Cameron Boozer is one of the most NBA-ready players in the Draft. At 18, he has the build and height of Karl Malone, standing 6\u20199\u201d in his gym socks and weighing in at an imposing 253 lbs. He averaged 22.7 points and 10.1 rebounds a game in a grueling ACC and March Madness schedule, starting all 38 games as a freshman. Through it all he brought consistency and maturity beyond his years and displayed an SGA-like demeanor. As his coach, Jon Scheyer, noted, \u201c[Cameron] bring[s] it every day\u2026bring[s] the same energy, the same preparation, regardless of what just happened\u2026[H]e\u2019s coming back the same way, [with the] same mentality\u2026to dominate in every aspect\u201d (Brian Stultz, Duke Wire, 2\/27\/2026).<\/p>\n
This should be music to every Jazz<\/a> fan\u2019s tired ears. This kind of consistency and dominant confidence is largely the opposite of what we\u2019ve watched over the last two seasons. Throw in the family connection to the Utah Jazz<\/a>, with Cameron\u2019s father, Carlos, spending six seasons playing with the Jazz and returning as a scout in the team\u2019s front office last year, and it raises the hope that Boozer Jr. will stick around longer than just the length of his rookie contract.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Detractors (I hear you) will say, \u201cYes, that\u2019s fine, but he\u2019s not the most athletic prospect.\u201d Admittedly, Cameron will face some challenges, especially on the defensive end, matching up against more athletic bigs. But if the Jazz are going to rebound from two of the worst seasons in their history, it will take more than highlight reels. It will take consistency, buy-in, and a super-charged work ethic, all of which Boozer has in spades. He\u2019s the kind of player who does whatever it takes to help his team win. While carrying the scoring and rebounding load for Duke last year, for example, he also made his teammates better, dishing out a team high 4.1 assists per game.<\/p>\n All well and good, (you say), but don\u2019t the Jazz have a lot of forwards already? Wouldn\u2019t adding a dynamic guard like Darryn Peterson be a better fit? Sometimes putting too much emphasis on fit stops teams from taking the best player available. Great players find ways to make an impact and demand minutes. Look at Dylan Harper<\/a>, the number two pick in last year\u2019s draft. He was chosen by the Spurs, a guard heavy team with De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a>, Stephon Castle<\/a> and Devin Vassell<\/a> standing in the way of him playing significant minutes. But Harper has played himself into being a significant part of the rotation, averaging almost 26 minutes a game in the Playoffs. As a bruiser in the paint who can wear down opposing defenses, consistently score and grab rebounds, and open up the court for his teammates, I can see Boozer carving out an important role for himself as the Jazz set their sights on post season success.<\/p>\n As far as NBA comparisons, Alex Golden of SI compares Boozer to a young Kevin Love<\/a> or Al Horford<\/a>. Not the sexiest evaluation perhaps, but consider what these two veterans achieved in their careers. Both are NBA Champions, Love with the Cavs and Horford with the Celtics<\/a>. Both flirted with double doubles in points and rebounds early in their careers, are known as great team players and adapted their skill sets to the needs of their teams. And if the Jazz draft Boozer, he would have the benefit of learning from Kevin Love himself, as well as veterans like Lauri Markkanen<\/a>, Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> and Jusuf Nurkic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Considering the skills and physical attributes Boozer already has as an eighteen-year-old, his ceiling is understandably high. A current player comparison may be Paolo Banchero<\/a> of the Orlando Magic<\/a> or Alperen Sengun<\/a> of the Rockets, who have similar builds and imposing skill sets, and are still ascending in their own right. We have to go back a few years to find Jazz comparisons: Paul Millsap<\/a> and Carlos Boozer<\/a>, who played for the Jazz the last time they reached the Western Conference Finals in the 2006-2007 season. Of course, if we want to push the ceiling up to Sistine Chapel proportions, we could mention the greatest power forward in Utah Jazz history, who delivered 18.7 points and 9.3 rebounds a game at Louisiana Tech before being drafted 13th by the Jazz in 1985. Whatever Cameron Boozer\u2019s ceiling turns out to be, let\u2019s hope that if the team does draft him with the second pick, he, like the Mailman, will get to reach that ceiling in a Jazz uniform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Boozer is one of the most NBA-ready players in the Draft. At 18, he has the build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[869,1307,7,17047,2766,46,1314,2725,226,496,423,5088,1678,976,6,3408,76,402,17277,930,5592,422,427,3972],"class_list":["post-749315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-jazz","tag-al-horford","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-basketball","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-carlos-boozer","tag-celtics","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-devin-vassell","tag-dylan-harper","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-jazz","tag-jusuf-nurkic","tag-kevin-love","tag-lauri-markkanen","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft-combine","tag-orlando-magic","tag-paolo-banchero","tag-paul-millsap","tag-stephon-castle","tag-the-jazz","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116672657088075937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}