Many remember the 2016 NBA Offseason as the one that had Kevin Durant joining the Golden State Warriors first and foremost and for good reason. The secondary reason why it's remembered is for teams infamously spending a lot more money than they had to on just okay basketball player. Among the few teams who didn't follow in those footsteps was the Utah Jazz.
Portland spent hundreds of millions on eighth- and ninth-guys in a playoff rotation, the Lakers spent $70 million on Timofey Mozgov, who sat during Cleveland's title run, and Orlando splurged on Bismack Biyombo due to two standout playoff games.
The Jazz could have overspent in free agency to do just that, but instead, took a Moneyball-like approach while almost everyone else spent freely on players that did not deserve the money they were given.
Leading up to the 2016 NBA Offseason, the Jazz were on the precipice of making the playoffs, but just needed some extra ingredients to make that push. They had two rising stars in Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert, but still lacked some key factors that prevented them from making the playoffs, like a starting point guard and a second-in-command scorer.
Their approach was 'Pay smarter, not harder'
Utah started things off before free agency even began by acquiring George Hill in a three-way trade in which they sent their lottery pick, who became Taurean Prince, to Atlanta. Hill was easily the best point guard the Jazz had on their roster since Deron Williams.
While not a star, Hill's veteran presence gave the Jazz the playmaking they desperately needed for some time after Hayward blossomed. It may have only been a year, but Utah made the right call going for a win-now guard instead of drafting someone hoping they would pan out well or paying someone a contract they definitely weren't worth.
The Jazz didn't stop there. They had cap room to spend, but unlike pretty much everyone else, they didn't want to burn their money. They needed another scorer to pair with Hayward. In one of their best free agency additions ever (which reflects more on their lack of luck on that front), they brought in Joe Johnson following a semi-resurgent half-season in Miami.
While not an All-Star anymore, Johnson was good enough to prove that he could still be Iso Joe, which made him the perfect partner-in-crime next to Hayward.
And it didn't stop there either. Utah took further advantage of the cap room they had by trading for Boris Diaw, whose career may have been on its last legs, but he was still an NBA Champion who beefed up the Jazz's frontcourt.
While already having Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors in their primes, Diaw made them even more formidable, which came in handy when one of them was down for the count.
When it was all said and done, the Jazz built one of their most well-constructed rosters of the 21st century, which led to them going on the longest playoff run they had had since the Deron Williams days.
They didn't win a championship out of it, and the good times from this team specifically did not last for long, but they lived up to their potential with much of it being because the guys they brought in proved to be beneficial.
Making it better was that while a lot of the teams that splurged as much as they did, they also came to regret that, as they didn't think about the long run. The 2016-17 Jazz may have been lightning in a bottle, but they are one of the very few teams that came out of the 2016 NBA Offseason knowing they played it right both in the short- and long-term.
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