The Utah Jazz have reached a crossroads in terms of what needs to be done to transform the team from playoff pretenders to legitimate contenders in the Western Conference.
With the regular season in the books and the NBA Playoffs well underway, the sting of the Utah Jazz missing the postseason boat is slowly starting to fade. Now, Jazz brass, players and fans have begun to look ahead toward what is hopefully a bright future. Although the season certainly didn’t end as many had hoped, there still is no shortage of reasons to be optimistic for what lies ahead.
While the Jazz were fairly quiet at the trade deadline, only bringing over the Atlanta Hawks’ third-string point guard Shelvin Mack, it is now no secret that Utah was fairly close to making a splash by agreeing on some higher impact deals. Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey made it very clear during the team’s end-of-year media sessions that there were two potential deals that were agreed upon in principle, but weren’t able to be finalized.
The “what-if” situations related to this are almost unending, but one thing that it means for sure is that the Jazz organization is now ready to look beyond its own training grounds to bring in talent and success to Salt Lake City. This likely means that Utah will be in for a busy offseason.
While the rumors will probably begin flying in a few short months about what free agents are looking to go where or which players have been mentioned in potential trades, the Jazz first and foremost will need to examine who they have currently, who they should and shouldn’t hold on to and who they should be willing to shop. In the following slides, I present my take on how each Jazz player on the current roster should be viewed heading into the off-season.
One disclaimer for those marked as “keepers”–of course this would change if for some reason the Jazz were to receive a ridiculously good offer for them. For example, if the Oklahoma City Thunder decided to offer up Kevin Durant for Trey Lyles, you bet we’d take that in a heartbeat!
Of course, that isn’t going to happen, but on those who I’ve identified as players the Jazz should definitely keep, bear in mind that I have done so with realistic expectations of their value across the league and assuming the only offers that would come the Jazz’s way would be ones for a player with similar ability, pay, etc. Without further ado, here we go!
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