It is no secret that the Minnesota Timberwolves front-office no longer believed that Al Jefferson was going to be the projected franchise cornerstone and were looking for a way to move him and the remaining $43 million owed over the next three years. After two weeks of negotiations, GM David Kahn finally came to an agreement with the Utah Jazz who will use their trade exception from the sign-and-trade deal of Carlos Boozer to acquire Al Jefferson. Moreover, the Minnesota Timberwolves will receive two future first round picks as well as center Kosta Koufos.

Considering that the franchise from Salt Lake City just lost an All-Star caliber player when Carlos Boozer opted to sign a multi-year deal in Chicago, the Jazz certainly caught a break when they were able to trade for Jefferson. Even though the 6-10 forward-center had one of his worst seasons last year, he still managed to average 17.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 32 minutes per contest. However, given the fact that he is expected to enter training camp healthy at full strength his productivity is likely to increase in 2010-11. Likewise, Jefferson never played for a playoff team and should benefit from starting alongside All-Star guard Deron Williams. That said, 'Big Al' remains a defensive liability no matter if coach Jerry Sloan will opt to start him at the power forward or center position. The combination of Mehmet Okur and Al Jefferson could cause a wide range of problems as both are fairly weak low-post defenders.

Apart from Boozer, Utah will also head into next year's NBA campaign without Kyle Korver and Wesley Matthews who are headed to the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers respectively. Fortunately, the Jazz were able to pickup veteran swingman Raja Bell who signed a three year deal worth roughly $10 million. Albeit Bell played appeared in just six games last year, he is still one of the better defenders in the league and has no trouble of scoring from beyond the arc. In 2008-09, Raja Bell averaged 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 35 minutes per game for the Charlotte Bobcats.

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