Don't Forget About the Utah Jazz

With all of the trades that have gone on in the NBA, it's no surprise that a small market team bringing in what is essentially a role player can't get a whole lot of press on their new acquisition. We're talking about trades that have involved big names like Shaquille O'Neal, Jason Kidd, Pau Gasol, and now Ben Wallace, and so for someone to expect a trade involving the innocuous Kyle Korver to gain traction with the media you would have to be quite delusional if not insane.

But at the end of the day, when the 2007-2008 NBA season is all said and done, we might look back and equate this trade to that of the trade the Detroit Pistons made for Rasheed Wallace in 2004 that led to their eventual championship victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Utah Jazz are 19-3 since Kyle Korver came over from Philadelphia to join their lineup. Prior to Korver's arrival, the Jazz looked like they weren't even going to make the playoffs. They were teetering around 8^th and 9^th place for most of the early season.

With big bodies like Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur, Jarron Collins, and Paul Millsap filling up the middle, the team just had too many players who operated in the paint and not enough people who could be effective from the outside. That created poor spacing amongst the team's players, and as a result, other teams could pack it in defensively and take away Deron Williams drive to the basket and the effectiveness of Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap down low.

Kyle Korver's arrival changed all of that. Korver is 6'6", can move without the ball, and has one of the deadliest shots in the NBA. He has been a 3-point shooting participant and it is for that same ability to shoot the outside shot that the Jazz brought him to Utah.

Having that outside presence has totally changed the way teams have defended the Utah Jazz. Before Korver's arrival, teams could lag on screens and picks and force players like Williams, Ronnie Brewer, and Matt Harpring to take outside shots. Now teams are forced to closely trail Korver on screens and play Williams up close so that he can't make the easy pass to Korver when he does get free. With guards now having to stop the outside shot of Korver and play Williams so tightly, players like Boozer and Millsap can use their skill, size and athleticism to dominate the other team's big just like they are capable of doing. As a result, Boozer is having what is probably his best season, and Williams has been able to "wheel-and-deal" now that guards have to play him so closely.

With Korver on the team, the Jazz have gone from 9^th place to 4^th, and they are still in the hunt for first place in the Western Conference only 2 games back of the three teams tied at the top.

Many basketball analysts are now picking the Jazz to win it all. They have won 9 of their last 10. With victories over Phoenix, Orlando, Houston, Denver, San Antonio, and New Orleans, they have looked the team to beat in West for well over a month now. If they can maintain their current level of execution and ride this streak into the playoffs, they could be cutting down the nets in June, and that little, small player, innocuous trade, could be the reason why.