Difficult Decisions Loom On Utah Jazz Roster

There are currently 17 players on the Utah Jazz vying for 15 roster spots when the 2015-16 NBA season opens this fall, presumably 18 if/when the Tibor Pleiss deal goes though, as expected. Some have guaranteed contracts, a handful do not. Rather than attempt to pin them down by traditional positions, let’s look at them in three groups. After all, head coach Quin Snyder doesn’t favor “traditional positions,” rather preferring “positionless basketball.”

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After guaranteeing Trevor Booker‘s contract for 2015-16 the Utah Jazz are just above the NBA’s $63,000,000 salary floor with between about $6.3 to $9.7 million to spare under the cap, depending on cap holds. That’s without a reported Tibor Pleiss deal incoming in the next few days.

The Point Guards

Dante Exum, Trey Burke and newly-signed Raul Neto all have guaranteed contracts. Bryce Cotton is guaranteed only a portion, but has been tearing it up since joining the Jazz last March.

It sounds strange to say with the limited combined NBA experience of the lot, but Neto is the unknown at this point. Could he see time in the D-League for the Jazz with the Idaho Stampede? Probably. But he still occupies a roster spot. Exum will almost certainly be the de facto starter with Burke possibly getting a final run as a Jazzman.

Expect trade rumors to dog Trey Burke this season if his field goal percentage doesn’t make a large leap. To be completely fair, Jazz staff told Burke to shoot. He just didn’t do it very well.

Bryce Cotton has been in every conversation Utah Jazz brass have had since joining the team last March, and for good reason. His stellar summer league merely confirms what he showed when he burst onto the scene last year. Cotton is arguably the best point guard on the Utah Jazz roster right now.

Bryce Cotton

might be the best point guard on the Utah Jazz roster at this time

Certainly Cotton could be one of those players GMs often regret getting away later. If he sticks in Utah it will be at someone else’s expense. He could determine other fates for the Jazz in a cascade if he continues to play at the level he has.

The Wings

Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood and Joe Ingles are guaranteed, Elijah Millsap and Christapher Johnson are not, while Olivier Hanlan has yet to sign a contract aside from summer league.

There’s several interesting storylines at play here, beginning with Hanlan, the Jazz’s second round pick this summer. While he could be classified as a point guard, having played plenty of it at Boston College, he was likely drafted by Utah more for his shooting skills — something he has yet to show in summer league play. Besides, that PG spot is pretty crowded already. He may not make the team. The Jazz have a plethora of second round picks coming in, so cutting one would barely leave a bruise, if that.

Rodney Hood has already proven a keeper who needs floor time, but it seems likely Alec Burks will start, at least to begin the season. Either way, the return of Burks from injury bolsters a Utah bench that struggled to score against even the softest second units last season.

There’s also the long-standing Utah Jazz policy that “You can’t lose your starting job due to injury.” We saw that even with Enes Kanter shortly before the trade deadline last season, despite Rudy Gobert clearly taking the job away from him while the loud Turk was absent, so no reason to expect otherwise unless Hood does something insane in training camp.

Jazz brass has stated repeatedly that Utah needs better shooting. Chris Johnson has been bringing that

Burks was the Jazz’s best corner-three shooter last year before landing on his shoulder one too many times. Ironically, Rodney Hood is also suffering from a shoulder ailment, although not to the extreme Burks did.

Alec Burks‘ style of play is in question, coming back. He’s always relied on something of a reckless style, a style that led to his surgery. Can he reintegrate into what was nearly flawless team chemistry without him without needing to dominate the ball when he gets a touch? Or will he do like he does and head straight for the rim if he’s not open?

Hood’s style is more fluid than Burks’ rather erratic, but electrifying play, preferring to use his length and steady strides to either find a shot or a teammate. He also added a very nice floater to his game over the summer. He’ll need to be more consistent from three if he’s to take any more minutes from anyone, however.

Now is where the roster gets crowded at the wing. Ultimately, two players will have to go for Utah to get down to the mandatory 15-man roster size for the regular season.

Cotton is arguably the best point guard on the Utah Jazz roster right now

Jazz brass — every last one of them — has stated repeatedly that Utah needs better shooting. Chris Johnson has been bringing that, and a little more to the table in summer league. We love our Millsaps in Utah, and as good as Elijah Millsap‘s defense is, his offense and fouls rate almost cancelled it out.

The Jazz’s defense was so good — best in the NBA, and it wasn’t even close — to close out the season that at this point you have to ask yourself if the trade-off for much better offense is worth it. It might be, and Johnson has proven to be a capable defender at least, if not lockdown. But you don’t need lockdown when your defense is as good is it is already.

Still, to keep Johnson, you have to let someone else walk. That could be either Millsap and/or Hanlan, and there’s still plenty of depth and defense at the wing for the team. Elijah Millsap has been working out with the team, if not playing in the summer league games. He is a proven commodity that would have to be supplanted.

The Bigs

Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert, Trevor Booker, Trey Lyles and Grant Jerrett are guaranteed, Jack Cooley is not, and presumably Tibor Pleiss would be.

Acquired in the trade that sent Enes Kanter to Oklahoma City, Jerrett has shown little since becoming a member of the Utah Jazz. And not to pile on, but he dislocated his shoulder after a lackluster performance on the opening evening of Utah Jazz Summer League.

Jerrett’s inherited guaranteed price tag of $947,276 seems easily outplayed and outweighed by Cooley’s non-guaranteed $845,059, especially in light of Cooley’s multiple dominant summer league outings. There’s been no word on Jerrett’s injury severity from the Jazz.

Teams can bring in 20 players for training camp, then have to whittle it down to 15 for the regular season. If I had to guess, I’d say the opening day roster will look something like this:

PG: Dante Exum, Trey Burke, Bryce Cotton, Raul Neto

SG: Alec Burks, Rodney Hood, Chris Johnson

SF: Gordon Hayward, Joe Ingles

PF: Derrick Favors, Trevor Booker, Trey Lyles

C: Rudy Gobert, Tibor Pleiss, Jack Cooley

Quin Snyder and assistant Alex Jensen — who’s done the coaching for summer league thus far — have no qualms about tossing out a small ball lineup. After all, a jump shooting team just won an NBA title for the first time playing small ball. Snyder played Hayward at the PF last year several times and keeping step, Jensen put Hood at the same spot for stretches while healthy as well, during the first two games in Utah.

In the same respect, should Utah need to go big they can go ridiculously big with Lyles at SF, the position he played at Kentucky. From Gobert on out to Exum, the Utah Jazz might just be able to field the lengthiest five-man lineup in the NBA.

It’s difficult to leave Millsap off, and it would be no surprise if he’s present opening day, but what Cooley has done also cannot be ignored. It might come down to staff preference between this pair.