Is it just me or do you feel like the country bumpkin who walks away with a handful of beans?

Rather than climb that beanstalk, let's stop this travesty now, and throw a little sanity into this madness. The madness I'm referring to is the Carlos Boozer extravaganza, which seems to be a feeding frenzy for 29 teams and leaves little 'ole Utah out in the cold with an offer of a couple of expiring contracts and a player or two who's close to expiring as well....From old age.

The recent rumor(s) sending Ty Thomas and a first round pick, or Travis Outlaw along with Mr. Thomas, are at least showing the Jazz deserve and should get SOMETHING back for the Body of Carlos Boozer. I hope Kevin O'Connor doesn't have to ride all over the West with CB's carcass weighing him down just to find someplace for him to spend the next year in. Let me throw my two cents in.

I'm going to anyway, so stand back.

The Jazz should get one of these two scenarios back from Mr. Boozer. We're talking about a 20-10 guy here, probably healthy for this year since it's a contract year and he'll be playing for a new team. So.....

I want one of these two things.

1. An expiring contract of about half his 12.7 million owed. Along with this, I want a promising young player along the lines of Tyrus Thomas, Travis Outlaw, the Randolph kid from GS, Rudy Fernandez, you get the idea. Someone with an upside, but is already a good player. I also want a 1st round pick, which from a team likely to sign Boozer isn't that great a pick anyway. This is cheap for the likes of Carlos Boozer, who will more than likely sign with his new team because they can offer him more than any other team. Carlos likes money, doesn't care too much about winning or other stuff like that. He'll sign.

2. I want two young players. Two from the list or likes of the above. Ty Thomas is a good example, because he's young, has upside, and his contract is expiring anyway. Then, I want another young player with some upside from the list above, but the contracts total can be close to Carlos Boozer value. The Jazz will still have room to maneuver with Korver's expiring contract and Matt Harpring's expiring contract, and can probably get under the luxury tax with a little craftiness. This is the plan I prefer, but I'm not paying the bills, so I'm a little less worried about money.

This gives us the chance to actually make the team significantly better.

Quite frankly, I'm sick of the national media and NBA pundits acting like the Jazz should be thrilled to give one of the pinhead teams in the NBA a player of CB's worth for nothing.

ESPN's reporting the proposed trade tonight on the radio was very instructive. They mentioned Carlos going to Chicago, and Hinrich to Portland, but I guess the Jazz were participating in this trade out of the goodness of their heart, and getting nothing in return. Gee, I'd be thrilled to throw in Deron as a bonus if you trade today.

Hardly. Chicago, Detroit and Golden State and any other bozo team can pretend all they want that they wouldn't urinate all over themselves at the slightest hint of getting Carlos to play for their team, but I know better. They will give worth for Carlos, it's just a matter of holding onto him until you get the trade that you really want.

Kevin, hold onto that bucking horse with all your might. I want Boozer gone, but I can be patient, hard as that may be. It's not because of the player that he is, it's because of the person that he isn't.

Let some other team wait forever while a hangnail heals, despite his obvious talent, which is far superior to Paul Millsap, but I could care less. I'll take a little less talent spread around at two or three positions instead of one. This might be a case where fractions add up to greater than one.

Play it right, and the Jazz are right back in the hunt. Give up now, start throwing everything overboard, and you might sink anyway. I do have a good feeling about this, despite the machinations of the media. I think we're going to be happy about the new players for the Jazz.

Just a hunch. I better damn well be right.