'S PRETTY well accepted around here that Haley knows nothing, so I wasn't surprised when he told the "Southern California Sports Report" audience Friday night he had learned something.

He reported from the NBA All-Star game festivities in Denver that a source told him, and keep in mind he still talks to Rodman, the Lakers were interested in making a three-for-one trade.

He didn't name the players or the other team involved, he said, making it the Big TV Tease, because his source asked him to keep it quiet. So for all we know the other team involved could have been Rodman's Long Beach Jam, and the Lakers were going to send three stiffs to Long Beach — they got plenty to pick from these days, and for some time now I've maintained that's where Devean George belongs.

On Saturday's TV report from Denver, Haley said the Lakers were also talking to Sacramento about trading Lamar Odom for Peja Stojakovic and an injured Bobby Jackson. He said he didn't think the Lakers had an interest in trading Odom, but "the trade was discussed," he said, "and it's out there."

As for the three-for-one trade, he said, "his hands were tied," and he could say no more. I'm wondering — is February one of those sweeps months on TV?

Sunday the sources were working overtime. TNT had its own source and reported the Lakers had offered Odom to Sacramento for Stojakovic, and who knew TNT got its news from watching the "Southern California Sports Report"?

Haley, meanwhile, was telling his audience that the Odom deal with Sacramento, as he had suggested earlier, was probably dead. I'm sure the Lakers were relieved to hear that.

At the end of the All-Star game, Haley reported it was a done deal — the Lakers were going to trade Butler, Vlade Divac and George to Utah for Carlos Boozer. There's probably an Emmy in this for Haley, or once again a seat on the bench.

"In my opinion," Haley said Monday by telephone in a follow-up to his Sunday night TV report, "it was a done deal. I said at the time the deal would happen in the next 24 or 48 hours, or by the [Thursday] trade deadline. I thought it would happen quickly. It could blow up, but I know what's gone on.

"And I stand by my report 110%."

Tick, tick, tick … less than 24 hours, Jack.

You know, I always worry about people who give 110% or stand by their reports 110%, which suggests they might have a tendency to embellish.

"I know what you're going to do," Haley said. "I didn't want to talk with you, because you're going to direct a personal attack at me … and not dare [tick] off the Lakers. My head boss asked me to talk with you, and I'm very confident in my report. Whether it happens or not is not important…."

Whether it happens or not is everything if you're a journalist, and if you treasure your credibility. Sorry, I know that's a personal attack.

As for Kupchak, you know me, I wouldn't dare (tick) off the Lakers, so I went easy, of course, on Mr. Milquetoast, the guy who is responsible for putting together this disappointing team that might not finish above .500.

"My turn, huh?" Kupchak said, and sooner or later everyone gets a visit from Page 2. "At this time, no, there is nothing about to happen. When it comes to trading, there are some deals you have to kind of nurture, but we don't even have a deal we're nurturing."

Haley says the Lakers are going to trade Butler & Co. to Utah, and there has also been talk about Odom and Sacramento.

"I can tell you we have not offered either player [Odom and Butler] in a trade, and have not talked to Sacramento or Utah about a trade," Kupchak said.

Tick, tick, tick … in time we're going to know who had it right.

"I don't think we're going to be able to improve at any of our starting positions by the trading deadline," Kupchak said. "I think we do have to add a significant player or two, well, at least one, but more than likely that will happen in the off-season.

"By significant player I mean one of our top six or seven players. If we can make a deal to help our playoff chances this season, not jeopardize the future and add a veteran with a year on his contract, that could help."

Kupchak said he'd like the team's new coach to have a say in the kind of players added or traded away, and because the team doesn't know who the coach will be, it's another reason why he doesn't expect the Lakers to make a blockbuster deal.

"Whatever we do, we don't want to jeopardize our youth and the direction we want to go with this team," he said. "We have three young players in Kobe [Bryant], Lamar and Caron to build around."

That doesn't sound like a GM on the brink of trading one of the big three, which you'd think would make the next few hours pretty nerve-racking for Haley.

"Not in the least," Haley said. "I know what I know."

Right now he seems to know more than anyone else … tick, tick, tick.

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.