Show Did Jazz Win by Trading Arroyo Eric Larson Sports The Utah Jazz traded point guard Carlos Arroyo on Jan 21 This trade has lead many to openly question if Jazz management has given up on this season and is preparing for the future That being said does trading trading trading trad trad- ing Arroyo make sense for the Jazz in the long run Jazz executives claim they came away with more than they thought they could get for the fourth year guard Ti Trading O ng Arroyo to the Detroit Pistons Piston's the Jazz acquired veteran center Elden Campbell and the Pistons Piston's first round draft pick in 2006 Campbell is a solid role player in the who could have helped fill the Jazz's hole in the middle The Jazz however decided to stick with their plan of playing younger players to allow them to develop This led them to buy buyout out Campbells Campbell's contract and waive him That means the Jazz essentially essentially essentially essen essen- traded Arroyo for a first round draft pick This can be a little misleading Since the draft pick is for the 2006 draft the Jazz wont won't see anything from this trade until the start of the 2006 07 season at best Since Detroit is the defending champion and shows no signs of a collapse in the next two seasons seasons seasons sea sea- sons the pick Utah receives is likely to be belate belate belate late in the first round The pick is lottery protected which nie means ns Utah would not receive the pick if something unlikely happens and Detroit lands in the lottery in 2006 Instead Utah would h P D a t 1 j I f Jj J 4 I tt 44 i 1 s 41 w Bitter war between Head Coach Jerry Sloan and Carlos Arroyo Arroo resulted in an trade HI receive I 1 VI t me LUI e l iston LUU s 2007 pick With flood of high school and young international players play play- ers entering the first round picks dont don't carry the same value they once did Since younger players require much more time to develop if they develop at all many teams prefer having early second round picks to late first round picks That allows a team to avoid paying the mandatory three year contract for a first round pick for a much cheaper two year contract The Jazz still claim to have come away better off by making making making mak mak- ing the trade Jazz executives argue that they traded away a player who was fourth on their depth chart at his position and came away with a first round pick This again is raising questions from people While Arroyo was fourth on the Jazz's depth chart at point guard which had more to do with a clash of personalities ties than lack of ability In a game against the Clippers in mid December Arroyo and Head Coach Jerry Sloan got into an argument which resulted in Arroyo being benched After that the relationship between Sloan and Arroyo steadily regressed with each taking subtle shots at each other in the media While many fans and media members blamed Sloan some Jazz players questioned Arroyos Arroyo's stubbornness in refusing to talk to his coach Arroyo himself asked if the trade was the result of his refusal to talk tall to his coach following following following fol fol- fol- fol lowing the altercation His attitude wasn't the only reason for his loss of playing time He clearly struggled in inthe inthe inthe the Jazz's new offense this season To take advantage of season off-season additions Mehmut and Carlos Boozer and the return of Matt Harpring i f from in ur Arro A A rr rm 0 Al V J Hi Jf J j Y J was expected to shoot less and pass more He clearly struggled with the more structured offe offense se the team was running He not only struggled See Arroyo cont on page 8 Arroyo cont cant from page 6 offensively but defensively as well Criticized by coaches for lack of effort Arroyo struggled struggled controlling other teams team's This was magnified magnified magnified magni magni- fied by the Jazz's lack of a shot blocker Arroyo clearly had problems that contributed to the Jazz's struggles this season If hes he's not playing his market value was not going up Jazz senior vice president of operations said His value wasn't going up but was it going down The Jazz had a player who many considered consider d their most talented point guard Would holding on to him to see if he was able to return to the form he showed last summer while leading Puerto Rico to an upset of USA's Olympic team Clearly his value had dropped the past few weeks could it get any lower In the players are constantly constantly constantly con con- given second third or even forth chances if they are thought to have the talent to help Arroyo was young with a reason reasonable ble contract by standards With so many teams desperate for help at the point guard position is a late first round draft pick the best the Jazz could get |