It has been a busy day for the Utah Jazz, as they made three roster moves. While these moves are with mainly non-rotation players, the moves are not irrelevant. In fact, these three signings could have significant impact on the franchise this offseason. Here’s what busy bee Utah GM Dennis Lindsey did today.
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As his second 10-day contract was up, the Utah Jazz signed Jack Cooley (@JackCooligan45) to a multi-year contract. The Jazz did not release terms, but it is speculated this is a non-guaranteed deal, which would fall in line with most of the recent role player moves Lindsey has made. Jack Cooley played four season at Notre Dame, after which he went undrafted.
Jack Cooley left guaranteed NBA money at that time to play professionally in Turkey. Cooley played for the Jazz during this year’s summer league, but besides two 10-day stints, spent most of this season with the Idaho Stampede.
During 20 games with Idaho, Cooley averaged a steady 16.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.3 blocks. Jack set an impressive D-League record with 29 rebounds in a single game. The Jazz brought Cooley in after this impressive run for ten days. It was short-lived and Cooley was sent back to the D-League. In his three games with Idaho after his 10-day contract with the Jazz, Cooley averaged 22.7 points and 22.7 rebounds. This led to a second 10-day contract.
During this 10-day period Cooley replaced Jeremy Evans in the rotation. Cooley is a rebounder, and will be a solid fourth big for the rest of the year.
You can find some Jack Cooley highlights from his 29 rebound night below.
Chris Johnson was also signed to a multi-year deal by the Utah Jazz today. Johnson was previously with the Jazz on a 10-day contract right before the All-Star break. Johnson is a ‘do-it-all’ wing with a pretty good shot. In Johnson’s time with the D-League Vipers, he averaged 20.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.1 assist, 1.7 steals, 1.0 blocks, while shooting 35.4% from three.
Chris Johnson could see some minutes over the next couple of games as the Jazz are somewhat hobbled at the wing. Johnson is potentially an upgrade from Bryce Cotton, and fans will love his hustle.
Some of Chris Johnson’s D-League highlights:
Some fans may be sad to hear that the Utah Jazz waived Jazzman Ian Clark today. Clark went undrafted in 2013, but went on to blow up the summer league. He chose to sign with the Utah Jazz at that point. Ian has gone back and forth between playing with the Jazz and the Idaho Stampede for the last two years.
Ian was a fun guy to have around, and our own Clint Peterson had a great time introducing him to sushi a couple of years ago when he was a rookie– ultimately becoming his least favorite food, per David Locke.
Clark was Rudy Gobert‘s best friend from day one after Ian offered the fresh-faced Frenchman a ride home, and will be truly missed by Jazz Nation everywhere.
Best of luck to my bro @IanClark ...
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) March 27, 2015
So why did the Dennis Lindsey make these moves today? The short answer is that he is a master of financial flexibility. The Utah Jazz now have nearly $8 million in non-guaranteed deals.
These non-guaranteed contracts are valuable in the NBA. The last offseason the Jazz used non-guaranteed contracts for flexibility when they traded the non-guaranteed contract of Diante Garrett for Steve Novak and a 2nd round pick. Toronto essentially traded Novak for a contract they could cut to create cap space.
The Jazz could use all, or some, of these non-guaranteed contracts to help take a contract off of the hands of a team in potential tax trouble with the cap — restricting moves under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
For example, the Jazz could send some non-guaranteed contracts to a team like the Clippers for a young player like C.J. Wilcox. A trade like this would help the Clippers’ cap situation, and give the Jazz another asset.
Jazz assets: $8M in non-guaranteed money, 7 second rounders, 2 future firsts (GSW, OKC) and loads of young talent. #Blockbuster?
— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) March 26, 2015
Like Ben, mentioned the Jazz have a plethora of assets that could be used in a trade. What makes these moves even better?
Believe the CBA rule is a player cannot be traded until after 90 days of signing a contract. 90 days puts at the day before draft night.
— David Locke (@DLocke09) March 27, 2015
The Jazz can also use these contracts on draft night. Recently in an interview on 1280/97.5 The Zone, Dennis Lindsey mentioned that a plethora of teams inquired about their draft pick status at the trade line.
Whether or not this roster mangement yields anything will be determined over time but know Jazz front office is maximizing chances
— David Locke (@DLocke09) March 27, 2015
The Jazz may not do anything with all of these contracts. However, like Locke mentions, the Jazz are now in an extremely favorable cap position for this offseason. They are positioned so that they could make a large trade, go after some good free agents, get assets for helping a team with cap-space issues, continue maneuvering for the future, or simply stand pat.
The financial situation that the Jazz have maintained while developing talent is pretty incredible. Jazz fans can rest assured that Dennis Lindsey has been a ‘busy bee’ and knows what he is doing.