I get annoyed at some sportswriters who think that every team except for the NBA Champion (and sometimes even the NBA Champions themselves) needs to make high profile trades and acquisitions in order to improve their team.

They grade a team on what they did to shake up their team in the off-season, including giving some teams poor grades for ONLY re-signing their free agents and a couple of draft picks.

There are teams that make frequent trades and/or bring on good free agents and they never seem to improve much. There are teams that never seem to make any trades and they are good to great year after year.

That’s not to say that teams shouldn’t EVER make some moves to get markedly better, but I think two things need to be taken into account by every General Manager in the league. (I actually think most of them do, much to the dismay of their local sportswriters and/or fans.)

At the risk of repeating myself, I explain yet again why the boring teams in the offseason are usually the teams playing in the NBA Finals.

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The Jazz went into draft night with everyone telling them that they needed a shooter and a big man.

The Jazz landed one of the best shooters in the draft in Morris Almond, the 6′ 6″ guard out of Rice. Almond was third in the nation in scoring and has great percentages from the field and the three point line.

The Jazz, through a trade, also drafted Kyrylo Fesenko, a 7 footer out of Ukraine.

Shooter? Check!

Big Man? Check!

Title? Not so fast.

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As everyone who has read my blog knows, I’m a huge Utah Jazz fan. I try to stay impartial, but I’m sure I don’t manage to do it often. As a Utah Jazz fan, I feel obligated to at least comment on what I think they should do tonight in the 2007 NBA Draft.

The Utah Jazz doesn’t pick until #25.

Good players have been taken at 25 and below. Just look at the Utah Jazz picks from last year for an example. Or San Antonio’s picks just about every year.

The Utah Jazz have a great need at shooting guard.

Here is the low down…

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For most of us who play Fantasy Basketball, adding players, dropping players, and trading players is easy business. You figure out what another team owner might accept and offer him a certain number of players whose stats you can stand to lose in exchange for players who have the stats you crave. If you can get them to trade one great player for two or three good players, more power to you.

A lot of us have that same mentality when it comes to watching the general managers of our teams trying to work out deals with other teams or free agents. If we can do it with our own Fantasy teams, why can’t General Managers figure out similar scenarios involving their own teams?

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I predict that every team with a first round draft pick will have the potential to pick up someone who can help their team.

I predict that Seattle will finally make a pick that helps out their team.

After that, I dare not predict anything.

Most people are saying that Portland is going to pick Greg Oden. Of course, Portland has yet to say that, and I think it is that they really don’t know which one they should pick — Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.

Here is the huge problem.

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